[Mpls] Accessory Houses: A reality check

[Dyna]

	About a month or so ago I looked into the half dozen home 
sales in Hawthorne reported in the Strib's saturday housing section. 
Most sold for between $150,000 and $200,000 and the only thing that 
correlated with price was number of bedrooms. Average structure age 
was about a century, and despite the high prices there had been 
little significant recent remodeling or even repairs. Looking at 
these homes I found the most pre sale prep they'd received was maybe 
a fresh coat of paint.

	I also noted that despite the couple months lag between the 
sales and reporting about half these homes were empty, with nary a 
"for rent" sign in sight. Meanwhile, homeless people huddled in 
whatever "accessory homes" like garages they could find... what's 
wrong with this picture? I was reminded of the thousand dollar an 
acre and up farmland in greater Minnesota that sits fallow, it's new 
owners from the big city not even bothering to rent the land to real 
farmers. I was reminded also of Minneapolis' trendy new condos and 
lofts that are selling like hotcakes. Yet there parking areas are 
never even half full, and as the sun sets not even half the unit's 
lights are lit.

	Clearly we have a housing "market" here that functions more 
like the stock market.  Taking advantage of federal tax loopholes, 
the high rollers are cashing in their stocks in this bear market and 
buying up property. With farmland prices already pushed to twenty 
times land rent and the new condos et al sold out, even houses in the 
'hood at 15 times gross look tempting to uneducated investors.

	So we have empty homes and homeless citizens, thanks to an 
inflated housing market. How do you deflate an inflated market?- you 
increase the supply. When every decent backyard, garage, and 
underused commercial building in Minneapolis a potential home the 
market will push those century old homes back to their real value and 
they'll see their highest and best use as homes instead of tax 
shelters.

	In the simplicity of a small town the answers are clear- 
Starbuck approved my turning an "accessory building" into a home 
without as much as a conditional use permit, never mind a hearing. 
With but one real estate agency in town and not a single developer, 
no wonder housing prices are stable there and homelessness rare...

	hangin' on in Hawthorne (for now),

		Dyna Sluyter