The Twin Cities are Growing!

Today the Strib had a cover story that was noteworthy for several reasons.

1.) It was about Real Estate

-and-

2.) It was positive!

In this era of Gloom & Doom Bubble Bursting Oblivion I will take good pub whenever we can get it!

The story is about how recent census data seems to back up what most of us who have been watching already know: people are moving into the urban core at a faster rate than they are "fleeing" to the suburbs.

This is good news as any civic planner will tell you - cities are only as strong as their cores.

There were a number of reasons cited as to why this is the case an principal among them has been the recent condo boom downtown. There is no question that this has had a major impact. However, I remain dubious of "trendy" Real Estate deals and we have already seen kind of a backlash in that market. For my money, single family homes are still the horse to ride in terms of a long term investment.

A lot of the clients I serve are choosing to live in the Twin Cities because of the close proximity to arts, culture, non-chain restaurants, locally owned shops, parks, lakes, and other features some of which are just not a part of the Suburban experience--especially the "non-chain" part. Also the light rail continues to have a positive impact. People really hate the ever worsening traffic that they face in a daily commute.

So, it's different strokes for different folks and at this point it seem that more and more folks are opting for the urban experience.

And that is good news for all of us!