MinnEcon: June 22, 2009 Archive

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Twin Cities housing prices back to 1990s levels?

Posted at 12:15 AM on June 22, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing & mortgages, Twin Cities metro

Not that anyone who bought a house from, say, 1998 to 2006 in the Twin Cities needs reminding, but a new Harvard University report informs us that inflation adjusted home values in our metro area have returned to 1990s levels.

Check out the map on .pdf page 3. Looks to me from the map that the Twin Cities is among the hardest hit of the nation's major metro market. If anyone sees any other interesting facts in the Harvard report, please post below and let me know.

No doubt it's been grim here, especially during the past year.

But on my street, anyway, I'm seeing some signs things are improving.

There were four or five houses within two blocks that either had those yellow foreclosure/auction signs in the window or were clearly uninhabited during the fall and winter. All but one have been purchased. People are planting flowers and cutting lawns. Some have little kids. Great news for my neighborhood.

But as my colleague Mike Caputo has noted, Realtors in our Public Insight Network say selling houses under $200,000 is a snap. Selling houses worth more than $200,000? That's a problem.

Below are stories sources in the Network are sharing about the housing market where they live. Check it out then tell us your housing story.

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You own it -- you gonna buy GM?

Posted at 12:17 AM on June 22, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)

Hey taxpayer! Do you feel obligated to spend money on General Motors products now that you (in the short term, at least) are majority owner?

American taxpayers are kicking in $50 billion for a 60 percent stake of the "new GM."

So does that make you more inclined to buy a Chevy? Maybe not if you live in the Twin Cities and feel connected to Ford Motor Co.'s assembly plant in St. Paul, which has been hanging on despite worries of closure.

What do you think? If you're in the market for a new car, does the taxpayer ownership of GM make you more or less likely to buy GM vehicle?

Tell us here. Just share a few sentences and click on the "my money" category.

Check out some of the other stuff MPR's written recently about GM.

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Dipping into the kids' savings to pay bills

Posted at 12:18 AM on June 22, 2009 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Saving & spending

I posed the question recently: Are you reaching into the kids' savings to pay bills? Now, I've scrounged up some reasonably reliable data -- a recent national survey by financial services giant ING showing:

34 percent have reduced the contributions they make to their children's savings

18 percent of parents who have savings set aside for their children have taken money from their children's savings to cover bills or pay off debt.

So, yeah, many of us are tapping those funds or pulling back on what we hoped to save for the kids.

Check out a recent Minnesota Public Radio story on the struggle of saving for college in this economy (featuring several of our Public Insight sources) and a Gather conversation along those same lines.

We got some good responses from our Network on the issue. Here's a sampling of what people around Minnesota told us:

We have reduced our contributions to our own adult savings accounts but not to the kids' accounts. The kids have no way of making up the difference but we adults can always reduce our spending. --Cynthia Jacobson, Maple Plain

I've avoided even starting a family, partly because I lack the economic security to raise any potential children through to adulthood. -- Joe Schaedler, Minneapolis

I'm a married parent of 2 kids. After mortgage balance, our own college loans and car loans, our family net worth is well under zero. So "savings" is sort of a dubious term. As a family we keep a single pot, and hopefully we can provide a small nest egg of liquid cash for the kids in another 10 years when they're getting ready for college, but we'll likely still be paying our own college loans then. -- Paul Bramscher, Circle Pines

Advice-wise, the experts all say starting early on the kids' savings is the smartest move. Liz Wiczer of St. Paul told us her son just turned one:

Any money he receives as a gift goes directly into his savings account, held in his name by us. Every month we are able to save money (usually 10 out of 12 months), we put 10% of the total saved amount into his account. We haven't designated a particular purpose for the money yet, but it will most likely go towards college expenses, setting up a home of his own, a down payment on a first house, a wedding, or other similar one-time large expense.

I'm still interested in hearing from people on the issue. If you have a story to tell about managing -- or needing -- your kids' savings tell it here.

And check out an earlier post asking if college is still worth the money?

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