Our two central sister cities—Minneapolis and Saint Paul (what, you were expecting Lakeville and Burnsville?)—have launched an ambitious collaboration designed to encourage consumers to purchase homes within their borders. With lender-mediated properties comprising a healthy chunk of the homes for sale in each city, we have to assume that the effort is motivated in part by a desire to see those properties become owner-occupied.
The fruits of their labor is a now-live website called LiveMSP, and it gives users the opportunity to learn more about any of the 80-plus neighborhoods in the two cities (here's the page for Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, for example), as well as every financial incentive for home ownership or renovation available.
From a Strib story on the subject:
With thousands of foreclosed homes -- about 3,000 in Minneapolis and 2,000 in St. Paul -- the website, in conjunction with many new financing programs, is the latest weapon aimed at spurring home sales.
"This is the first time all this information has been pulled together, and the first time that Minneapolis and St. Paul have used social networking sites to promote housing,'' said Natalie Fedie, a project coordinator at the St. Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development.
All in all, the level of collaboration is impressive and should be applauded. As a long-time urban dweller who's lived in both cities, it's fun to see the two work together.
Click here to access LiveMSP.com and learn more.
The Live MSP site is ".org" not ".com". Like this:
http://www.livemsp.org/
Posted by: Frank Tanque | May 08, 2009 at 05:54 PM