Edina on Sale

Not So Recession-Proof, After All

No, it's still not cheap by Twin Cities-wide standards, but asking prices for Edina homes have come down dramatically in the last 2-3 years: from $350 to even $400 per finished square foot ("FSF") in mid-2006, to around $200 per square foot today.

Translated into bricks-and-mortar choices, that means that $600k -- the average list price of the 250 homes now for sale in East Edina -- gets you a home with about 2,500 FSF.

In West Edina, where the homes are bigger and prices per square foot are a tick lower, the "average" home now lists for $700k and sports almost 3,600 FSF (that's typically 4 or even 5(!) Bedrooms).

And those are the asking prices -- Buyers may very well be able to negotiate lower prices (see below).

Lag in Prices

Two other interesting features of Edina prices.

One. Compared to asking prices, actual "sold" prices are 10% lower. That suggests that Edina sellers may still be unrealistic.

Two. While Edina prices initially held up well, as the housing downturn and recession have ground on, they've been increasingly impacted.

That echoes what has happened with consumer "luxury brands" like Tiffany, Coach, etc.

Eighteen months ago, they were all thought to be "recession-resistant," if not recession-proof; today, it's clear that they're not.

(Thanks to John Smaby, manager of Edina's 50th & France office, for the foregoing statistics.)