What's Selling: Cedar Lake

Acing the "Ooh!" and "Aaah!" Factor

Where: 2700 Chowen Ave. South in Minneapolis' Sunset Gables subdivision (just south of Cedar Lake)

What: Moderne-style Art Deco with 5 Bedrooms and 5 Baths, and 3,800 finished square feet

How much: listed for $875,000; sold for $823,050 (94% of asking price, and more than $35,000 over the tax assessed value).

When: less than 3 months on the market; closed Friday (Oct. 22).

Who: listed by Ross Kaplan, Edina Realty City Lakes; selling agent Paul Larson, Coldwell Banker Burnet

What's selling in a tough market, especially for upper bracket homes?

Trophy properties like 2700 Chowen Ave. South, just south of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis.

This historically designated home probably generated more "ooh's" and "aaah's" than any other home I've listed, for good reason: prospective Buyers salivated over the original fresco above the Fireplace, the custom millwork and period Art Deco light fixtures, and all the space and light.

The clincher?

A $200k-plus first-floor addition (2004) complete with its own washer dryer and private, courtyard entrance.

$1 Million Homes in the Twin Cities

$1 Million Buys a Lot of Home -- Again

As recently as 3 years ago, a million dollar home wasn't such a big deal in the Twin Cities.

Suburbs such as Edina and Minnetonka had literally hundreds of them; closer in, in Minneapolis, a home didn't even have to be particularly impressive if it was located on a city lake (or had a view of one).

Fast forward to today.

There's now a 31 month supply of $1M-plus homes for sale in the Twin Cities. That's how long it's projected to take for the market to absorb all the $1M-plus homes currently for sale. That compares with six months or so for more modestly-priced area homes.

On a purely subjective, Realtor level, I'm amazed at how much home $1 million actually buys today.

In fact, given the economy and tighter credit, the threshold for buying what many people might call a trophy home is probably more like $800k right now.