•  Apartments
•  Homes
•  Resources

Apartments
St. Louis Park's 300 plus multiple-family buildings provide 7,526 apartments. One and two bedroom apartments comprise over 94% of all multi-family rental units in the city. Efficiency apartments account for about 4% and three bedroom apartments comprise slightly more than 2% of the multi-family market. The multi-family housing market in St. Louis Park does not offer much opportunity for medium and large sized families.

Historically, St. Louis Park had experienced a consistently low vacancy rate. The lowest rate since SLPHA started surveying the market, 0.2%, occurred in 1979, followed by 0.3% in 1999. In the mid 1980s, a substantial increase in the vacancy rate occurred because of the large number of new apartments constructed. During this era, the vacancy rate peaked at 5.6% in 1988.

Although the number of multi-family dwelling units being added to the City's inventory decreased significantly in the early 1990s, the vacancy rate remained between 4 and 5%. In 1993, the vacancy rate rose to 5.2%, approaching the previous peak reached in 1988. Following 1993, vacancy rates continued to fall until reaching a low of 0.3% in 1999. Reflective of a tight rental market, vacancy rates remained low through most of 1990s. Signaling a softening of the rental market, the vacancy rate rose to 3.5% in 2001.

The rate rose in 2002 to 7.8%, reflecting a further softening of the rental market in the metropolitan area and an increase in vacancy rates experienced throughout the area. This is the highest vacancy rate recorded in the history of the survey. From 2003 through 2005 the vacancy rate stabilized. There have been recent indications that the market is beginning to tighten again. The vacancy rate for 2006 is 2.6% which is half of that from last year. This decrease may mean that we've come to end of the soft rental market. Metro wide, the vacancy rate is slightly over 4%. Vacancy is still a problem at some rental developments in St. Louis Park, particularly vacancies in one-bedroom units.

Homes
St. Louis Park offers a full range of housing: starter homes selling for approximately $120,000 to executive homes selling for $600,000 or more.

In St. Louis Park, starter homes are frequently 1-story expansion bungalows that were constructed in the late 1940's to welcome home our returning World War II GI's. The majority of these homes can be found within the "second alphabet" of St. Louis Park. (St. Louis Park's avenues traverse three alphabets beginning in Minneapolis at France Avenue. The "first alphabet" runs from France Avenue west to Zarthan Avenue, the "second alphabet" runs west from Alabama to Zinran, and the "third alphabet runs from Aquila to St. Louis Park's border with the City of Minnetonka.

Within the "first alphabet," you'll find a variety of homes. Some are newer executive homes, while others are similar to homes found in southwest Minneapolis. St. Louis Park's "third alphabet" features homes that were constructed during the 1960's to today. Interspersed among nearly all neighborhoods are dramatically remodeled homes as well as townhomes and condominiums.

Resources
In addition to commercial lenders and real estate agencies, these agencies can help individuals seeking to buy a home.

Community Action for Suburban Hennepin is a free, nonprofit housing agency that provides home buyer education and counseling. For more information, call (952) 933-9639.

Minnesota Housing Finance Agency is a state agency that offers below-market interest rate loans to low and moderate income home buyers. Funding is limited and is not available continuously. For more information, call (651) 296-8215.

return to top of page

Documents identified with the icon require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Guidance using PDF Documents is provided.