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By Nick LaFave, FOX 21 News
with photojournalist Adam Jagunich
DULUTH - A recent national publication says Duluth will be sixth best when it comes to increasing home values. Something at which city leaders are not surprised.
Go to US News and World Report.com. Search Duluth and you'll find Moody's Economy.com projects Duluth's home value will go up 3.7 percent every year for the next decade. A top ten score around the nation.
"We've always had a stable market," says Patricia Johnson, president of the Duluth Area Associates of Realtors. She says Duluth has traditionally stayed away from trendy buys like larger homes and fancier cars.
"The stuff that people seem to have accumulated over the last five to ten years that has supposedly caused this economic downturn," she says.
Which helps lead to stable home prices. And Duluth continues to improve.
DAAR's May numbers show the median price for home sales - while not at last years level - have increased three months running. At the same time, days on the market continues to go down.
"Other than the few months last year where values went down just a hair, and it was just for a short period of time, we're seeing values go back up," says Johnson.
A key to maintaining general home value in a city is avoiding general foreclosure. In his first month in office, Mayor Don Ness created a 'foreclosure task-force' that, he says, has helped hundreds of homeowners. Ness says everyone threatened with foreclosure in the city gets a personal letter from his office.
"We direct them in a way that allows them to save their house and negotiate with their lender," says Ness.
Another big factor to avoiding foreclosure - thereby affecting home values - is the unemployment rate. Not seasonally adjusted, Duluth stands better than both the state and nation. By and large in Duluth, people are working and staying in their homes. And that's being reflected in the home values.
"We are a community that has faced struggles," says Ness. "But we've faced them head on. Now, we see the path of prosperity ahead of us."
US News and World Report story:
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