Minnesota Living

Only one state has a set of twins - twin cities that is. Minnesota is home to the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 800 annual festivals, and 500 golf courses. Only in Minnesota can you visit the SPAM museum. That's correct: Minnesota is home to a museum entirely dedicated to canned meat. If SPAM does not interest you, maybe the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices will do the trick. The museum features several crazy devices including a prostate gland warmer, nose straightener, and a machine to determine your personality.

Minnesota is a state that lives by its waters. Minnesota has plenty of activities for the water sports fanatic including the milk carton boat race. Each year residents make a boat, completely made out of milk cartons, and race at the Aquatennial. More than 800,000 visitors and residents each year participate in more than 70 events that make up the 10-day long, Minneapolis-based Aquatennial, which began in 1940. Aside from the milk carton boat race, there is a sand castle building contest, largest purse triathlon, parades, and BBQ galore.

Minnesota is also home to the famous Mall of America with an indoor amusement park at the center and more than 520 shops in a 4.2 million square-foot complex. The Mall, located in Bloomington, MN, houses a college campus, a wedding chapel and a 1.2 million gallon walk-through aquarium.

Minnesota Real Estate Information

If you're looking for real estate property near Betsy, Tacy or Tib's home in the fictitious Deep Valley, MN you may want to focus your search in Mankato, MN, instead, which was home to Betsy-Tacy author, Maud Hart Lovelace. Mankato is also the big city that characters from the Little House on the Prairie book series visit for supplies.

Mankato, nestled away in the Emerald Green Valley in south central Minnesota, is considered one of the top 100 cities in the nation for young people. Mankato is seeing a change in the real estate market, as homes are taking longer to sell. The median price for a home in Mankato in the first half of 2007 was $131,200.

Minneapolis, only eight miles from its sister city St. Paul, is the largest city in Minnesota. The average home price in Minneapolis in the third quarter 2005 was $233,000. Minneapolis has a diverse population. Students in Minneapolis' eight middle schools, 63 elementary schools, seven high schools and 31 alternative schools, speak 90 different languages. For the past two decades the Minneapolis has invested $608 million in renovating old schools and building new schools.

St. Paul, the second largest city in Minnesota, has an active arts culture. The city has 24 biking and walking trails, 160 parks, and 41 recreation centers. The average home price in May 2007 in St. Paul was $165,860. Recently, sellers of Saint Paul real estate have been receiving 98 percent of their asking price for homes in the city's neighborhoods.

Home sales and prices have decreased in the Twin Cities since 2006, mirroring what is happening state-wide in Minnesota. For the first nine months of 2006 the median price for a home in Minnesota was $200,000 down from $201,875 in 2005.

Minnesota Demographics

As of the 2006 census, the total population of Minnesota was 5,124,100. Whites make up 86% of the population, while blacks and Hispanics account for about 4% each. The median annual household income of Minnesota is about 20% higher than the national average at $56,084.

Minnesota Geography and Climate

Minnesota, the 12th largest state in the nation, is bordered by Lake Superior and Wisconsin to the east, North and South Dakota to the west, Canada to the north and Iowa to the south. Nicknamed the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," Minnesota actually has close to 12,000 lakes. According to legend, the footprints of Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe made the lakes. Hundreds of statues of Bunyan and Babe can be found throughout Minnesota.

Aside from its many lakes, Minnesota also has seven major water falls. Half of the state is covered with rich, fertile soil. To the north the terrain is mostly rugged with rocky ridges while the southwest is made up of sand, gravel and clay.

Minnesota experiences all four seasons to an extreme. Spring brings lush, green leaves to the trees and the autumn turns them brilliant shades of ripe red, bright yellow and vibrant orange. Summers get hot with 80 to 90 degree temperatures and the winters are bitterly cold, and some areas of the state receive from 53 to 70 inches of snow each year.