Report: New Housing Moving Into Urban Core

Twin Cities residents may be changing decades-old habits of where they live, according to a report in Finance and Commerce, published yesterday. The changes could continue , as Southwest Minneapolis Patch reported last month.

Instead of buying homes—many of them big—on the outskirts of the metro area, the paper quotes Met Council data showing many Twin Citizens are opting for smaller houses, apartmenta, and condos built close to transit hubs like light rail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations.

Experts interviewed for the story say the jury is still out on how permanent the change may be. However, the Met Council's projections say construction of new higher-density and mixed housing and commercial developments will skyrocket over the next 20 years, Finance and Commerce wrote.

While the next planned light rail line will not stop in Southwest, the 35-W BRT line has a stop at 46th Street. This, along with Southwest's dense network of bus lines, could result in more developments in the area's neighborhoods.

If these developments materialize, they could keep Southwest's numbers of families with children high. Currently, school district officials say Southwest schools' crowding problems are largely due to weak housing prices, keeping many young families in the area from selling their house to move to the suburbs.