How the City Can Help Improve the Value of Your Home

Last week I visited with two Cub Scout dens (of Pack 215, sponsored by ), at their invitation to give a talk at about the history of Hudson.  There’s too much to fit into one half-hour, so I decided to discuss only one aspect of Hudson’s past.  How fur traders’ canoe paddles had given way to steamboats, which then had to make room for the railroad, and then highways and finally the interstate system, and how each advancement in technology created a change in the Hudson economy: from trapping, to logging, to agriculture, to modern businesses and tourism.  The scouts were polite and attentive, and were eager to ask and answer questions.  I added a little bit about , just for dessert.  It was a good evening.

Afterward I thought of the small part of Hudson’s history that I had personally experienced.  In 1976 there was one stop light in the city, and it was right where it is today, at the intersection of Second and Coulee, where is.  Hudson’s population was only about 4,000.  There wasn’t much of anything south of the freeway except for corn fields.  Gas was 48 cents a gallon.

In the next 30 years Hudson changed, as people moved in and filled in the empty spaces, gas prices rose dramatically, and a house that was $40,000 in ’76 now cost seven to eight times as much. Developers had arrived in the 80s and 90s, and they built and built as new owners bought and bought.

In March 2007, I spoke at a public gathering about the rising tide that had lifted so many economic boats in Hudson, and how a look to the horizon showed an ebbing tide in the future.  My advice was to prepare for harder times.  This was not a popular stand, and at the time carried an article about what a downer this speech had been.  That was in March.  By December, economists agreed that we had entered a recession.

That was then, this is now.  Time to concentrate not on our history, but our future.  Here are some things to consider:

Your home may be the biggest investment you have.  Since 2007 the price of your home, should you need to sell it, has probably gone down, not up.  At some point you're going to want to sell your home, and you’re more interested in the 'up' rather than the 'down.'  It's not unreasonable to ask, as a taxpayer, what the can do to help you.

First, the city council should recognize that the economics of housing are moving back up, but that Hudson needs to work harder this time to participate in the better times to come.  Just as in 2007 I advised caution and preparedness for a downturn, today I’m advising action in preparation for an upturn.  This means recognizing that we won’t be re-living Hudson’s past, when we had some elements working in our favor: lack of city wastewater utilities in eastern Washington county, and a neighboring community, Lake Elmo, closed to development, both factors funneling eastward growth right to Hudson.  Both of those elements have since been reversed.  Those communities are now ready to welcome buyers.

A further drag on our upturn is the inventory of homes already for sale in Hudson.  has been cited as a high-foreclosure area, and Hudson is at the center of that.  Depending on which real estate salesperson you talk to, there are over 200 homes for sale right now in the city, and over 500 in the Hudson area.  Our city council should recognize that this new reality means we have to be on top of our game in order to attract homebuyers to our side of the river.  Right now, realtors are counting upticks in sales for Cottage Grove, Woodbury and Lake Elmo; not for Hudson.

What can the city do?  Well, while the city can’t fix up your house for you, we can improve the way in which people get to see it.  Start with the roadway on which prospective buyers drive to your house.  Even if you have a terrific house for sale at a great price, what’s the effect on buyers who have to travel over potholes to get to it?  You’ve driven over a few of these, haven’t you?  It probably doesn’t improve your chances of selling.

Or if you have a great house at a great price, what’s the effect of the abandoned house across the street or down the block, with maybe a lawn that needs cutting? You’ve seen these, haven’t you?  Again, it's not helpful to you.

The city can help you by giving more support to our excellent Public Works department, not cutting its budget, as the current mayor’s 2012 budget did.  Our PW crews can fill those potholes and mow those lawns, at no cost to you, the taxpayer.  The first is done with better allocation of resources, and the second by billing the titleholder of the property.  Even abandoned homes do have owners, even if only the bank.  And when we improve the curb appeal of our homes, we help decrease the inventory of homes for sale.  Thus we increase the value of all homes in Hudson. 

People go where they are made to feel welcome, and that’s true of potential homebuyers.  Part of a vision of a brighter future for Hudson is recognizing that we can prepare that welcome, and attract new neighbors to fill our neighborhoods.

Except, of course, for those haunted houses.  The scouts loved hearing about them, and they are an interesting part of our past.  But let’s concentrate on our future.