[Woofles]

I think Minneapolis is an interesting data point on there, since I've been told (and the data here reflects) that housing in Minneapolis is on par with Chicago right now, but the salaries haven't caught up. Minneapolis ranks as one of the worst Annual Salary After Rent cities, even behind LA and Seattle, which comes as a surprise.

Also one thing I've found as I work through a move from an expensive city (SF) to a less expensive one (Minneapolis) is that the things you're getting for the prices shown here are drastically different. I've found 1500sqft 2br/2ba apartments with two parking spots in the Twin Cities for $2300, while that same thing in SF would easily cost $7000. I paid $4500 for a 2br/1ba that was a little under 1000sqft with a single parking space.

[zdragnar]

Tech salaries in Minneapolis and the surrounding area aren't terrible if you're reasonably qualified and do some digging- think low $100k and up. The rents seem absurd to me- $1300 for a one bedroom apartment? - but that's because I grew up in a town where a two bedroom apartment above a quiet store would cost $450 a month, tops.

[2trill2spill]

$1300 for a one bedroom apartment? I'm paying $1360 for a two bedroom and I'm in the heart of Uptown in a nice apartment.

[rsync]

"The rents seem absurd to me- $1300 for a one bedroom apartment?"

I think these numbers are unduly skewed by the relatively very large build-out of condo buildings that has occurred in Minneapolis in the past 4-5 years.

Prior to 2005 (or so) Minneapolis was a very, very white-flighted downtown area with only a very few condo buildings extant. The notion of living in downtown minneapolis, to most metro area residents, was a weird and wild one.

So now, there is a huge influx of supply but it is all made up of "luxury" units that I believe are going online, in the market, with very optimistic rent numbers. I believe those newly online rental units are skewing the number upwards...

[MrMember]

Expand that to the entire Twin Cities area and prices fall even more. I bought a two bedroom condo in a suburb 20 minutes from downtown Minneapolis for $80k last year. When I was renting a three bedroom two bathroom house house in a nice area of South Minneapolis was $1500 a month. And developer salaries here are pretty good. Not Bay Area levels, obviously, but mid-level developers should be making over $100k in base salary.

[sjg007]

What would the equivalent house have cost you?

[germinalphrase]

Just to throw some anecdotal data on the pile - when I was looking for an apartment in Minneapolis (South MPLS and ~two years ago) I was able to find decent one-bedrooms for around $1000 and currently rent a two bedroom in a triplex for $1100.

[Woofles]

Ah yes I suppose it's important that I was looking at places that are in supposedly very desirable neighborhoods - North Loop, Northeast, Uptown, etc. If you go into S Minneapolis (which is also a nice place to live) you can find much cheaper apartments.