Why Was The Duplex Deal Worth $340,000?

If you look for the value of the 531 Blake Road duplex on Hennepin County property records, you’ll find a figure less than half the $340,000 that the city offered before the deal fell through.

Those records put the market value for the property at $162,000. But that low figure mainly arises because there’s a lag from the time the appraisal was done until it’s published.

Click here to read why the deal fell through.

When the Metropolitan Council was trying to acquire the property in 2010 or 2011, it obtained an appraisal that came back with a $245,000 to $265,000 value, property owner David Gimberline said. That’s closer, but it’s still nearly $100,000 off the city’s final offer.

An appraisal Gimberline had done in 2005 or 2006 comes much closer, though. That appraisal estimated the duplex’s value at $345,000.

The numbers reflect the roller coaster ride that housing has seen since the housing bubble burst.

Gimberline is well aware of that roller coast ride—and he said he’d normally have no intention of selling in such a bad market. He owes about $250,000 on the property. He’s also invested about $100,000 in improvements to the property over the 20 years he’s lived there.

Gimberline recognizes that he was asking the city for more than market value. But he said he’d see a loss if he sold the property at the current market value.

“Currently I have a place to live that I enjoy and I have the income from my rental side, on which I greatly depend for my livelihood,” he wrote in a letter to the city’s mediator. “If I sell at what one might consider to be market value, … I would end up with neither.”

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