Real estate agent Pete Mergens knows that housing in the city where he lives is in high demand.
“There’s always somebody looking to come to Northfield,” he said.
With its bookstores and bakeries, two prestigious colleges and quirky summer festivals, it’s easy to see why the community on the banks of the Cannon River is a desirable place to live.
Finding housing there is a bit more complicated.
Last year, Northfield issued just four construction permits for single-family homes and three permits for duplexes, a city building official said. The market for existing homes, meanwhile, is notoriously tight: This summer, roughly 30 houses in the city of 21,000 people were for sale, with the average sales price nearing $420,000.
The combination of limited construction and listings has deepened Northfield’s reputation as an expensive — and somewhat exclusive — place to live. And it sharply contrasts with cities to the north like Lakeville and Rosemount, where building is booming and for-sale signs are abound.
Real estate agents, school district leaders and city officials say Northfield’s situation has complex roots — from a relatively stringent zoning code that can make it hard to build, to a slowdown in construction after the 2008 market crash from which the city never fully recovered.