New Hope MN Archives - Living in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Another surprising community! Today I’ll show you around New Hope MN and give you all the reasons you may want to consider living there.

Lately I’ve been working with several first time buyers, and if you remember buying your first home you probably didn’t have a massive pile of money for a down payment as many people who may have equity from a sale do, so you have to look for a starter house in a more affordable neighborhood.

That’s where New Hope comes in! A quick look at what is on the market right now illustrates my point – there are 30 active homes in New Hope ranging from a 1 bed 1 bath condo for $115,000 to only a few homes in the mid-upper $500’s with MOST homes being single family homes in the upper $200,000’s to mid $300,000’s. The MEDIAN price in New Hope is at $309,000 whereas the Twin Cities Median is at $380,000.

If you’re an investor and want to rent out a residential property you must register the property with the city.

In addition to single family homes and people just starting out in life, New Hope makes senior living a priority as well. They have 3 long term care facilities, some assisted living complexes and senior citizen apartment homes.

elderly couple holding bouquet of flowers while holding hands — Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

Let’s talk Property taxes… New Hope is in Hennepin County, the effective property tax rate in New Hope is 1.35%. Hennepin County’s portion is 1.28%, the effective tax rate for the state of MN is 1.08%. Sales taxes since I looked this up as well – MN has a sales tax rate of 6.88% on everything except (I believe!) food, prescriptions and clothing, and the sales tax rate in New Hope is 7.13%.

tax return form and notebooks on the table — Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.com

The beauty of New Hope is not only the affordable home prices, but that New Hope is actually a really lovely community and it has a lot to offer.

New Hope is an easy commute to downtown or the airport. It’s only about 20 minutes by car to downtown. and Because I’m such a fan of our regional parks I also want to point out how close New Hope is to the beautiful Theodore Wirth Park. I touched on this park in my Golden Valley video (which you can watch next!) but Theodore Wirth really has it all. It’s just gorgeous, and can keep you busy outside no matter what season we’re in.

If you are leaving town or going to fetch a visitor, it’s about 26 minutes to MSP airport and while you’re down there you can stop by the Mall of America and get your shopping done or amuse the kids on the roller coasters. I was a major skeptic because I am not really a “mall person”, but I like “The Mall”! It has so many great stores that you don’t see everywhere else, some nice food options and my kid and I had fun doing some of the rides the first time we stopped in. Being close to it is nice because it can just be something you do for an hour or two and you don’t have to feel like you need to spend all day there since you can go back any time. The Ikea is right next to the mall as well, so if you like. Swedish Meatballs and cryptic assembly instructions for affordable furniture that utilize allen wrenches – you’ll be in heaven!

New Hope does NOT have it’s own school district, all schools in New Hope are part of the Robbinsdale Schools aka ISD 281. It’s a pretty big district with 10 k-5 elementary schools, 2 middle and 2 high schools. I always recommend that you do your research and see if the school district that your home is in is one that you will be happy with. You can check out Niche.com or GreatSchools, but another option is to actually VISIT the schools and talk to the administration and see things for yourself.

Speaking of brain food… New Hope residents have convenient use of 3 branches of the Hennepin County Library system. They can easily access Brookdale Library in Brooklyn Center, Golden Valley’s adorable little library, or the Rockford Library in Crystal.
One of my favorite topics when giving community profiles is the park systems. I just think green space improves the quality of life for everyone. New Hope agrees! They are a small city (only about 21,000 residents) but they have 18 city parks and several other venues offering all kinds of recreational activities including:

the new Hope aquatic center which is a community pool and water slide
2 off leash dog parksa 9 hole public golf course
disc golf course
ball fields
a skate park
tennis / pickleball courts
Community gyms with basketball courts that can be rented out for the day
and 3 outdoor skating rinks that are open in season.

sunflowers on rack with price tag near orange canopy tent — Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com

The city hosts a Farmers Market on Saturdays from the middle of June through the middle of October at City Hall.

Lastly – Pets & fencing. Everyone’s favorite topics!

winking black and brown puppy — Photo by Dominika Roseclay on Pexels.com

New Hope allows for a LOT of pets – 3 dogs, 3 cats and 3 “other” household pets, as well as 3 “fowl”, This is not restricted to actual chickens – if you want ducks instead – go crazy!
All dogs, cats and ferrets need to be licensed and vaccinated for rabies.

Fencing – IS ALLOWED! 🙂

OK – that is ALL I HAVE on New Hope! It’s a lovely community that I feel lucky to have worked in lately. It offers a lot of great options to people that may be priced out of other areas of the city. It’s 100% worth considering if you’re wondering where to live in the twin cities metro.
If you like this kind of content – I have an entire playlist of neighborhoods/suburbs on my YouTube Channel that you can look at to see what feels right for you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jacob Mackey

2023-03-05

Buying a house, moving, relocating from across this great country is stressful, expensive, time consuming, a great way to drop a few pounds(or gain a few), and can seem overwhelming at times. I can honestly say, however, that Mary Schumann made the process as painless as possible. Mary is a well informed and connected individual. She can answer your first 1000 questions and anticipate your next 500 before you even invest. She has a dedicated team and works with many local professionals as well. Don't ignore that last sentence. It is important to work with a realtor that knows contractors, inspectors, public officials, loan agents (I don't judge), the greater area where ever it is you're trying to invest, and temporary housing solutions while you wait to feather your own nest. Working with Mary proved to be a positive experience and I highly recommend her services. Mary possesses the professional experience, work ethic, and the right amount of empathy to create a homebuying experience in which you, dear reader, can manage. Also: Check her out for yourself on her YouTube Channel.

Jordan Oleszczak

2023-02-12

I don’t even know where to begin with our review for Mary. First off, she’s a fabulous agent. We were first-time homebuyers, so her wealth of knowledge was incredibly helpful to us. Her YouTube videos gave us a good foundation for our house hunt and kept us informed and educated throughout. Mary took time to learn about what we wanted in a house and she taught us about what to keep an eye out for in prospective houses. She gave us advice with locations and the market and was always willing to view any house we sent to her. Mary also supported us through a few heartbreaks while helping us stay focused and motivated. She was always responsive especially during quick turnarounds for offers and coached us through competitive fees within our budget. She never told us what to do but answered every question we had. Our ninth offer was our winner and Mary walked us through every step of the closing process. The saddest part of finding a house was not seeing Mary every week to look at new and interesting houses together. But Mary is still around to support us after the sale, keeping us in the loop on the market and advice for homeowners. I don’t think we would’ve made it through this process without Mary. She was everything we wanted in an agent and more. Note: Mary is also LGBTQIA+ friendly. 🥰

Will

2023-01-15

Mary was incredible to work with every step of the way. We highly recommend her to EVERYONE looking for a realtor to help them buy or sell their home. Relocating from Boston, my wife and I needed someone just like Mary to help us find the perfect home while living across the country. She is super knowledgeable, fun, dedicated, well-connected and communicates very well. While we were in town, we did a ton of showings, but while we couldn't be in town, she made virtual / videotaped showings so we could see as many homes that met our needs. Relocating is tough and stressful and seeing homes through a video was our only option for most of the journey. Mary gave us clear insights and meaningful feedback on every property we saw. We had fun along the way. Thanks to her, we found our Minneapolis forever home in our far-from-normal process. Hopefully we don't have to relocated anytime soon, but we highly recommend her to anyone buying or selling! Great experience.

Desiree Tournier

2022-10-25

I purchased a condo in August with the help of Mary Schumann. I planned to retire and move from Oregon to Minneapolis. I found Mary on YouTube and really enjoyed working with her. She explained all documents every step of the way and was friendly and professional. Her knowledge of real estate and the area helped me make a great choice for my situation. I am extremely happy with my purchase and I love my new place!

Kathy Johnson

2022-10-05

Mary Schumann is the knowledgeable, professional and available realtor you would want to work with. If you want to get to know Mary, have a look at any of her many YouTube videos that introduce buyers to the Minneapolis St Paul area. My purchase is a new home, relocating from Illinois. I learned a lot about Minneapolis suburbs watching theeYouTubes before my trips to find a house began. Mary was great to work with, careful with details, informative, and answered questions I needed to ask before I asked them. My transaction was complex and she was there every step of the way, and she was very much respected by here fellow brokers, closing agents and allied professionals. She's the one to pick!

Mark Pedigo

2022-08-08

I don't often give service reviews, but I do write a lot of Goodreads reviews. My scale there: 1-2 stars skip it, 3 is ok for someone else, 4 means it rocked. 5 starts is only if the book changed my life for the better. I'll use that system here. Could we have found a place somewhere in the Twin Cities burbs without Mary? Sure, probably, we'd have found something suitable. Would we have found a townhouse in our dream location? I'm pretty sure we would not have. First, while we were still in another state, we watched Mary's videos on YouTube. They are outstanding! Go check them out. Through these we found lots of neighborhoods to consider that we did not know existed, including Hopkins, where we settled. Mary's videos provide a good overview for the different areas and she seemed to know what we cared about and what we wanted to know. Second, she knows her stuff. She understands the market and the pulse of real estate at any given moment. Mary was able to talk us through each step and answered all our questions. She gets that buying a home is a big deal to her clients. We worry, we wonder and she was able to help us through each concern. Third, she gives you her complete attention. I never once felt that she rushed us through to go to the next, more lucrative thing. When she's in, she's all in. Fourth, she responds in a timely manner. No "let's wait until Monday" and then Monday turns out to be busy etc. etc. I've had this happen too often and I'm sure you have too. :) Fifth, well ok, you get the point. If you're thinking at all of relocating to the Twin Cities area, do yourself a favor and contact Mary. You won't regret it.

Kristen Sowinski

2022-07-01

Mary was outstanding in helping us relocate from Illinois to Minnesota. We were referred to Mary by a friend and couldn't be happier with her. She took the time to get to know us and what we were looking for and walked us through the process step by step. Then, she set us up with a personalized online portal to look at homes while we were still in IL. That was such a nice service to have so that we could narrow our options when coming up MN to look at houses. Mary was also very responsive, often getting back to us via text or email on the same or very next day. One thing we did check out were her Youtube videos. If you are relocating to Minnesota, I would strongly recommend checking these videos out. She tours several different cities and tells you all about the different areas around Minneapolis/St. Paul. Her videos are very informative and humorous as well. I especially loved her "Winter DOESN'T Suck in Minnesota" video. Thanks Mary for all you did for us. We couldn't be happier!!!

Susanna Rachut

2022-06-18

Recently we worked with Mary to find our amazing new home in White Bear Lake for our relocation from the Austin TX area. We were referred to her by a friend who was making the same long-distance move and could not be happier with our experience! It was daunting trying to figure out neighborhoods and the Minneapolis surrounding cities from so far away, but Mary's YouTube videos helped immensely. She was super easy to contact, completely honest, and gave us a wealth of info to help in our decisions. Ultimately her suggestions on our offer and negotiations were what got us accepted in this tight market, and we are so very thankful! We've been in the amazing new house a week now and wanted to post this review with all our gratitude. Thanks Mary! Surrounding cities

Jessica Denne

2022-05-26

I've been trying to hold off on leaving this review so I can capture Mary's magic from start to finish, but alas, we are currently waiting for our new home's construction to finish.. all the while my adoration for and admiration of Mary is ever-increasing, so here we are. My boyfriend and I are moving to MN from out of state as first-time home buyers. We've never lived there; he's only visited one time. To say we had no idea where to start is an understatement. Fortunately some other friends of ours had just moved to MN as well, and they recommended Mary. From the very first conversation all through to this "in limbo" waiting-for-construction-updates period, Mary has been an absolute rockstar. She was more than patient with our constantly changing wants vs. needs in our search, plus many other search criteria changes. Circle back to "we have never lived there" and it brings us to the point where my bf and I sent her all over the place: in and out of town... and she never made us feel problematic. She has been beyond patient in our every move. She has explained a lot of things to us from MN living, features in/highlights of certain areas, things to look out for and things to strongly consider.. and she's done it all with the utmost excitement alongside ours. She is knowledgeable, personable, humorous, and easily likable. She truly knows what she's doing, and she does it in examplary fashion with the utmost care and respect for the buyer(s). As the days press onward, we're growing more and more excited to close on our new home. All the same, we're more and more pleased that Mary is the one who has seen us through all of this. I can't imagine having gone to anyone else. If you're looking for the perfect realtor who will listen to your wants and needs, help you feel comfortable and confident through the home-buying process, never pressure you and consistently leave you feeling like a million bucks- look no further. Mary Schumann is the one.

Lowe Nguyen

2022-04-10

We cannot say enough about how positive our experience was working with Mary. She guided us through this tough market moving from Florida to the Twin Cities. Mary is exactly the kind of realtor we needed; she's honest, realistic, knowledgable, and super responsive. She found out quickly exactly what we wanted, and helped us stay calm throughout the process in a chaotic market. Mary didn't just make a sale to some homebuyers--she helped a family find a forever home in a new city.