Minnesota real estate, MN - America Real Estate Directory

Minnesota Real Estate

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Minnesota is located near the geographic center of North America, it is bordered on the north by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario, on the west by North Dakota and South Dakota, on the south by Iowa, and on the east by Wisconsin and Lake Superior. Tourism is a major revenue producer in Minnesota, with arts, fishing, hunting, water sports, and winter sports bringing in millions of visitors each year. Minnesota produces more than 75% of the nation's iron ore.

The state's farms rank high in yields of corn, wheat, rye, alfalfa, and sugar beets. Minnesota's factories produce nonelectrical machinery, fabricated metals, flour-mill products, plastics, electronic computers, scientific instruments, and processed foods. Many of Minnesota’s industrial plants are located in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, or Twin Cities, area. It is the trade center of the Midwest, and the headquarters of the world's largest super-computer. Duluth has the nation's largest inland harbor. Rochester is home to the Mayo Clinic, a world-famous medical center. A 2006 real estate survey has estimated the population of Minnesota at 5,197,621.

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Alexandria

Margaret Kreklau

E-mail: mkreklau@rea-alp.com

Anoka

Thomas R. Zilka

E-mail: info@sellersselect.com

Bigfork

Pam Lepinski

E-mail: pamle@hotmail.com

Blaine

Kent Allen

E-mail: kandkranch@goldengate.net

Coon Rapids

Thomas R. Zilka

E-mail: info@sellersselect.com

Detroit Lakes

Dorothea Lowe

Web Site

Eden Prairie

JoAnn Conrad
Realty Executives
Phone: 952-830-1161

Search hundreds of listings of homes for sale on-line at my site. Over 18 years experience, Relocation Specialist.

Edina

JoAnn Conrad

Elk River

JoAnne Donna
MarketLink Realty, Inc.
Phone: 612-386-8603

Web Site
The High Tech and High Touch approach serving Elk River, Big Lake, Zimmerman and the Sherburne Co. MN area.

Fairmont

John Rosa

E-mail: jrosa@bevcomm.net

Grand Rapids

Susan Kaiser

E-mail: srkais@uslink.net

Lino Lakes

Daryl Cooper

E-mail: Dogs4homes@aol.com

Longville

Northern Pines Realty

E-mail: nprealty@uslink.net

Minneapolis / St. Paul click here

Minnetonka

JoAnn Conrad

Orono

JoAnn Conrad

Remer

Dennis G. Stefan

E-mail: tlr@means.net

Winona

Renae Ahrens

E-mail: gjb@rconnect.com

More about Minnesota

Minnesota can be roughly divided into four agricultural regions. In the northeast, including most of the coniferous forest region, farming is unimportant. There are generally poor soils in the area, and summers are short and cool. This area is often referred to as the hay-forest region, and harvested crops, other than native wild hay, occupy less than 10 percent of the land. There is some dairying.

Immediately south and southwest of this region, in the deciduous forest area, dairying is a major activity. This area is the westernmost portion of the great northeastern dairy region of the United States. Because there are few nearby markets for fresh milk, much of the production is made into butter and nonfat dry milk. Where cultivation is possible, feed crops of corn are raised, as are oats and hay.

On the flat plains of the Red River Valley a cash-crop type of farming is found. Once famous for their wheat production, the large farms in this area now produce a wide variety of crops, and Minnesota no longer ranks as a leading wheat grower, although it remains among the top ten producing states. The crops raised here include sugar beets, for which Minnesota was the leading producer in the United States in 1996, and hard spring wheat. There are also large acreages of barley, flax, oats, rye, hay, and potatoes. Corn and soybeans, as well as onions and sunflowers, are grown in the southern part of the state.

The remaining southern and southwestern section of the state is part of the famous Midwestern Corn Belt, where high-yielding crops of ripe corn, as well as oats and hay, are raised. These crops feed large numbers of hogs and beef cattle. Some of the beef cattle are raised in the area, and others are shipped in from the rangelands in the West for fattening. A considerable amount of corn, far more than the local feed requirements, is sold for cash, and large quantities of soybeans, raised in the more level areas, also are sold. Some flax, wheat, and barley are raised.

Dairy products are a leading source of farm income in Minnesota. In 1996 the state ranked fifth among the states in sales of milk products. Beef cattle and hogs are important livestock products, and the state was third in the value of hogs raised on its farms. Minnesota ranked second in sales of turkeys, behind North Carolina. Eggs are another important poultry product.

Corn is Minnesota’s most important cash crop, and in 1996 the state ranked fifth in the value of its production. Much of the corn is used to feed livestock. Soybeans are another major crop, and the state was the third leading producer in the United States. Other significant crops include hay and oats. In 1996 Minnesota was fourth among the states in the value of its barley production. Vegetables, principally potatoes, are also grown.

The fishing industry on Lake Superior is small because of the depredations of the lamprey, which preyed on the lake trout, and years of fishing without restrictions and without restocking. Recent measures to restock the waters and to control the lamprey have increased the number of lake trout in Lake Superior. Commercial fisheries on Lake Superior principally catch lake herring; the number of smelt landed has been steadily declining. Commercial operations no longer fish the three “international lakes” on the Canadian border, but the Chippewa people still fish commercially on Upper and Lower Red lakes in north central Minnesota, where walleye, yellow perch, and crappie represent the most valuable species caught. Some fish are also taken in rivers and in other lakes.

At one time more than two-thirds of Minnesota was forested, and much of this was excellent pine forest. Between the 1860s and the early 1900s Minnesota was the leading lumber-producing state. However, after the virgin forest was logged off or cleared for farming, production dropped rapidly. Today 33 percent of Minnesota is forested. Although the lumbering industry has declined in importance, numerous small sawmills operate on second-growth timber, and Minnesota’s forests produce more revenue today than at the peak of the lumber boom at the turn of the century. Most of this revenue comes from the production of pulp and paper and other processed wood products. Large pulp and paper mills are located in International Falls, Cloquet, Grand Rapids, and Sartel. Paper and paper products are also manufactured at Brainerd, Little Falls, Saint Paul, Saint Cloud, and Duluth. The timber industry also cultivates Christmas trees.

Iron ore is the most important mineral to Minnesota’s economy, accounting for 83 percent of the state’s nonfuel mineral production value in 1997. Minnesota has been the leading producer of iron ore in the United States almost since the opening of its iron ranges in the northeastern part of the state in the 1880s. One of the three major iron ranges was the Vermilion Range, which produced ore until the mid-1960s. Most of its mines were located in the Ely-Winton and Tower-Soudan areas. Later, the Mesabi Range became the most productive range. Its numerous mines extend almost continuously for a distance of more than 130 km (80 mi). In this range, near Hibbing, the Hull-Rust group of mines began production in the 1890s and until the mid-1980s was the world’s largest open-pit mine. The third important range was the Cuyuna Range, near Crosby and Ironton. Until the late 1960s this range was a producer of ore containing manganese as well as iron. Ore from Minnesota’s mines is shipped by rail to ports on Lake Superior, where it is loaded onto special ships for transport to steel mills.

Over the years the accessible high-grade iron ore reserves have been nearly used up, and most of the underground mines and many of the open-pit mines in northeastern Minnesota have had to close down. However, Minnesota has an abundance of flintlike rock known as taconite and semitaconite. When it became apparent that the high-grade ore reserves would soon be exhausted, Edward W. Davis of the University of Minnesota Mines Experiment Station began working on a process to remove the iron minerals, such as hematite and magnetite, contained in taconite. In the late 1940s, after decades of unsuccessful experimentation, Davis devised a method for grinding the hard taconite rock, removing the magnetic particles of the iron minerals, and recementing these particles into pellets usable in blast furnaces. The uniformity of these pellets has made them a desirable substitute for high-grade iron ores.

At the eastern end of the Mesabi Range there are huge reserves of magnetic taconite, which should enable the state to remain the nation’s leading iron ore producer for many years to come. Today almost all of the iron ore produced in Minnesota is taconite.

Sand, gravel, and stone are other leading mineral products. Sand and gravel are produced throughout the state. Most of the stone output consists of crushed limestone, dolomite, and granite. Other minerals produced in Minnesota are lime, clay, peat, and abrasive stone, which is mined near Jasper.

Although not a leading industrial state, Minnesota has a great number and wide variety of manufacturing establishments, particularly in the Twin Cities area. Minnesota’s most important industry is the processing of food, particularly meat packing, making dairy products from the milk produced on the state’s farms, milling grain, brewing malt beverages, and packaging fruits and vegetables. Manufactures of industrial machinery, including computers and office machines, refrigeration and service machinery, electronics and electric equipment, and precision instruments, contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Printing and publishing rank highly, including a variety of commercial printing and the publishing of books, periodicals, and newspapers. Other industries contributing to the state’s economy are those creating precision instruments, particularly for use in medicine; companies fabricating metal products, including ordnance; firms manufacturing transportation equipment, including those for motor vehicles; companies engaged in creating rubber and plastic products; and those using the state’s forest resources to manufacture paper and wood products.

Processing of some food products is carried on throughout the state, whereas other food products are processed in only certain cities. Dairy products are processed in almost all parts of the state. The major meat-packing plants are in South Saint Paul, Austin, and Albert Lea. The major center for flour milling and other grain products was Minneapolis, historically called the Mill City. Most of the nation’s leading flour milling companies still have their home offices there, although there is little actual production in the city now. Sugar refining is largely carried on in the Red River Valley, where most of the sugar beets are produced. Processing plants for linseed oil are centered mainly in Minneapolis, and soybean oil is also processed there and at Mankato.

In addition to food-processing plants, there are large plants that manufacture industrial, agricultural, and electrical machinery, computers, electronic equipment, missile systems, automatic controls, fabricated metal goods, plastic tapes of all sorts, paper, glass, and chemicals. There are many clothing factories and two oil refineries. The area has a large automobile assembly plant and several publishing houses. The commercial film and video industry and computer manufacturing also has a significant foothold in the Twin Cities.

Duluth, the other major manufacturing center, has several steel manufacturers and food-processing plants, including a meat-packing plant and one of the largest plants for processing and packaging Chinese foods. Other industries include printing and publishing, oil refining, aircraft maintenance, and the manufacture of machinery, tools, wood products, paper products, and cement. Smaller towns have local industries.

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