Barrier-Free Playground Coming to Eden Prairie
Jenny and Mike Garvin are the parents of 3 beautiful little girls, 5-year-old Ashley and 4-year-old twins Isabel and Abigail. Like most children their ages, they love to play at the park. However 5-year-old Ashley has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. This makes playing on non-handicapped accessible playground equipment difficult or impossible for her. As a result of their desire for Ashley and other children with physical challenges to play freely with less assistance, the Gavin’s are helping to bring barrier-free playground structures to the Eden Prairie park system.
Over $100,000 has been raised to fund this project and is enough to being Phase 1. The Miller Park Barrier-Free Playground will feature accessible pathways and surface structures, and will give non-mobile children and adults the opportunity to reach all levels of the play structures.
To view a map of the playground plan, click here. To learn more about the fundraising efforts or to contribute, visit The Ashley & Friends Barrier-Free Playground website.
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If you would like help buying or selling a home in Eden Prairie or elsewhere in the Minneapolis area, contact me, Brace Helgeson, by email or at 952-974-3466.
EPHS: One of the Nation’s Best!
Eden Prarie High School is one of the best schools in the nation. We already knew this of course, but now it’s a published fact! Newsweek magazine released a list this week of the top 1500 high schools in the nation and Eden Prairie came in at 1045. Among the Minnesota schools on the list, Eden Prairie ranks at number 16. The 2008 list ranked Eden Prairie High at number 1253 nationwide.
According to Newsweek:
Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.
The Twin Cities area has many schools appearing on the list. This simply confirms what we have known all along. Minnesotans are a smart bunch!
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If you would like help buying or selling a home in Eden Prairie or elsewhere in the Minneapolis area, contact me, Brace Helgeson, by email or at 952-974-3466.
Begin your home search at BraceHelgeson.com.
1 Penny, 2 Pennies, 3 Pennies…4 Million!
The other day I was searching for some information about a local school and came across this blog post. It made me think about what a great community Eden Prairie is.
One Little Penny…One Big Difference
In a program that gives kids a chance to help other kids, students at Oak Point Intermediate School in Eden Prairie, MN, raised an incredible $42,858.24 through Pennies for Patients, one of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s School & Youth Programs.
That is over 4 million pennies!
Oak Point Intermedia School students in Eden Prairie MN and teacher Mark Wavinak, celebrate being top fundraising school for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Pennies for Patients program.
Not only is Eden Prarie a pleasant place to live, but in the midst of a deep recession, our community came together to raise this record setting amount. I am sure the students at Oak Point are thrilled with their results, but the patients who need the care these funds will provide are the biggest winners.
Overall, more than $700,000 was raised in the Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota areas for the Pennies for Patients program. I hope that many lives will be saved thanks to the wonderful people of this community and region who dug deep into their pockets.
Click here for a news video from WCCO about Oak Point’s successful fundraiser.
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If you would like help buying or selling a home in Eden Prairie or elsewhere in the Minneapolis area, contact me, Brace Helgeson, by email or at 952-974-3466.
Begin your home search at BraceHelgeson.com.
Are first-time home buyers fueling a housing market rally?
Buyers who are still waiting for the residential real estate market to hit bottom may have waited too long. The first week in May is signaling changes and while there will still be bargains to be had, they might become harder to find.
Housing sales were up for the second month and after five months of declines. At the end of March, there were 3.74 million existing homes on the market, taking an average of nearly ten months to sell. But foreclosures, short sales and bank-owned properties are suddenly selling briskly.
At the beginning of 2009, it was not uncommon to see foreclosed homes sit on the market for a year or more. Suddenly, starting at the end of April, real estate agents who specialize in foreclosed and bank-owned homes are reporting getting multiple offers after only a few days. Many of these homes need work. Some need a lot of work. Many of these buyers are investors, bringing in professional crews to fix and resell the homes in a couple of months. But, first-time buyers account for more than half of recent home purchases.
For those planning on living in their newly bought homes, low interest rates and the $8,000 tax credit/rebate for first-time buyers can help pay for needed repairs. Before clinching the deal, buyers need to have an eye for potential and an ability to look beyond bad paint jobs, ugly carpet and dirt. They also need to hire a professional inspector take a look at the house. It’s best to find hidden problems and be able to walk away before the final papers are signed than to discover that the ‘cosmetic only’ fixer-upper needs all new plumbing or major electrical work.
Handymen and women have an advantage, but whether new home buyers plan to do the work themselves or have experts do it for them, they need to factor in the costs of repairs. Real estate experts recommend that buyers come armed with a sharp pencil and knowledge what they can afford. If there are multiple offers, buyers should avoid getting caught up in a bidding war and paying more than the home is worth or more than they can afford. There are always more homes coming on the market from which to choose.
The price of foreclosed properties have also driven down the price of other non-foreclosed homes nearby and sometimes these homes are even better deals. They are usually in good shape and buyers have more bargaining power than with a foreclosure home, when every negotiation has to go through a bank.
The warmer weather and longer days are also a factor bringing out the buyers, especially in colder climates. Will this summer see an end to cheap homes prices? Maybe and maybe not. No one knows for sure, but what is certain is that right now is a good time – especially for first-time buyers – to buy a home.
If you are ready to take the leap into purchasing or selling your home, contact me, Brace Helgeson, at 952-974-3466 or by email.
Begin your home search at BraceHelgeson.com.
Awesome Women Talent Show in Eden Prairie
For all of you Awesome Women out there, The Talent Show is coming up on Thursday, May 21, from 5-8 pm. Hosted by the organization Awesome Women, Faith Ralston, Ph.D., CEO of Leaps of Faith, and Talent Expert will be teaching area women how to discover and embrace their talents and use them to enhance their personal and business lives.
Dr. Ralston will teach women how to talk about what they do in a “way that attracts others to your services.” Talent Show participants will have the opportunity to showcase their talents and will receive positive feedback on their most valuable assets. Then they will learn to take their talents and transfer them into career and work opportunities to help them “secure great projects and never run out of meaningful work.”
Great for both the self-employed and the employee, knowing one’s talents and how to use them will open the doorway to endless possibilities and greater appreciation.
This event will be held at the Diamond Center in Eden Prairie. For more information visit the Awesome Women website.
The Awesome Woman mission “is to develop, encourage and promote women leaders. The Awesome Women community provides education, connection, support and development for existing women leaders and emerging women leaders.”
Providing real estate services to awesome women and men is my talent and I would love to help you in selling your home and searching for your next home. Contact me, Brace Helgeson, today at 952-974-3466, or by email, bhelgeson@cbburnet.com. To search Eden Prairie home listings, visit BraceHelgeson.com.
Eden Prairie Company Expands World-Wide
Eden Prairie is a great place to live, work, and even to launch an international business! A great example of this is Compellent. An IT company, they are based here in Eden Prairie, but their reach is world-wide. A leading provider of enterprise-class network storage solutions, they announced on April 30 that they are growing their sales model across North America, Europe and Asia. There is a growing demand for Storage Center, the company’s enterprise network storage solution. Last week the business was formally launched in France and Italy. To date, Compellant has over 1300 customers worldwide.
Next week the company will be hosting a record number of channel partners at its annual conference, C-Drive, in Minneapolis. More than 300 international resellers and end-user customers will preview the company’s eagerly awaited next-generation SSD and disaster recovery technologies.
If you would like to find the perfect place to start your own business, give me a call, 952-974-3466.
Are You Ready for a Football Draft Party?
If you love Minnesota football, you should attend the 2009 Miller Lite Vikings Draft Party this Saturday, April 25 at the Winter Park Fieldhouse in Eden Prairie. The party will feature live NFL Draft coverage, player autograph sessions, Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders, and fan contests. The party will last until after the Vikings first round draft pick, currently at number 22 and projected to pick around 6:30 p.m.
2009 Miller Lite Vikings Draft Party
The autograph session is one of the favorite features in the annual draft party. There is a $10 charge per autograph session, with all proceeds benefiting the Vikings Children’s Fund (VCF). There will also be a free session for children ages 12 and under. The players scheduled to appear* are Jared Allen, Aundrae Allison, John David Booty, Jeff Duggan, Ray Edwards, Heath Farwell, Charles Gordon , Tyrell Johnson, Sage Rosenfels, John Sullivan, and Pat Williams.
Doors open at 1:30 pm and pre-draft coverage begins at 2 pm. General admission tickets are $15. Tickets can be purchased through the ticket office at 612.33.VIKES or at Ticketmaster.com.
Do you want to be settled in your new home before football season arrives? Contact me for expert advice on buying or selling real estate in or near Eden Prairie.
* Session times and players are subject to change without prior notice.
How Is The Market in the Minneapolis Area?
According to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, there has been only one week over the last 8 months that we have had fewer pending sales than the same time the previous year. And the week ending January 17th showed 731 pending sales, up 17 percent. However new listings remain sluggish.
Many professionals remain optimistic. Mortgage rates are low and affordability of homes in the Twin Cities has increased. Incentives are in place for first time homebuyers as well. Asking prices on foreclosures and short sales have dropped a staggering amount over the last two years as banks start to price aggressively. It still remains the perfect time to buy.
If you would like to view homes in Chanhassen or homes in Minnetonka, which are suburbs of the Twin Cities, please visit The Brace Helgeson Group.
The City of Minnetonka Has Everything a Family Could Want and Need
Minnetonka has a population of approximately 51,000 residents. It is 28 square miles which include fourteen lakes, including Lake Minnetonka. The city also has numerous retail shopping centers, including Ridgedale, a regional shopping center serving the western suburbs of the Twin Cities.
Five major highways traverse Minnetonka, making it readily accessible to all within the metropolitan area.
Minnetonka also hosts numerous community activities throughout the year. The summer festival is held in June at the civic center, and there is Silver Skates Ice Revue held in May at the Minnetonka Ice Irena.
The city is also safe by employing 51 sworn officers within the police department. There are 85 paid on-call firefighters.
If you would like to perform a free MLS search for properties in this area, please visit my website. Be sure to look at Minnetonka homes. It is a truly beautiful community.
