Minneapolis Real Estate Search & Minneapolis Homes For Sale

Minneapolis, nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States. Its name is attributed to the city's first schoolteacher, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city. A person from Minneapolis is a Minneapolitan.

Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the "Twin Cities," Minneapolis-St. Paul is the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with 3.5 million residents. The Metropolitan Council estimated the city's population in 2009 as 386,691.

The city is abundantly rich in water with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi river, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. It was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle. Named America's most literate city, it has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music. The community's diverse population has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs, as well as private and corporate philanthropy.

Minneapolis Economy
The economy of Minneapolis today is based in commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, health care, and industry. Smaller components are in publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, education, and high technology. Industry produces metal and automotive products, chemical and agricultural products, electronics, computers, precision medical instruments and devices, plastics, and machinery.

Five Fortune 500 headquarters are in Minneapolis proper: Target Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Fortune 1000 companies in Minneapolis include PepsiAmericas, Valspar, Graco, and Donaldson Company. Apart from government, the city's largest employers are Target, Wells Fargo, Ameriprise, Star Tribune, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, IBM, Piper Jaffray, RBC Dain Rauscher, ING Group, and Qwest.

Foreign companies with U.S. offices in Minneapolis include Coloplast, RBC and ING Group.

Availability of Wi-Fi, transportation solutions, medical trials, university research and development expenditures, advanced degrees held by the work force, and energy conservation are so far above the national average that in 2005, Popular Science named Minneapolis the "Top Tech City" in the U.S. The Twin Cities ranked the country's second best city in a 2006 Kiplinger's poll of Smart Places to Live and Minneapolis was one of the Seven Cool Cities for young professionals.

The Twin Cities contribute 63.8% of the gross state product of Minnesota. The area's $145.8 billion gross metropolitan product and its per capita personal income rank fourteenth in the U.S. Recovering from the nation's recession in 2000, personal income grew 3.8% in 2005, though it was behind the national average of 5%. The city returned to peak employment during the fourth quarter of that year.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, with one branch in Helena, Montana, serves Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. The smallest of the twelve regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, it operates a nationwide payments system, oversees member banks and bank holding companies, and serves as a banker for the U.S. Treasury. The Minneapolis Grain Exchange founded in 1881 is still located near the riverfront and is the only exchange for hard red spring wheat futures and options.

Minneapolis Education
Minneapolis Public Schools enroll 36,370 students in public primary and secondary schools. The district administers about one hundred public schools including forty-five elementary schools, seven middle schools, seven high schools, eight special education schools, eight alternative schools, nineteen contract alternative schools, and five charter schools. With authority granted by the state legislature, the school board makes policy, selects the superintendent, and oversees the district's budget, curriculum, personnel, and facilities. Students speak ninety different languages at home and most school communications are printed in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. About 44% of students in the Minneapolis Public School system graduate, which ranks the city the 6th worst out of the nation's 50 largest cities. Besides public schools, the city is home to more than twenty private schools and academies and about twenty additional charter schools.

Minneapolis' collegiate scene is dominated by the main campus of the University of Minnesota where more than 50,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attend twenty colleges, schools, and institutes. The graduate school programs ranked highest in 2007 were counseling and personnel services, chemical engineering, psychology, macroeconomics, applied mathematics and non-profit management. A Big Ten school and home of the Golden Gophers, the U of M is the sixth largest campus in the U.S. in terms of enrollment.

Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the private Dunwoody College of Technology, Globe University/Minnesota School of Business, and Art Institutes International Minnesota provide career training. Augsburg College, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and North Central University are private four-year colleges. Capella University, Minnesota School of Professional Psychology, and Walden University are headquartered in Minneapolis and some others including the public four-year Metropolitan State University and the private four-year University of St. Thomas have campuses there.

The Hennepin County Library system began to operate the city's public libraries in 2008. The Minneapolis Public Library, founded by T. B. Walker in 1885, faced a severe budget shortfall for 2007, and was forced to close three of its neighborhood libraries. The new downtown Central Library designed by César Pelli opened in 2006. Ten special collections hold over 25,000 books and resources for researchers, including the Minneapolis Collection and the Minneapolis Photo Collection. At recent count 1,696,453 items in the system are used annually and the library answers over 500,000 research and fact-finding questions each year.

In 2007, Minneapolis was named America's most literate city. The study, conducted by Live Science, surveyed 69 U.S. cities with a population over 250,000. They focused on six key factors: Number of book stores, newspaper circulation, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources. In second place was Seattle, Washington and third was Minneapolis' neighbor, St. Paul, followed by Denver, Colorado and Washington, D.C.

Minneapolis MN Area Information

Minneapolis MN Community Characteristics and Facts

Total Crime Risk: 324.0 (100 = National Average)
Population: 375,471
Population Growth Since 2000: -1.87%
Annual Max Avg. Temperature: 54 F
Annual Min Avg. Temperature: 35 F
Male Median Age: 30.8 years
Female Median Age: 31.8 years
Median Household Income: $48,710
Highest Education Level Attained: High School 20.89%, Bachelors 26.27%, Grad School 14.3%

Community Demographics

Minneapolis MN Demographics Summary

Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Demographic Information FAQ

Minneapolis MN Crime Rate Indexes

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2010 Population Growth and Population Statistics	Minneapolis, MN		Minnesota
Total Population	375,471		5,285,754
Square Miles	54.89		79,610.08
Population Density	6,840.10		66.40
Population Change Since 1990	1.88%		20.79%
Population Change Since 2000	-1.87%		7.45%
Forecasted Population Change by 2014	1.86%		3.64%
Population Male	190,936	50.85%	2,639,949	49.94%
Population Female	184,535	49.15%	2,645,805	50.06%
Median Age	31.30		35.20

Minneapolis MN Population Growth and Population Statistics

Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Demographic Information FAQ

2010 Weather Summary	Minneapolis, MN	Minnesota
Weather Index	22	10
Annual Maximum Avg. Temperature	54.0 °F	50.0 °F
Annual Minimum Avg. Temperature	35.0 °F	29.0 °F
Annual Avg. Temperature	44.9 °F	39.6 °F
Annual Heating Degree Days (Tot Degrees < 65)	7,981	9,544
Annual Cooling Degree Days (Tot Degrees > 65)	682	336
Percent of Possible Sunshine	58	57
Mean Sky Cover (Sunrise to Sunset - Out of 10)	6	7
Mean Number of Days Clear (Out of 365 Days)	96	83
Mean Number of Days Rain (Out of 365 Days)	115	125
Mean Number of Days Snow (Out of 365 Days)	15	18
Avg. Annual Precipitation (Total Inches)	28.00"	27.00"
Avg. Annual Snowfall (Total Inches)	50.00"	60.00"