Do you hate crime but love living in the city? Well luckily Forbes magazine has rated the Twin Cities as the safest place to live. Minneapolis tops our list of America's safest cities, and not just for its crime rate. In ranking the cities on our list, we looked at workplace fatalities, traffic-related deaths and natural disaster risk; the City of Lakes ranked in the top 10 of all four categories. It's also one of America's best places to live cheaply and offers easy access to some of ...Read More »

The 97th FDIC-insured institution to fail this year and the 4th in Minnesota is Jennings State Bank of Spring Grove. From the FDIC press release: Jennings State Bank, Spring Grove, Minnesota, was closed today by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Central Bank, Stillwater, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Jennings State Bank. The two branches of Jennings State Bank (Spring Grove ...Read More »

The 83rd FDIC-insured institution to fail this year and the 2nd in Minnesota is Mainstreet Bank of Forest Lake. From the FDIC press release: Mainstreet Bank, Forest Lake, Minnesota, was closed today by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Central Bank, Stillwater, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Mainstreet Bank. The eight branches of Mainstreet Bank will reopen on Saturday as branches of Central Bank. Depositors of Mainstreet ...Read More »

Enthusiastic Realtor Ian Watt talks about the difference between the appraised, assessed and market values. To elaborate a little on what that crazy Canadian is saying (eh?) • Appraised value is an opinion of a property's value based on a given point in time. It is performed by a professional appraiser during the mortgage origination process. • Assessed Value is the value determined by the tax assessor for the County or city. It's used ...Read More »

Every year the best fireworks display is held over the beautiful St. Croix River in downtown Stillwater. Starting at 7pm the Dakota Valley Pops Orchestra will perform at Lowell Park while the St. Croix Valley Jazz Orchestra performs at Read More »

On Saturday June 20 at 6:00 pm, Drum Beauty will be held at the Stillwater Area High School Stadium. First held in 1956 this St. Croix Valley tradition continues to be a tremendous evening of family entertainment drawing spectators and participants from around the country. This is your opportunity to see some of the best drum and bugle corps, including 2008 DCI World Champion Phantom Regiment. Competing at Drum Beauty ’09 are: Phantom Regiment - Rockford, IL Madison Scouts - Madison, WI Cavaliers - Rosemount, IL Blue Stars - ...Read More »

A recent study shows that over 70% of homeowners who have been notified by their lender of pending foreclosure action don't take any action. This short video from Bloomberg News shows what you can do to minimize the damage done to your credit.Read More »

DayPortPlayer.newPlayer({articleID:"187360",playerInstanceID:"568D0FC3-D248-01A5-A73D-4F62AE3DD5FE",domain:"kstp.dayport.com",autoPlay:"false"}); Washington County changed the classification of nearly half of it's 50 horse boarding operations, causing an increase of 3 or 4 times last year's amount. Many stable owners have barns and livestock, but since they don't produce meat, dairy or crops they don't qualify for an agriculture tax break.Read More »

Want to lower your Minnesota property taxes? To help lower your Minnesota property tax assessed value, the American Homeowner's Association is offering this free 86-page guide. It explains how you can look for common assessment errors and lists tips on laws and the appeal procedure. View the property tax reduction book. (PDF file) See more detailed information by following the link to your County: • Dakota County appeal information • Hennepin County appeal information • Ramsey County appeal information • Washington County appeal information photo credit Read More »

Matt Birk, 11 year veteran for the Minnesota Vikings, is headed to the Baltimore Ravens. While the Vikings take 3 seconds out of their day to write this lame, canned statement: “The Minnesota Vikings thank Matt for all he did for the organization both on and off the field over the past 11 years. Matt has done a great job and we wanted him to return to the Vikings in ’09, but at this point Matt wanted a change of scenery. We wish him the best and know that he will always ...Read More »