Minneapolis city is located on the western side of the Mississippi river within the state of Minnesota. The city is one of the many cities through which the great river road passes. The city was founded in around 1867 by a small group of immigrants from different parts of Europe, mainly Germany and the Great Britain. Currently the city has a population of about 380, 500 people, while its metropolitan has a total population of about 3,269,800 people. This indicates that the city is one of the highly populated in the eastern end of the Minnesota state. The city’s economy is heavily reliant on commerce, based mainly finance and banking, rail and trucking services, industry and healthcare. There are, however, smaller industries within the city such as milling, packaging, fishing, arts, insurance, technology and education. There are several factories within the city which deal with manufacturing and assembly of electronics, computers, medical instruments, plastics as well as heavy machinery.
This indicates that the city has a well established economy, which mainly determine the value and price of housing facilities. In particular, the prices for the housing are determined by several factors including the exact location, distance from the city center prestige, the size of the housing as well as the sizes of the plots. In Minneapolis city, the real estate price for a 3-bedroom, 2 baths house facility averages at 340,000 dollars according to the 2011 statistics.
Guttenberg city, Iowa, is one of the cities along the western banks of Mississippi river in the Clayton county. It was founded in 1851 by European immigrants, mainly of the German origin. The population as at 2009 was about 2,100 people, about 870 households and over 540 families. The housing sector is characterized with well developed units, with relatively affordable housing units for single families. According to most mortgage companies, the price of a three bedroom, two bath condo has an average s of between 150,000 to 170,000 dollars for purchase, while rent depend on the location and neighborhood of the facility.
Clarksville city, Missouri, is located on the eastern end of Pike County, and on the western shores of the Mississippi river, and along the Missouri highway. The highway is a part of the Great river road, which affects the economic and social wellbeing of most cities along the river. The city’s economy is heavily depended on commerce and small industries such as arts, glassware, jewelry, antique, transportation, logistics, future, fishing, surfing and tourism. Its total population as at 2009 was 490 persons, meaning that it is one of the lowest populated people in the region (Gelman, Park, & Shor, 2009). About 225 households and 134 families reside in Clarksville city. The current rate of owning a 3bederoom, two bath houses greatly depends on the size of the house, the location and the prestige of the neighborhood. On average, the price is between 40,000 to 115,000 dollars, while rented or leased hosing is also available at some varying prices (Gelman, Park, & Shor, 2009).
The city of West Memphis is the largest metropolitan in the Crittenden county of Arkansas state. It is located on the western bank of the Mississippi river, and directly on the opposite end on the Memphis city, Tennessee (Florida, Mellander, & Rentfrow, 2009). The city was founded as a small village towards the end of the 16th century by Spanish immigrants, but developed as a town in the 19th century by the British and French settlers, from whom the majority of the current white resident’s descent, but black or people of the African descent make up more than half of the total population (Florida, Mellander, & Rentfrow, 2009). The population of the city in 2010 was over 28,400 persons. The city is one of the areas with the highest rates of owning a home. There are several households within this city and its suburbs, and the prices depend on the locality. The average price for owning a 3 bedroom 2 bath house unit is about 300 to 1100 thousand dollars per unit. However, these prices are expected to keep rising with time, as the city continues to gain popularity (Albouy, 2009).
In all these cities along the western side of the Mississippi river in the United States of America, the law of supply and demand applies in all economic sectors. The housing sector is one of the most affected, especially at this time when the global economic recession is just receding (Sperling, Sander, & Sander, 2007). Prices have been fluctuating for a long time, although the range to which these prices fall is somewhat stagnant. The fluctuation in price, as well as the total price of each housing facility, however, largely depends on the city and the region (Florida, Mellander, & Rentfrow, 2009). Most of the cities in this side of the river are located in Missouri, Arkansas and Minnesota. The economies of these cities largely depend on commerce and industry. The finance, tourism, commerce, tourism, logistics, leisure and arts are the main industries which support the economies of the cities (Albouy, 2009).
The demographical factors determine the actual supply and demand for housing in these cities. For example, a city with less population, and in which there are few influx of persons from other areas, will have low demand for housing units, while the existing ones will remain almost enough for the population. There is stability of population, and thus the prices will remain constant over a long period of time (Florida, Mellander, & Rentfrow, 2009). This has been the case with Clarksville city of Iowa, where the population is quite less, and there are low opportunities which attract persons into the city (Sperling, Sander, & Sander, 2007). In a situation where the population dynamism is significantly high, the prices for houses will be fluctuating depending on the rate of population change. For instance, where the population is increasing significantly with time, the demand for houses will be higher than the rate of building new units (supply), which means that the prices will increase with the increasing demand (Florida, Mellander, & Rentfrow, 2009) . This has been the case with West Memphis city. Other factors which determine the demand and supply and in turn the prices for the houses in these regions include geographical locations, crime rate and security, education and health facilities present in the city and its neighborhood, risks of natural disasters and presence of leisure facilities.
References
Albouy, D. (2009). What Are Cities Worth? Land Rents, Local Productivity, and the Capitalization of Amenity Values. NBER Working Paper No. 14981.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., & Rentfrow, P. J., (2009). Happy States of America: A state-level analysis of psychological, economic, and social well-being. Martin Prosperity Research working paper series, 003. University of Toronto. Retrieved from http://research.martinprosperity.org.
Gelman, A., Park, D.,& Shor, B. (2009). Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do. Princeton University Press.
Sperling, B., Sander, P., & Sander, P. J. (2007). Cities ranked & rated: more than 400 metropolitan areas evaluated in the U.S. & Canada. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
