Upscale rental homes catch on in Twin Cities metro area

Sherrie and Sandy Wilson moved to the Twin Cities from outside Chicago last year to be closer to family in Cottage Grove. They weren’t ready to buy in the hypercompetitive real estate market but wanted their own four walls.

“We totally downsized,” said Sherrie Wilson, who’s in her early 60s. “Everyone was overpaying for everything. … I didn’t want to play that game.”

The Wilsons sold their larger, single-family home and leased a 1,500-square-foot house in Canvas at Woodbury, a new, upscale neighborhood of single-family rental homes with a “modern farmhouse” flair. They’re part of a new wave of suburban development in the metro and a larger national trend of high-end, lease-only communities with rent payments of up to $4,500 — and a list of luxurious amenities.

“This place fit our needs,” Sherrie Wilson said, adding that the pair have a dog and needed a yard. “Number one, we’re not in an apartment.”

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