Ramsey County Listings Hit 1,229 While Saint Paul's 3% Rent Cap Stands

Saint Paul's 3% Rent Cap: Find Out if Your Building Is Covered

Saint Paul limits rent increases on residential rental property to 3% in any 12-month period, unless its ordinance allows more. One exemption covers newly built rental properties whose first building certificate of occupancy was issued after December 31, 2004.

If the cap covers your building, raising rent past 3% runs through the city: self-certification for increases between 3% and 8%, evaluated annually, or a staff determination with justification above 8%. After a just cause vacancy you show the department, the ordinance allows up to 8% plus the Consumer Price Index.

You can't look up your building's certificate of occupancy date yourself. The city's Department of Safety and Inspections keeps those records, so if you think the new-construction exemption fits your building, ask the department for the record, and you can get back a letter with the date of occupancy.

On August 5, 2026, the Saint Paul City Council asked for proposals, due September 9, 2026, for a study of how its rent stabilization ordinance is carried out and enforced, including the recent changes that established an exemption. A study isn't an amendment. The rule in force today is the one the council last amended on May 7, 2025.

First decision: hold or sell. The question is whether the rent the rules allow still covers what the building costs you to keep.

582 Ramsey County Listings Cut Their Price in September. Price Before You List

Ramsey County had 1,229 active home listings in September 2026, up from 938 in September 2025, and that's the most for any month since October 2016 in Realtor.com figures published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Only August through October 2016, the series' first year, ran higher.

Price cuts rose too. 582 listings had their price reduced during September 2026, against 424 a year earlier, though the Septembers of 2016 through 2018 each had more. Pending listings fell to 402 from 552 a year earlier. That's the lowest September count in a series that starts in 2016.

These are county-wide counts, and the active one covers single-family and condo or townhome listings, so they don't say who's selling or whether a home like yours is among them.

Our view: a price cut is the market answering an asking price buyers passed over, and a listing that draws no interest is priced high next to the homes buyers chose instead. We also think buyers walk when the price doesn't match the condition they see in person, so price a rental for the shape it's in today. And the best value among comparable homes, in our view, draws buyers first.

Second decision: your list price. Set it against the Ramsey County homes buyers are choosing now, before your first showing.

Selling With a Tenant in the Unit: Listing, Cash Offer or Premium Offer

Minnesota law sets the terms. To enter a tenant's unit to show it to a prospective buyer, a landlord, or an agent acting for one, has to make a good-faith effort to give the tenant at least 24 hours' notice, naming a time or a window. Entry is allowed only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. unless you and the tenant agree to another time.

A tenant can allow shorter notice. You can't make giving up notice a condition of the lease. Break the rule and the tenant can claim up to a $500 civil penalty for each violation, plus reasonable attorney fees. The rule doesn't cover manufactured home parks.

Third decision: the route. Cash Flow Deals gives you two offers to choose between. With a tenant in the unit, the win is certainty: a closing date you help pick, so every notice you give runs on one known calendar.

Cash Flow Deals terms, in order:

1. Cash offer: our as-is number. We buy the house and close. No listing. One walk-through by our team, then the number goes in writing. If a tenant lives there, the walk-through is us seeing the unit as a prospective buyer, so give the tenant the same 24-hour notice.

2. Premium offer: a higher number. A real FHA or conventional homebuyer pays it, through novation. You sign with us at a number you agree to and let us bring in a buyer to take our place. The home may be listed during the 15 business days of inspection. A licensed agent brings each buyer. Showings are scheduled with you ahead of time and take 10 to 15 minutes, each with Minnesota's 24-hour notice if a tenant lives there. In our view, that exposure to buyers whose lenders fund the purchase is where the higher number comes from. The buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Title moves once, from you to the buyer, and the buyer's lender funds it. Our pay shows as a separate line item on the closing statement.

3. If that buyer's financing falls through, you can still take the Cash offer.

4. Inspection period: 15 business days. Same on both offers.

5. Closing: 45 days or less. You help pick the date.

6. Fees: no listing commission to Cash Flow Deals on either offer.

7. Your number: you get the amount you agree to, and we'll handle any costs on top of that. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens.

8. Nothing is binding until both sides sign a written contract, and you can take it to an attorney first.

In our view, a listing trades time for price. If a listing still nets you more once its days on the market are counted, list it. Get both offers in writing first. Then you're comparing real numbers.