I'm planning to relocate to Minneapolis when I retire from college teaching in 2027. I'm a widowed leftist gay man in my late 60s, and after several trips there when I visited the museums, First Avenue, Hard Times Cafe, and the Seward Co-op, I figure it's pretty much a perfect fit. I also live farther north in a nearby state, so I can deal with the cold.

I will not be well-off in retirement; in fact, I'll almost surely qualify for housing assistance. I do live cheaply, and I figure that with SS, my TIAA pension/401k, and the little I'll get from selling my house, I'll have about $40k for a down payment and a max of $1000/mo for rent or mortgage plus condo/HOA fees. It's worrisome, but it's what I have to work with—I'll be fine.

What worries me, though, is my two cats and one dog. My dog is about 55 lbs. and rangy, so on the large size of medium. (He's also about 45% pit bull by DNA but doesn't look it, and I'll deny up and down that's what he is just like the animal shelter did when I adopted him.) I'm worried that I'm not going to find any place to rent while I look to buy, and no condo when I do buy, that will accept three animals when one is a dog this size.

From your own experience and from the experience of people you know, how hard is find housing with three pets and with one being a medium/large dog going to be? I'm not concerned about pet rent or non-refundable pet fees, as irritated as those things make me; I'm worried about not finding a place to live at all. I'm considering every kind of place—small houses, townhouses, apartments, even manufactured housing (although I would think heating a trailer would be a nightmare).