Portland Real Estate Blog

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the South Waterfront’s Elizabeth Caruthers Park is THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 19th, from 5:30-8:30.  It’s an important step forward for an area that has struggled to bring services to its condo tower residents.  The Meriwether Condominiums opened in 2006.  Residents at the time knew it was going to take a number of years to grow from construction site to neighborhood but a struggling real estate market slowed or stopped some of the commercial development and services from moving in.  Now that occupancy rates are growing we’ll hopefully see renewed investment and interest in the area.

The park is named for Elizabeth Caruthers, a pioneer woman who was one of the early settlers in the southern part of the young city. In 1847, Elizabeth Caruthers and her son, Finice, came to Oregon from the east, and through the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, claimed the 640-acre section of land on which the park is located. SW and SE Caruthers Streets and Caruthers Creek in Marquam Gulch also reflect the family’s prominence in the early history of Portland.

[photo and quote from PortlandOnline]

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) home loans make up 30% of all home loans; up from 3% in 2006.  Whereas a “normal” loan requires 20% down, a home can be bought with an FHA loan for as little as 3.5% down.  Defaults are up too which means they need to tighten lending requirements and fees.  As a side note it is worth mentioning that for a buyer to buy an condo with an FHA loan, the building must have FHA approval.  Owners/Home Owners Associations of condos in non-FHA approved buildings are urged to investigate what it takes to become FHA approved.

Most of the changes will raise the cost of the loan and/or the out of pocket expense at closing.  Some can be wrapped into the loan, others must be paid:

1. Lowering the amount of closing costs a seller can pay.  Currently 6% of the sales price, that might drop to 3%.
2. An increase in mortgage insurance rates.  Mortgage insurance is a feature of most loans where the loan-to-value is lower than 20%.
3. Credit score minimums.  There have previously been no stated minimums by FHA, the banks themselves made the determination.  500 would be the new minimum (the gold standard is now 740 where it was once 720).  The lower the score the harder it is to qualify for lower down payments.  There would also be more emphasis on debt-to-income ratios and factors as well.  Banks have scrutinized FHA loans less than their own as losses are guaranteed by FHA.

At the same time, FHA is also working with existing homeowners with FHA loans and negative equity to refinance.  It is better for FHA to refinance than to take the home back on default.  The Short Refinance program will start accepting application on September 7th.

Here’s a discount coupon for this year’s Street of Dreams.  It’s valid for tickets on site, not online.

We held our client appreciation event at the 2010 Portland Street of Dreams yesterday and had a chance to walk through the three on site single family homes and two of the detached condominiums in neighboring Macleay Overlook.  The show pass is good for the main site and three other locations where the $1.7M home is located (near the parking lot at the intersection of NW Skyline and NW Cornell Rd.), the IdeaBox which was supposed to be on-site but rumored to be unable to make it up the hill and the Indigo Condominiums in the Pearl District.

Hearth and Home’s “Transitions” is a modern day split level.  It will be a great home for a specific buyer and I wouldn’t be in that buyer pool.  The general consensus yesterday was you are either going to love it or leave it.  The spaces are very separated and my feeling was that the master bedroom was too small for an asking price of $849,000.  It has the best territorial views of the homes in Cresap Summit. Note: I get to eat my words as it is sale pending according to RMLS.

Renaissance Homes’ “The Graduate” is the most livable and mainstream of the homes.  It is LEED gold certified and the floor plan is repeatable on other building sites.  It doesn’t surprise me that it is presold.  The home has a blend of “show trim” and what the buyer has specified.  The lot is surrounded by other lots so it has a much more manicured yard than the other houses that are able to use the natural beauty of the site.

Hearth and Home’s “Refinement” had the best coolness factor for me.  It’s a modern home, a far cry from our 1902 historic home.  It is listed for $869,000.  The a builder also has a proposed home next door listed in RMLS for $869,000.

Eight of 16 detached condominiums are completed in Macleay Overlook.  The two we walked though have open lofted master suites to the living area but the builder said that is easy to enclose.

Click to for larger image

Did you get your Market Tracker report on Sunday?  Market Tracker is emailed automatically from our system for any of the RMLS area zip codes on the first Sunday night of the month.  We can set you up for up to ten zip codes.  Use the “additional comments” portion of the form to let us know which ones you would like included in the report.

The other report that we offer is the Property Investment Profile.  The report is more property specific than the Market Tracker report.  It uses a small radius around a specific property and tracks active and sold listings in the neighborhood and has listing details.  In larger condo complexes we can report on a specific building.  Request this report using the same form.  Click here for a  Property Investment Profile for the Henry Condominiums.

We never share your contact information or email address with any third parties.  You can read our privacy policy on the TurnerRealtors.com website.

The 2010 Portland Street of Dreams kicks off tonight with the Midsummer’s Night Dream charity event. I decided that on the day of opening night my presences wasn’t going to help the cause taking pictures of the last minute touches. Instead, I thought we’d look back at some of the pictures I’ve taken since January.  I’ve made about 15 trips up to NW Cresap Lane since I started this series.  This link is to all the  2010 Street of Dreams posts I have written over the last eight months.

I’d encourage you to head up to the site see how it turned out.  The flavor of the show has changed to reflect the times.  There’s only one home priced over $1,ooo,ooo.  There’s a detached condominium and an Idea Box prefab home.  The main parking for the show is at the corner of NW Skyline and NW Cornell Rd.  Tickets are $14 online and $15 at the door.  There is a $3 discount if you have the appropriate discount code.  Tickets are $1 during non-peak hours and they are open 11AM – 9PM.  We’re going on Tuesday so will report back after that.

Panoramic View of 2010 Portland Street of Dreams Site in January

Under Construction in May

May 2010 Constuction Progress

Renaissance Homes' "The Graduate" July 9th

"The Graduate" March 31st

J.D. Power and Associates announced today that the Prudential Real Estate Network ranked “Highest Overall Satisfaction for Home Sellers among National Full Service Real Estate Firms” in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Home Buyer/Seller Study. This marks the second time in three years that Prudential ranked highest in seller satisfaction!

The Portland real estate market ranks sixth of the 20 cities tracked by Case Case  Shiller report that came out this morning for May.  It may be surprising to many but the 147.98 (up from 146.25 in April) lags behind only five cities since 2000 when the Index was set to 100 across all 20 cities.  A dollar invested in the Washington DC real estate market would be worth $1.82 or $.69 in Detroit according to the Index compared to Portland’s $1.47.  The current Portland index is close to June 2005 and May 2009 pricing.

The graph shows the last four years compared to the 20 City Composite Index.  The Composite was 40 points ahead of  Portland at one time but almost matches Portland now, actually lagging by a point-and-a-half.

Case Shiller reports “Portland” as the seven county MSA.  The report, released on the last Tuesday of every month lags 60 days.  It’s not possible to drill into the data like we can RMLS data to see how the City of Portland is fairing.

From RMLS

Short sales, foreclosures and bank owned properties may be the buzz words of today’s real estate market but an RMLS blog post shows us that short sales and bank owned properties make up less than 20% of the properties listed for sale.

In Portland, there are 5604 active residential listings.  Three hundred fifty three  of those active listings are bank owned (6.3%) and  676 are short sales (12.0%).  That pretty much mirrors the listings in RMLS: “The number of active short sales in comparison to the total number of active listings is approximately 11.7%, while the number of active bank owned properties in comparison to the total number of active listings is about 5.4%.”

The “short sale” field was added to RMLS about a year ago so it is not possible to get an accurate comparison between now and a previous time period.

Cresap Summit, the 2010 Portland Street of Dreams site, is such a busy place right now that I had to park in Macleay Overlook and walk down the path to NW Cresap Lane.  Macleay Overlook is home to the detached condo that is a part of the show.

Spade and Archer Design Agency are putting the final staging touches in Renaissance Homes’ “The Graduate”.  The decorating is a mix of staging and the new owner’s personal requests; the portraits are not of the new owners!  The media room equipment is also being installed.  The landscapers have their work cut out as most of the plantings are still in pots but with number of people on the it should be a less daunting task.

Just a week remains until the grand opening event, A Midsummer’s Night Dream. One neat feature of the charity event is that it benefits multiple charities and you can choose which one your proceeds go to.