Portland Real Estate Blog

The answer depends entirely on who you ask. Jeff Alworth started a great thread last month on Blue Oregon discussing one report that stated that the Portland real estate market is 41% over-valued, Seatle 44%, San Francisco 40% and LA 61%.

A report on CNNMoney.com today places the same locations in a different light. While still over-valued in this report, Portland and Seattle are considered “Fair Market” at 15% and 8% respectively. Santa Barbara tops the list as the most over-priced at 86%. LA is 54% over-priced and SF 51%. Eight of the top 10 are in California.

Also included in the report is that the National Association of Realtors statement that the national real estate market has changed from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. How does that compare to what we are seeing here? According to the June RMLS Market Action, inventory is up to 2.6 months from 1.5 this time last year (it was 3.2 in January). Average time on market in June was only 39 days (only 25 days in North Portland). Appriciation for the median priced home over the last 12 months was a whopping 17.6%.

I don’t view the above to be signs of trending towards a buyer’s market. Not yet at least. The apprciation is great for home owners but I don’t expect it to continue at this pace. I am not aware of any time in Portland real estate history where prices have declined. Also, according to one of the mortgage broker we use, Portland has lower mortgage rates than the national average due to competition.

One thing we are seeing less of is the single family real estate investor. Rents haven’t kept pace with property prices and the more often than not, 20% down and market rent will not cover expenses unlike a couple of years ago.

Where it all leads is anybody’s guess. I peronally think that the market will remain strong but will trend towards longer days on market and a slow down in apprciation to somewhere between eight percent and 12 percent by 2008. One major question is whether the rapid construction of condos can continue to sell at the pace they have in the past?

Every buyer has their “Wants and Needs.” The “needs” are what the house has to have to be in the running. You may need three bedrooms. The “wants” are the perfect world but not deal breakers. You want a three car garage. Today we begin a new series of “Portland Real Estate Wants.” This will be an ongoing thread of the “wants” that make finding your home tough.

We’ll use the same criteria for each search:
Portland MLS Areas 141 (North Portland), 142 (Northeast Portland), 143 (Southeast Portland) and 148 (West Portland). Price: $200,000-$750,000. Three or more bedrooms, two or more bathrooms, and Active and Bumpable listings. We’re only going to look at single family residences. Today, there are 1261 matches.

Want a three car garage? You have a choice of 81 listings total! There are no North Portland listings, only five NE Portland listings and the rest are pretty evenly spread between SE and the west side.

The house across the street from us is listed and usually vacant. The sellers visit from out-of-area once in a while but for the most part, it is empty. For the most part, people walk by and admire the house, others a more intrusive. Last week, a gentleman was filling a glass vase with flowers from the yard. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, “it’s vacant, no one lives here.” He would have been surprised had he been there when the owners returned about an hour later.

I just had a conversation with a woman who I watched pull into the driveway about two hours ago and then walk off. I asked if she had permission to use the driveway? “No, I just borrowed it.” What if a Realtor had wanted to show it to a potential buyer? What if I had needed my car, parked with permission, out of the garage she was blocking?

Besides being incredibly rude and presumptuous, both of these people were legally trespassing. A seller does not give up their property rights by putting a for sale sign up. The may not call it home, but they have a right to do what they want, when they want.

As a potential buyer looking at homes, you need to be cognizant that even just peeking through the windows could violate the law. If your Realtor suggests you drive by and look at a property, it should just be a drive-by unless you know that you are authorized to be on the property. Heaven forbid that you are peeking through the windows of what you think is vacant and someone is looking back at you, potentially armed.

When it comes to sell your home in Oregon, in most cases, you will have to provide the seller with Property Disclosures. The buyer has five days to disapprove the disclosures. If the buyer does not receive the disclosures, the buyer may back out of the transaction up until closing. One set of questions involve remodeling: Did you remodel? Did you require a permit? Was a final inspection approved?

The City of Portland Bureau of Development Services has put out the Guide to Permits and Inspections for One and Two Family Dwellings.

It is a good primer but if you have questions as to your specific situation, ask for a consult.

I met with the managing broker of another firm with about 70 agents last week. I think we do what we do best but having blinders on would be ill advised. One of the things that I can’t get over was our conversation around the firm’s goal of “double-siding” as many transactions as possible. It can be an agents dream come true but we won’t do it. By double-siding a listings, the agent gets all the commission offered in the transaction. The TurnerRealtors team firmly believes that the buyer and the seller should be represented by different Realtors.

Read the rest of this entry

As of today, there are 162 residential listings in Portland priced over $1,000,000 showing active in RMLS. There are 76 in Lake Oswego and 37 in West Linn. There are a total of 3631 active residential listings in the three cities combined. The most you can spend in the area? $5,750,000 in Dunthorpe.

The whole city should be breathing a collective sigh of relief that Joel Pryzbilla will remain a Blazer. While being a Blazer fan isn’t the easiest thing these days, there is some additional light at the end of the tunnel. If Paul Allen can hold on, maybe we can too.

The Blazers also made two new millionaires yesterday by signing their top two draft picks, Lamarcus Aldrich and Brandon Roy. At their age, we can presume that they will be first-time buyers. Whether or not they will buy is anyone’s guess at this point.

Theo Ratliff bought a home in Lake Oswego in February of 2005. Traded away to the Celtics, along with Sebastian Telfair, his home may be on the market soon. Scottie Pippen’s house, built by JC Reeves in 2001, is actively on the market for $3.5M.

Damon Staudamire also has a home in Lake Oswego. Though no longer a Blazer, he has strong ties to the area and is a long time fan favorite. As the Blazers continue to wheel and deal players through the off season, we may see the moving truck roll up to other Blazer homes and the sign go up in the yard.