Mike Donahue from KOIN News 6 was out at our NW Hoyt project yesterday to witness Earth Advantage’s physical air loss test for their a new pilot program which is supported by the Energy Trust. We never expected to be perfect. The historic single pane windows don’t help efficiency but are an important feature of the house. We’re very happy that the 102 year old Robert F. Hall House is more efficient than some new construction!
It's hard to believe that I've been writing this forum for four years now. When I started writing the blog in January of 2005, the Case Shiller Index for Portland was 135.46. It peaked in July 2007 at 186.51. With the exception of two reporting periods, the Index has dropped every month since the peak. Today's October 2008 Case Shiller reporting numbers for Portland put the index at 166.44; the same level as January 2006 (165.33); down 10.8% from the peak.
I've written 561 posts. There have been over 3500 comments. More than 240,000 pages have been viewed. A Google search for "Portland Real Estate" has, at one time or another resulted in the blog as the number one result or not at all. Today it is returned as the eighth result and the highest ranking blog for the search.
The blog has introduced us to some great clients, some fair criticism, some not so fair anonymous attacks and has taught us a thing or two along the way. We're all a year older and more experienced for it. Tomorrow concludes 2008. There were drastic changes in the market but we take the good with the bad and continue to help our clients buy and sell houses. The fundamentals remain the same but what worked in 2006 might not work in 2009 just like what worked in 1999 may have been outdated by 2002.
Happy New Years. Go Ducks & Go Beavers in their respective bowl games and as always, go Blazers.
It may not be totally obvious that this is a picture of one on the frozen downspouts from the roof line of our house (Lovejoy is now the third house I know of with water intrusion problems). It is solid from one end to the other. The tell tail sign of problems seems to be dirty icicles forming on the siding. This indicates that the water has already entered the exterior and exited. It's what is not exiting that we are worried about. At Hoyt, it came through the interior wall and ceiling. We're not seeing any sign of that here, yet.
The questions is what to do about it? It seems like the first course of action is to disconnect the downspouts at the gutter so that water is being directed away from the house. We're clearing as much snow as we can off the edge of the roof (there is no remotely safe way to access the rest of it). We're putting de-icer in the gutters as well. Whether or not it will help is questionable but it probably can't hurt.
***Updated 3:45 PM.
Here's a good link for more information on ice dams. It's worth noting that three of the four houses I know of currently suffering from the problem in Portland are pre-1910. The other is new construction. The new construction does not have the icicles on the siding- their water is draining directly into the house around the chimney (which is probably melting the snow and ice around it.
On the happier, prettier side, here's the virtual tour of the nearly completed NW Hoyt project.
I thought we were living in our own little private (cold) hell this morning: water inside at NW Hoyt running down the kitchen wall and marking the ceiling. Turns out we weren't (keep reading). The water eventually traveled to the basement as well. What's going on? We figured on three options: 1) a broken pipe 2) a frozen condensate line to the furnace 3) something to do with the frozen downspouts/rain gutters. Any of the three appeared possible. The first was eliminated when we figured that there are no pipes that high in the structure. The second was x-ed out as a possibility after figuring out that the condensate line runs from the attic furnace down an interior wall. The third option was not clear as the culprit until after I had spent two hours on a ladder with a heat gun thawing the whole mess out.
What we discovered is that the rain gutters have frozen solid creating a ridge on the roof line (like every one in Portland in all likelihood). I poured boiling water mixed with de-icer down the downspout and a frozen plug of ice was ejected. We think the ridge pushed any additional moisture towards the house where it found a point of entry through the 100+ year old siding. The problem probably never would have been revealed without a storm like this and it was hidden behind previously installed rain gutters (I tore the gutter off until the underlying issue can be fixed). We cleared all the snow and ice off the roof around it.
I came home, had a hot shower and when I went outside our neigbhor was on his upper level deck pushing snow off it. Turns out he has water inside as well. One look down the side of the house and it is clear that he is suffering from the same problem: brown icicles stemming from random points in the siding. We identified another point where there was no inside issue so hopefully that was caught in time.
It takes a storm like this to bring to light issues that we might never have seen otherwise.
I just walked over to Zupan's and back to get the ingredients for French Onion soup. In the last 24 hours I've come to the conclusion that people are much friendlier in this frigid weather. Yesterday as I trudged down 24th a guy rolled down his window and asked if I wanted a ride! I've made that walk 100s of times and I bet that was the first and only time that will happen.
The stove beckons. Keep warm.
I’m pretty sure that I have never seen 12+ continuous hours of snow in Portland in the 15 years that I have been here. It is still coming down! We’re downtown at 24th and NW Lovejoy and at 9:25PM have over 7″ of fresh snow!!! How about you?
FHA guidelines are changing in 2009. The first thing to be aware of is that FHA.com is not sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration. They don't hide the fact and it appears to have valid info on it but the real site is FHA.gov.
I'm having a hard time finding what I know is somewhere on the website: in January, the minimum 3% down payment for FHA backed loans goes up to 3.5%. Your bank or mortgage broker will have better information than I am able to provide here. It is not a huge change but is $1000 on a $200,000 loan. There is a provision for locking the 3% in for purchases that go past 12/31/08. It is important to note that FHA is not a lender, they insure mortgages:
"The Federal Housing
Administration has insured over 35 million home mortgages and 47,205
multifamily project mortgages since 1934. Currently, FHA has 4.8
million insured single-family mortgages and 13,000 insured multifamily
projects in its portfolio."
Other things of note on the website:
The program is effective from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2011.
As many as 400,000 homeowners could avoid foreclosure
through this program over the next three years. If you are having
trouble making your mortgage payments, HOPE for Homeowners may be able
to help you, by refinancing your loan into a new 30-year or 40-year
fixed-rate loan with lower payments."
Rates did take a big dip in the middle of the week but only for a few hours. We heard of loan locks for 30 year mortgages under 5%.
A few years ago, I was critical of the EcoBroker designation in this post and this one. My issue with it was that it was just another way to add to the alphabet soup after a Realtor’s name and that it is pay-to-play with no endorsement from a national body (or at least one that I recognize). While the commercial feel of the site has been toned down I’m still not sure $395 class fee and $129 annual renewal is a good use of agent’s money. NAR has just unveiled their Green designation. The $125 course is available in a live format now and will be online at the beginning of the year. I haven’t taken either course nor delved deep into either website. I do notice that the EcoBroker class is 18 hours compared to only six for NAR’s. I don’t always agree with my Association but something makes me think that unless there is a unified body endorsing classes, the classes have a lack of credibility. But now that NAR has their own class, they are benefitting of the Green train too. I’m not sure why, as the EcoBroker site states “NAR does not recognize or endorse any third party designation programs regardless of their level of quality” other than the fact that they are making money of their own programs so cannot be unbiased either.
And that leaves me with a quandary. Earth Advantage has their STAR class which I have not taken either; our team member Susan Horvat has. I know and respect the organization and it is local. If I’m okay with the STAR class is it hypocritical not to be okay with the EcoBroker class? I’ll take at least one of these classes, maybe more as I work towards my continuing education hours for my license renewal in July. Maybe I’ll try to review all of them.
There are at least three “Green” certifications out there for local Realtors (Hasson has their own certification as well). I don’t see any LEED certification directed to Realtors specifically.
We had to cancel five of our six open houses yesterday. Driving to them didn't seem like a good idea. I held NW Hoyt open though since I can walk there and had much more traffic than I would have expected; both walkers and those that had driven down to NW 23rd for some weekend shopping.
Last week I wrote about winterizing and hose bib covers- I installed 12 at the various properties that we are responsible for. What I never considered was the condensate line on the high efficiency furnace. It is the copper line sticking out of the wall next to the vent. It was cold in the house when we got up this morning. The thermostat was totally blank. Jacobs Heating had me disconnect the hose from the pump and run it into a five gallon bucket. I flipped the breaker off before doing it as I could hear something running. Flipped the breaker back on and the whole thing fired up.
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