The Case Shiller Index for Portland continued to decline in April of 2009. The decline was not universal across the index, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver were among a few of the cities that posted increases. Las Vegas decline from the previous month was 4 points.
Portland’s index of 146.85 returns Portland housing values to June 2005 levels. The index was reset to 100 in January of 2000.
I closed the door at our apartment for the last time at 6:20 AM this morning. CBS Films has left town and we are back in our house. The experience of living in the Pearl District in just over 1000 square feet with a wife, dog, toddler and home office proved very doable but at the same time we are glad to be home.
Things I will miss:
Things I won’t miss:
I’m sure as we settle back into our house there will be other items to add to both lists. For us, one of the biggest challenges was storage. There never seemed to be enough of it so making sure that there is space for your lifestyle is important.
The odds are that if you don’t like the view from your condo there isn’t much you can do about. For the owners of the 165 condos on The World cruise ship condo, their view often changes multiple times in a week. This morning they woke up in downtown Portland.
The units range from studios to six bedroom penthouses. The website has some sales information but pricing is not included in that. This article tells the story of a woman who has been using the QE2 as here retirement home for about $7000 a month and that units on a similar condo ship cost between $4M-$18M for full ownership.
KGW reports on The World:
What passes for steerage on The World runs $1,300 to $2,300 a night for a studio, including food and booze. Two and 3-bedroom suites run $2,500 to $4,750.
There are some good pictures of The World in Portland at PortlandBridges.com but they are copyrighted so not reproduced here. I plan to head down there today and will add some pictures later. ***Panoramic from five images added 7PM
The image below is a snapshot of the just published RMLS Market Action for May 2009. The decrease in inventory (a ratio of the active number of listing (14,493) and rate of sales) can be attributed to an increase sales activity as the number of listings has increased. Between January 2007 and May 2007, inventory dropped 27.5%. In 2008 the drop for the same time period was 28.1%. For 2009 the drop is 46.8%.
Pending sales in May were down 7.4% from May 2008. In January, pending sales were down 26.1% from January 2008; down 30.5% February 2009 from February 2008; down 15.5% March 2009 from March 2008 and April 2009 pending sales were down 10.1% from the previous year. As reported below, pending sales for 2009 lag 17.5% behind 2008. The May 2008 Market Action reported that May 2008 pending sales were 30.5% lower than May 2007.
My title statement of this post may or may not be true. We’re always looking for clients both through referrals and other sources of business but there’s a chance that you don’t want to work with me (or another memeber of the team) and vice versa.
Sunday’s Oregonian featured real estate story is all about selecting a Realtor. Having spoken against dual agency early and often in the past, the article made me smile. Especially this quote which was also the second page headline:
“Sometimes you see dual agencies that represent both sides. But that’s like a husband and wife hiring the same attorney for a divorce,” [Michele Gila, principal broker for Roots Realty said.]
I’ve also advocated clients using more of an interview process when selecting a Realtor but in many ways the initial contact and what the Realtor does or doesn’t do is self-selecting. If your Realtor is a referral there is some inherent relationship already but if not, the interview is even more important for both the client and Realtor.
Melvin Broadous, a Realtor with RE/MAX Equity Group in Beaverton:
“If you find a Realtor you think you want to work with, take them on a ‘date,’ ” he said. “Go to Starbucks or to lunch and talk about whatever. Find common ground.
“If you don’t connect with a person intellectually, emotionally, from a relationship standpoint, then working with them professionally will be difficult,” he said. “It doesn’t take longer than 15 minutes. You’ll know.”
More on referrals: our goal in a transaction isn’t to simply get it closed and move onto the next transaction. Our goal is to gain a client for the long-term that will refer us to their friends and family. That doesn’t necessarily mean getting that first transaction closed. We’ve advised, “run away” more than once! Eventually a willing and able buyer will eventually buy but it may not be this week or this year.
The poll results above ran in 2007 as a part of this post.
Prudential Northwest Properties’ Market Tracker and Property Investment Profile (PIP) are now out of for May. Market Tracker is zip code specific. You can view the reports online on our PDXBuyers.com website. The PIP is property address specific and is emailed to your InBox automaticly each month. We can also set up Market Tracker to email the reports for up to 15 zip codes covered by RMLS.
Use this form (popup) and we’ll set them up for you. We don’t share your information with anyone.
Here’s some more information on using the first time buyer credit at closing:
Under the guidance, FHA-approved lenders can develop bridge loans that home buyers can use to help cover their closing costs, buy down their interest rate, or put down more than the minimum 3.5 percent.
The loans can’t be used to cover the minimum 3.5 percent, senior HUD officials told reporters on a conference call Friday morning.
Thus, buyers applying for FHA-backed financing with an FHA-approved lender that offers a bridge-loan program can get a bridge loan to bring down the upfront costs of buying a home significantly but would still have to come up with the minimum 3.5 percent down payment.
As mentioned yesterday, rates have climbed in the last couple of weeks. Bankrate.com is quoting 5.35% on a 30 year fixed mortgage.
The graphic above is a snapshot of an interactive graphic in this article at MSNBC.
The article begins:
If you want to be in the right place when the recovery starts, that place may be in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas or Washington.
The recession didn’t start at the same time in every state, and it won’t end at the same time either. A new forecast from Moody’s Economy.com predicts that jobs growth will return first in those five states, starting in the last quarter of this year. Four of those states benefit from strong high-tech industries, and the fifth, Texas, has a strong base of energy industries.
It’s just one positive article in a sea of bad ones of late for Oregon and the general “Economy in Crisis” but perhaps a sign that things will start to improve sooner rather than later. Interest rates have creeped up (along with gas prices) lately. Portland has a lot of things going for it which is why we choose to live here (a few recent highlights):
And to acknowledge that it is not all rosey:
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