Past my bedtime so a little cut and paste [this assumes that President Obama signs the bill]:

From:        NAR Government Affairs

RE:          Tax Credit Closing Date Extension/Flood Insurance Extension

DATE:        30 June 2010

After a close brush with the deadline, Congress has passed an extension of the Homebuyer Tax Credit closing deadline,   the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act (H.R. 5623) . The extension applies only to transactions that have ratified contracts in place as of April 30, 2010 that have not yet closed.  The legislation is designed to create a seamless extension the new closing deadline for eligible transactions is now September 30, 2010.  There will be no gap between June 30 and the date the President signs the bill into law. (more…)

Case Shiller for April 2010 came out this morning and Portland saw a bump up from March.  The current report puts Portland real estate prices at 146.25.  That’s up 46.25 points from when the index was reset to 100 in January of 2000 but down 40.26 from the July 2007 peak.  It also stops a two month slide.  The index is at May/June 2005 levels. (more…)

There’s a little over a month until the 2010 Street of Dreams kicks off at Northwest Portland’s Cresap Summit. Three houses are under construction. One of those has a sold sign in the window and the other two, plus an additional lot, are listed for sale in RMLS. (more…)

This weekend’s humor is brought to us by Chafin on Youtube. One side of “the real estate bloodbath,” as it was described to me, was that many Realtors were forced out of the business. We can only hope that the parodied Realtor here was one of them. Enjoy. (more…)

The 2010 Portland Street of Dreams is just over a month away and it’s time to ramp up the posts as they head to the finish line.  The show runs July 31 to August 29. At 6:30 on a Saturday morning, there isn’t much sign of life anywhere in Portland.  I took some pictures and video and then set up my passenger-cam by wedging the camera between the seat-back and head rest.  What we have here is the 15 minute commute to Pioneer Courthouse Square distilled down to 3:29.  There was no traffic but I think I missed every light. (more…)

Listing videos are becoming an increasing popular way for buyers to look at homes online. We’ve been doing virtual tour and floor plans for years so this is just one more way to make sure our listings are getting seen as many ways as possible. [Updated 6/28/10 with version that will display on iPhone/iPad]. (more…)

Real estate is full of acronyms.  One of this blog’s most viewed posts is “What Does Bumpable Mean?” and I wrote that back in 2006.  Today we’ll review the associations, what RMLS statuses mean and the alphabet soup of Realtor designations: (more…)

The National Association of Realtors has published it’s 2010 first quarter report on the Portland real estate market.  The report, like Case Shiller, uses the seven county Portland MSA.

The report does an excellent job of comparing the Portland market to the national market and has some good foreclosure statistics.  The three year equity positions for Portland and the U.S. are pretty close but there is a fairly large disparity in the seven year position.  Portland’s recent depreciation lags behind the national market. (more…)

Real estate is serious business.  It’s the largest financial transaction that many people will make in their lives.  That said, there’s a light side too.  I’ve created a “real estate humor” category and will try to make it a regular Sunday feature.  Today we have “How to Buy a Bank Owned Property” from some robots on Youtube by sandiegocastles.  Happy Father’s Day and enjoy. (more…)

I’m not feeling overly creative this morning but this is worth a good laugh.  The story comes around once in awhile in via email so its origin is unknown.  Either its really creative fiction nonfiction at its best: (more…)