Last week I wrote about the oil tank locate inspection I attended. The result was inconclusive. There is no DEQ record of the permitted tank being removed but no tank was found. Alpha Environmental had a nagging feeling that a second look was in order. The tank was found on Sunday! The tank was located on the far side of the house from the furnace and oil lines, not on the near side which would be the logical location.
About a month ago I ran the same report for Multnomah county real estate active listings. This month, the report shows an increase in listings to 5,129 from 4,804. The number of listings in the market is one of the two components that make the the “Inventory” ratio reported monthly by RMLS. The Areas are the geographic areas within Multnomah county as defined by RMLS. I’ll write up February’s Market Action it is released. We’re seeing a lot more market activity in our business in the last couple of weeks but as inventory is a ratio of closed sales, that may not reflect this month.
Rumors started a couple of weeks that units in the John Ross might be coming. They are. KGW reported this morning and Ryan Frank at the Oregonian wrote yesterday that the John Ross is following in the footsteps of the Atwater Place auction and going to auction on April 11th.
The Mirabella, a senior community, looks like it has topped out to the north of the John Ross. It is obscured by the Meriwether Condo in this photo, taken from the Willamette River, but now that it is at full height, potential John Ross buyers will be able to confirm their view corridor when looking towards downtown.
Real estate auctions aren’t new but are becoming more prevalent in the Portland Real Estate Market. This will be the second high rise auction we’ve seen in the last six months and REDC and other firms have held (primarily) single family home auctions.
Stranded on an island in Miami? You may survive. Our friends at EarthTechling.com wrote about the proposed Miapolis in Miami. It would be the world’s tallest building. What does that mean in Portland terms? The 3200′ LEED Platnum building (according to the Miapolis homepage) would be roughly six times the height of the US Bancorp Tower:
“The US Bancorp Tower is the second tallest skyscraper in Portland, Oregon. It stands at 536 feet (163 m) with 42 floors. The building has nearly 1.1 million square feet (69,000 m²) of office space inside, making it the largest office building in Oregon in terms of volume, and the second tallest building in Oregon, with only the Wells Fargo Center exceeding its height.” (Wikipedia)
The highest point in Portland is rough 1000 feet above the Willamette River!
The proposed tower has 1050 condo units. According to RMLS, there are a total of 278 active condo units in the 97209 zip code which encompasses the Pearl District.
“EVACUATION SYSTEM:
It is a building-wide solution for safe evacuation of tenants and quick transporting of rescue personnel to elevated floors.
The system is an array of five collapsible cabins permanently stored on the roof in a folded position. Upon deployment, the cabins array is lowered to the ground, it then unfolds, enabling emergency responders to board the cabin.
It travels upwards until it stops opposite five elevated floors simultaneously, enabling 150 occupants to enter through specially configured exit windows. The array is then lowered to the ground and tenants exit as it refolds.”
Guess it beats taking the stairs.
This weekend, March 6th and 7th, is the Home Builders Association of Metro Portland 2010 Tour of Remodeled Homes. The HBA also sponsor’s the Street of Dreams.
Eighteen homes are featured in this year’s show and they are located all over the metro area. The $17.50 ticket (one size fits all, including children) is valid for both days (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
I posted this picture yesterday on the photo.blog but it merits a blog posting as well. The city has began the five year, $86,000 process of changing the signs from 39th Avenue Cesar E. Chavez Blvd.
The signs will coexist for five years and then the 39th signs will be removed. I have not driven the whole 7.2 mile length of the street but did not see new signs around SE Division.
For real estate, the change has been made. There are 178 active listings on 39th Ave right now and just two on Cesar E. Chavez BLVD. Property entry into RMLS starts with the tax ID number and the address is auto-populated. When I tried, it used Cesar E. Chavez BLVD. I can manually change the street (but why would I?). A Cesar E. Chavez listing is going to show that it is a new listing (or manually changed) for a time being, much like an MLS number starting with 100 was entered in 2010 and a 90 was entered in 2009. The difference being that the street can be changed without creating a new listing.
We have history to look at too. Rosa Parks BLVD was Portland BLVD. The last house sold on Portland BLVD closed on 5/8/2008. The official change was made on 12/14/2006. It isn’t a huge deal for real estate. I don’t think property values are affected by the change. When a Realtor is asked, “I saw a house on 39th,” if they can’t find it, they are going to have to search Cesar E Chavez and vice versa but that’s not tough. Old legacies die hard. Portland Brewing became Pyramid in 2006 but we still “meet at Portland Brewing.”
In PSU’s Quarterly & Urban Development Journal 2010 First Quarter report, “Housing Market Analysis,” Scott Aster publishes a graph that further emphasizes that real estate local. Three of the RMLS areas studied appreciated during the first quarter of the year. The rest were all in a state of decline. North Portland is the only area that was positive over last year overall.
It’s also important to note that different studies use different methodologies. Keeping in mind that Case Shiller reports lag three months, that report has shown the market as being fairly flat recently.
The John Ross graces the cover of this week’s Portland Business Journal. 2121 Belmont is on the cover of today’s Oregonian. Neither story tells a happy tale.
2121 Belmont was built to be sold as luxury condos at the peak of Portland’s real estate market. Nearly nonexistent sales dictated a conversion to apartments but the income from the rentals is not enough to service the debt. The bank has issued a notice of default to the owners of the 123 unit building.
The John Ross is at 74% occupancy but that still leaves 84 unsold units (some are pending). There is talk of an upcoming auction, similar to the Atwater Place auction, but that is not confirmed. The John Ross lowered prices almost immediately after the Atwater auction and brisk sales were reported but a handful of sales per month will draw the project out for a long time. Accredited Marketing Partners had accepted bids for 40 of the 41 units on offer at the Atwater in 80 minutes when they ran the auction.
There are 37 John Ross units listed for sale in RMLS. Picking one randomly:
Scott Aster writes in PSU’s Quarterly & Urban Development Journal 2010 First Quarter report, “Housing Market Analysis“, that housing units in Portland are currently selling for 91.68% of original asking price. The John Ross building falls well short of today’s market.
The Portland State University Center for Real Estate recently published their Quarterly & Urban Development Journal 2010 First Quarter report (76 page pdf).
I’ve just started scanning through then entire report but can see the Scott Aster’s “Housing Market Analysis” and Cliff Hockley’s“Condominium Financing: FHA Rule Change Controversy” deserve a closer look and discussion.
Last Friday, The Oregonian ran an article that I was interviewed for regarding street trees in Portland.
In part, Matthew Preusch writes:
Any Portlander who has ever strained at a rake in fall or tripped over an uplifted sidewalk knows about the costs associated with street trees, those growing in the grassy strips between the sidewalk and the street. But their benefits, the shade they provide and storm runoff they prevent, are harder to put a dollar value on.
Donovan, a forest economist for the U.S. Forest Service in Portland, recently published a study that did just that, estimating how much street trees can raise home prices.
The answer: $7,000.
After surveying thousands of street trees in 2007 at east Portland homes, Donovan and his co-author, David Butry of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, found that, all things being equal, the average tree increases the value of the home it’s in front of by thousands.
The sidebar story is interesting too:
Tree rebatePortlanders who plant trees on their property can get a rebate from the city of as much as $50 for native tree species.
Go to portlandonline.com/bes/treebates to download the form on the Bureau of Environmental Services Web site to get the rebate credit on your utility bill. The site also has details on what trees are eligible (yard trees only, maximum of 10 per property) and minimal tree sizes, as well as tips for how and where to plant trees.
May 1: deadline to file receipts and treebate form
Additional information: Erica Timm, the city’s treebate program manager, at 503-823-5729.
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