Archive for the ‘Portland Street of Dreams’ Category:

Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time.  I’d been thinking that it was about time to head out to the 2012 Portland Street of Dreams site in West Linn and happened to be somewhat nearby so decided to see how things are progressing.  Little did I know there was a free lunch involved, thank you NW Natural.  Turns out it was Realtor preview day and I had perfect timing.

The Vineyard is just off Salamo Rd. near the 10th Street exit from 205.  It’s a J.T. Smith development with seven homes being built for the show that runs July 30th to August 24th.  Home sizes range from 4000SQFT to 4700SQFT and are priced between $900,000 to $1.1M.  Six are available and one is presold.

Today’s event was a great opportunity to walk though the homes as they are being built.

And then there were two.  Only two of the five homes for sale in this year’s Portland Street of Dreams in Tigard, off Bull Mountain road remain on the market.  Pahlisch Homes house is listed for $850,000 and Dreambuilder Custom Home’s is listed for $338,810.

This year’s Street of Dreams has enjoyed an increase in popularity- so much so that they have extended the show an additional week.  You can visit the site through 9PM on Labor Day (ticket sales end at 8PM). (more…)

I attended Realtor Day at the Street of Dreams on Tuesday.  Before we get to the houses on The Street, it should be noted that the parking at SW 144th and Bull Mountain Rd. is pretty rough terrain and very dusty.  I was glad I was driving the SUV and not the low-to-the-ground sedan.  Buses run every few minutes to the homes on SW 155th Terrace.  I did notice one enterprising homeowner charging $5 for parking a couple of blocks from 155th.  Parking is free in the official lot.

The homes are an impressive example of making more from less. Though gone are the days multi-million dollar homes there are always new ideas and features we haven’t seen before.  The airbrushed cabinetry in Brentwood Homes’ “Con Amore” are very striking.  I’m not sure that I’d want to live with them and would be in constant fear of damaging them but I like the way the theme was carried out throughout the house and not just in the kitchen.

I liked the way that Pahlisch Homes put an oversized door on the third door of the garage without it looking out of place.  I wasn’t so wild about the unenclosed urinal at the back of it.  “Howdy neighbor.”  The floor plan shows that it would take a fourth car tandem in that bay.  The outdoor kitchen and living area is very pretty. (more…)

The 2011 edition of the Portland Street of Dreams is underway.  The show runs through August 26th and you can use this coupon Monday-Friday.  It is a paper coupon and not valid for online sales.

We’re heading up to the show today so will have more pictures and impressions online soon.  Each of the five homes in the show feature and ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit).  The show is at Brentwood Estates on Bull Mountain and parking is at SW 144th and Bull Mountain Rd, about 11 blocks. (more…)

I was driving along NW Skyline this afternoon and from there you can see a new home going in at the bottom of the cul de sac on NW Cresap Lane, the site of the 2010 Street of Dreams.  There are still numerous empty lots on the street.

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I was somewhere near the neighborhood so decided to take a walk around the 2011 Portland Street of Dreams site on SW 155th Terrace off of Bull Mountain Rd.  With only a couple of weeks until show time there is a lot of activity.  The street has 16 lots.  There are two houses that are completed and have signs outside saying that they are occupied.  Then there are the five show homes, one of which has a SOLD sign on it.  The other four homes are listed for sale.

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Last year we ran a whole series of posts for the 2010 Street of Dreams on NW Cresap Lane.  This year’s show is on Bull Mountain so regular construction updates made less sense at $4 gallon.  The 2011 Portland Street of Dreams runs August 6th – 28th and is located at SW 155th Terrace.  Parking will be at SW Bull Mountain Rd. at SW 144th.

Last year’s show marked a partial return to the traditional Street of Dreams format of detached homes on a single street.  The 2009 show was held in mostly penthouse condominiums in the Pearl District.  I say partial as there were only three homes on Cresap Lane itself as there was a more conservative build-it-once-they-come rather than build-it-and-they-will-come which more often than not resulted in builders holding an inventory of unsold homes at the end of the show.  The are no active listings on the street now.  A number of the detached condominiums on the back side of NW Cresap Lane went bank owned after the show and are currently listed.  I wrote at the time that the only truly dreamy home was the off site Forest Edge home that was listed for $1.7M.

This years show features five homes.  One each by Arbor Custom Homes, Brentwood Homes, Pahlisch Homes, Steel Creek Homes, and Dreambuilder Custom Homes.  Four of them are listed in RMLS and are all priced under $1,000,000.

The Palisch home is described on their website and Dreambuilder has a lot of pictures of the construction of their home, the “Koderra,” on their website as does the main Portland Street of Dreams site run by the HBA.

A feature that all the homes have this year: ADUs.  The Street of Dreams website describes the ADU: (more…)

I drove by NW Cresap Lane, home of the 2010 Portland Street of Dreams, this afternoon so decided to take a turn up the street.  There is no new building activity on the site, just the three completed houses seen at the show. (more…)

Source: myFICO.com

Your credit score is one of the most important factors in your ability to qualify for a loan and then getting the best rates.  If you are considering applying for a mortgage you may be well served doing a little investigation of your own before having a third party pull it for you.  Is the information accurate?  Is there something that needs to be addressed or might improve your score? FICO doesn’t release the exact terms of how your credit score is determined by the three reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) but they do disclose that each angency uses different data to compute scores. Your lender will most likely use a blend of the three scores. (more…)

I took a final trip up to NW Cresap Lane on Monday to wrap up my series on the 2010 edition of the Portland Street of Dreams.  What I found wasn’t catastrophic but disappointing nonetheless.  Two of the three homes are now closed sales and are occupied evidenced by cars in the driveway and confirmed by RMLS (sales prices of $830,000 and $850,000).  The third shows as an active listing for $869,000 but there is no sign in the yard. (more…)