Archive for June, 2006
‘Tis the busy season for real estate, so sorry for the lack of posts lately. Here is a collection of real estate articles, posts, and thoughts from the past week:
Starting out, slim and thin - The Oregonian
First-time buyers and empty nesters shopping for a new home find market pressures have narrowed their options to “skinny” houses and town homes
The Ladies are Landed - The Oregonian
More solo women are skipping the wedding ring and buying the house
Cities are hot again - CNN/Money
After years of urban flight, Americans are finding the appeal of places like Philadelphia, Nashville and Seattle.
Lake Oswego’s cottages are both best and beset - The Oregonian
First Addition cottages get national attention, but are rapidly being replaced by ‘McCottages’
King Cob - Portland Tribune
Some people just talk about community vision, but Mark Lakeman, City Repair make it happen
Planned high-rises rival treetops - Portland Tribune
Some community backlash over the latest condo high-rise project
Record-Breaking Housing Boom May Be Nearing a Close - The Wall Street Journal
Economist Robert J. Shiller suggest the recent housing boom may have been psychologically induced
Land Prices Increasingly Drive Housing Markets, Fed Study Says - The Wall Street Journal
Housing prices in big U.S. cities have increasingly reflected underlying land value rather than building value
Housing Boom 2.0 - CNN/Money
Harvard study says there may be bumps along the way, but that the long-term health of the housing market is intact.
Technorati Tags: real+estate, trends, forecasts, condo, high-rises, Portland, housing+boom
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June 23rd, 2006
A collection of real estate articles, posts, and thoughts from the past week:
Harvard University Predicts Soft Landing for Housing Market - Wall Street Journal
Hidden houses: As buildable land shrinks, flag lots offer urban rarity: privacy, space, affordability - The Oregonian
Real Life: Wine and cheese ease transition for condo trailblazers - The Oregonian
Five web tips for home sellers - Time Magazine
First Time OLD Home Buyers: Know What to Look for in Your Dream House - NW Renovation Magazine
Mid-Century Modern Interiors - NW Renovation Magazine
Welcome to The Neighborhood: Reimagined show debuts on metro east side with eight homes, countless possibilities - The Oregonian
Move Over, McMansions: Microhouses Are on the Rise - Wall Street Journal
Google’s not-so-very-secret weapon - NY Times
Technorati Tags: links, stories, renovation, Google, advice, microhouse
Photo by small world.
June 16th, 2006
The residential real estate market in the Portland metro area continues to hold its own with the announcement of May 2006 results.
Closed and pending sales are down year-to-date and new listings have increased, giving buyers more choices than this time last year. However, appreciation gains continue to range between 13 and 28% (depending on the community) over 12 months ago.
Year-to-date new listings are up 9% over the January-May time period in 2005. In May 2006, new listings jumped nearly 28% over May 2006 (5,620 vs. 4,395). Pending and closed sales are down 10.4% and 8.4% respectively from last year at this time.
The spate of new listings has kept inventory at levels much higher than a year ago. Current inventory stands at 2.3 months, meaning that at the current rate of sales, the available supply of homes for sale today would sell out in 2.3 months if no new listings were added.
Home price appreciation remains strong. Twelve-month average appreciation for Portland-area residential properties is 17.4%. The average sale price over the past 12 months in the market is now $301,300 (vs. $256,700 for 05/2004 through 06/2005).
The average market time for properties year-to-date is 43 days, versus 51 days this time last year.
For a more complete grid of average and median sale prices, appreciation, and days on market by community, visit my Market Action page.
June 14th, 2006
Looking for a renovation project or distressed property with upside for profit? Where are these properties in the Portland area? If my analysis is any indication, you’ll be looking in Northeast or Southeast Portland.
My unscientific poll of the over 6,000 actively marketed properties in the local multiple listing service (RMLS) shows a grand total of 142 properties whose description or remarks fields include the word ‘fixer’.
| Southeast Portland |
37
|
| Northeast Portland |
20
|
| West Portland |
12
|
| Gresham / Troutdale |
11
|
| Oregon City / Canby |
10
|
| Columbia County |
10
|
| Milwaukie / Clackamas |
9
|
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove |
8
|
| Beaverton / Aloha |
6
|
| Yamhill County |
5
|
| North Portland |
4
|
| Lake Oswego / West Linn |
4
|
| NW Washington County |
3
|
| Tigard / Tualatin / Wilsonville / Sherwood |
3
|
Granted, the definition of ‘fixer’ is broad and subjective. The multiple listing service merely describes fixers as properties that ‘need repair’. The choice of describing homes as fixers is purely up to the seller and their listing agent. With the Portland market still showing strong performance for sellers, many do not wish to market homes in clear need of maintenance or upgrades as a ‘project’ house.
Considering the subjective nature of choosing ‘fixer’ as a descriptor, you can be assured that there are many more homes with deferred maintenance issues than the above survey shows. Also, many do not make it into the multiple listing service due to the proactive efforts of speculative investors and private, by-owner sales.
For a list of fixer properties, just contact me.
—-
Source: RMLS, June 12, 2006.
Technorati Tags: fixer, renovation, do-it-yourself, investment+property, distressed
June 12th, 2006
A collection of real estate articles, posts, and thoughts:
Homeowners Love Cul-de-Sacs, Planners Say They’re Perils — Wall Street Journal, Amir Efrati
America’s obsession with that green patch in the yard — A review of American Green, The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn
Portland named top city for health and sustainable living by Sustainlane.com: #1 Portland: A Role Model for the Nation and First Place: Getting It Done in Portland, Oregon — by Cielo Lutino
1st Quarter Home Price Results - CNN/Money
50-year mortgages may not be golden - MSNBC.com
Technorati Tags: real+estate, articles, links
June 8th, 2006
Grab some popcorn, dim the lights, and huddle around your computer monitor for an evening of community exploration. I’m not talking about browsing CitySearch but rather watching mini-film stories on TurnHere.com.
TurnHere features a range of entertaining short films featuring neighborhoods, both famous and infamous, along with their inhabitants and their unique stories. Each movie is about 3 minutes long.
TurnHere is the most recent company to be founded by Brad Inman, an entrepreneur, journalist, and technology expert. He runs the popular Inman News Service, which covers the real estate industry.
TurnHere, Inc. is a digital media company with a unique mission. TurnHere produces professional digital videos, accessible on the Internet, which convey authentic experiences of places and leisure activities in cities and neighborhoods around the world. Each TurnHere digital film is driven by an individual filmmaker’s vision, translated into compelling storytelling, engaging narrators, insider perspective and high entertainment value.
TurnHere’s tagline: Short films, cool places. TurnHere leverages the the skills of local, independent filmmakers and charters them to make mini-video narratives of interesting neighborhoods and events. These aren’t sanitized, narrated Welcome Wagon DVDs, but gritty, fun vignettes that capture the local sights, sounds, and characters to tell the story.
TurnHere has been very prolific since their launch in January, and now have films from all parts of the country, and even some from Mexico City, Jerusalem, and even Reykjavik.
Here are the Portland-area stories: (I especially like the ’sordid’ OldTown clip.)
Technorati Tags: film, movies, Portland, Inman, TurnHere, stories, video
June 6th, 2006
Over the past couple months, I’ve been engaged in finding or pricing homes of unique character–a rare, modern ranch-style in Portland’s tony West Hills, and a Victorian in West Linn’s historic district of Willamette. These are challenging assignments because these styles are reasonably rare listings and therefore, are difficult to find comparables for pricing.
It led me to consider the mix of architectural styles available in the Portland area. While I hope to do a more definitive study in the future, here’s a peek at the composition of for-sale inventory throughout Portland and its suburbs, as found in the the local multiple listing service (as of June 1, 2006):
This survey of roughly 10,000 single-family homes is admittedly unscientific, and it only reflects homes in the MLS for sale, but I think it gives an indication of the prevalent housing styles in the Portland area.
Almost 1/4 of the homes on the market received the ‘Traditional’ tag, which is the local real estate association’s definition of a home that borrows from many architectural styles and does not hold to a specific historic detail.
The post-war ranch style makes up a 1/5th of the inventory, and Craftsman architecture comes in at around 10%. Because brokers can choose up to two styles to put in the listing, the 2-Story tag is probably used in conjunction with many styles (except maybe ranch).
Older cities like Oregon City and Portland will have a higher percentage of ‘vintage’ properties and styles, while newer suburbs like Tigard, West Linn, Gresham, Clackamas, et al., will hold closer to ‘Traditional’ and contemporary styles. A good broker can point you in the right direction if your heart is set on bungalows, colonials, four-square (Old PDX) and others.
Technorati Tags: architecture, housing, styles, Portland
June 5th, 2006
In a previous post, I noted that the Portland Metropolitan Realtor Association (PMAR) is keeping tabs on affordable homeownership initiatives in the area. PMAR reports that the City of Portland and Metro have both recently adopted resolutions to address affordable homeownership issues.
The City of Portland has directed their staff to work with Portland school districts and other interested partners to attract and retain families to the city’s neighborhoods.
Known as the Schools, Family and Housing Initiative, the housing plan will be marketed through the public school district, although the details of fund sources, qualifying requirements and such will not be known for some months. If you’ve been reading about the Portland Public School district, you know that school funding has been a hot, politically charged issue. More details are found in Commissioner Erik Sten’s public statement.
The city also approved a resolution to plan for development, preservation, and rehabilitation of affordable housing funded by up to 30% of the city’s Urban Renewal District (URD) budgets. Normally, this reinvestment of property taxes from URDs goes directly back to capital improvements for the district and is intended to strengthen the area tax base. This is the first time affordable housing will be addressed by URD tax money.
On a broader scale, the regional government agency, Metro recently approved a resolution to fund efforts toward their strategy of enabling the region’s residents to “choose from a diversity of housing options.”
Titled the Regional Housing Choice Implementation Strategy, it will be looking for ways to meet Metro’s housing goals and improve options for housing in more income levels. The language in the resolution is still unspecific in many areas, but some of the recommendations made to Metro included affordable housing funding derived from construction taxes and/or a real estate transfer tax. More can be found at Metro’s housing site.
We are in the early stages of these initiatives, so there is bound to be debate for and against. However, I believe attention to affordable home ownership is critical to maintaining a strong, long-term housing market.
Technorati Tags: affordability, housing, prices, Portland, Metro, first-time, ownership, government
June 1st, 2006
