An Unofficial House Style Study

June 5th, 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

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