Plenty of Room for Millionaires
October 29th, 2007
A re:PDX reader recently asked about how the Portland job environment could support the number of million dollar listings he’s been watching on the market. A great question and one I’ve wondered about, too.
For all of it’s positive reviews, Portland doesn’t exactly top the list of locales for high-paying jobs with Fortune 500 industrial, manufacturing, or headquarters companies. Perhaps there is a steady stream of Intel, Nike, and other corporate executives moving inbound. Perhaps…
My off-the-cuff reply, based almost purely on anecdotal evidence, was that the bulk of migrating buyers have scads of equity made during the recent housing run-up. Along with their yearning for a lifestyle change, they’re bringing along big downpayments. Many that I have come across are from California, which causes me some concern given the state of their housing market.
Are there enough non-Californian candidates to absorb the balance of 633 Portland-metro properties priced at $1 million or more?
That’s right. As of October 28, 633 properties topped the $1 million price level–a whopping $1.1 billion in real property. The last time I peeked, in January 2006, only 275 properties scaled the $1M tag. And that doesn’t include the 215 listings priced from $900K to $1M, or the 302 listings priced from $800K to $900K.
While not particularly useful statistics, the ‘average’ home priced over a million had 4,482 sq. ft, 4 bedrooms, and just over three bedrooms. Average list price for the group: $1,772,000. West Portland (including the city center) and Lake Oswego/West Linn led the area for highest number of $1M+ homes, together with nearly 60% of the total properties in the survey.
West Portland (downtown) includes 75 condos in the count, too. Outlying suburbs like Newberg, NW Washington County, Oregon City/Canby, etc. will typically yield acreage, barns, farmland, horses, etc.
Here’s a breakdown of active listings, sorted by the market areas’ number of properties meeting the $1M+ price level:
| Area | Total Properties | Avg. Sq. Ft. | Avg. List Price |
| West Portland | 194 | 3,895 | $1,626,000 |
| Lake Oswego / West Linn | 167 | 4,770 | $1,845,000 |
| Oregon City / Canby | 54 | 4,634 | $1,761,000 |
| Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville | 49 | 5,183 | $2,227,000 |
| Milwaukie / Clackamas | 45 | 4,640 | $1,526,000 |
| Yamhill County | 32 | 4,453 | $2,007,000 |
| Gresham / Troutdale | 24 | 4,739 | $1,621,000 |
| NW Washington County | 20 | 4,924 | $1,704,000 |
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove | 19 | 4,519 | $1,520,000 |
| Southeast Portland | 12 | 4,705 | $1,301,000 |
| Beaverton / Aloha | 7 | 5,293 | $1,674,000 |
| Northeast Portland | 6 | 4,507 | $1,324,000 |
| North Portland | 4 | 2,702 | $1,213,000 |
The most expensive listing currently on the market is a 20-acre, 9,538 sq. ft. Tuscan-style spread in Newberg/Sherwood for just under $10 million. It features 4 bedrooms(!), 5 and 2-half baths, 5 fireplaces, and an 8-stall horse barn.
And just under $8 million will get you a former Portland TrailBlazer player’s home with almost 7 acres, 14,000 sq. ft., 8 bedroms, 8+ bathrooms, and 366 feet of Willamette River frontage in West Linn.
Anyway, for those of you looking to drop $800,000 to $10,000,000 on a new home, you’ve got over 1,100 to look through. I can be available, even on short notice to drive you through some samples 
Data from RMLS, October 28, 2007. Photo of Pittock Mansion by MissMarnie, used under Creative Commons license. The Pittock is not for sale.
Technorati Tags: Portland, Oregon, real estate, million, dollar, listings, homes, houses
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Entry Filed under: Market Activity, Relocation
6 Comments Add your own
1. Hank | October 30th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Wow. Fascinating data.
But help me with how SE Pdx has twice as many Million Dollar homes on the market as NE Pdx! I think I could even name 6 NE Pdx homes on the market for that much — between Alameda, Irvington, and Laurelhurst, it’s easy to think of 6. But where would one find TWELVE million dollar homes in my neck of the woods? Surely they can’t all be in Eastmoreland and Waverly. Is there another neighborhood out there in SE that I’m forgetting?
And Four in North Portland? Where????
2. Ron Ares | October 30th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Hank,
A great question.
The SE listings are a mix of big old homes, large developable parcels with tear-down on them, and, as expected a handful of Mt. Tabor, Garthwick and Sellwood listings. It’s really a hodge-podge, and contains few real classics like found in NE neighborhoods like Irvington, Alameda, and Laurelhurst.
The North PDX homes are harbor condos on Hayden Island.
3. Dennis | October 30th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Good topic, I think you are correct that the job market does not necessarily support the jump in million plus dollar homes. People that have money like what Portland has to offer including the cities ambiance, strong economy, beautiful country in every direction and homes that even though they are priced over a million, they are a good value compared to other parts of the country in somewhat comparable cities.
4. Hank | October 31st, 2007 at 7:34 am
Thanks for the added info Ron. And to Dennis’s point — I totally agree, and it reminds me of when I foolishly and stupidly left Oregon for SoCal in 2001 and I would drive through neighborhoods of nice, but middle class, homes at 800k (dozens of them) and I would think — how is it that so many people can afford houses at these ridiculous prices. And I stretched myself, way over my head, to buy a house in that price range that I really couldn’t afford, and three years later you couldn’t find a house you’d want to live in in the same neighborhood for under 1.2M. But the interesting thing is how one’s perspective changes. I’m not a rich guy — far from it — but I remember driving through my very pleasant but not extravagant neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and if there was a house priced under 1M you would assume it was a crappy house. “Something has to be wrong if it’s priced so low.” So the moral of the story, I think is: If you bought a house in Portland for 100k 15 years ago and you sold it for 700k earlier this year, and you’re still working, $1M doesn’t seem all that expensive to you for a house. And when every house in your neighborhood is also priced above 700k, as Irvington for instance is today, then 700 seems very average and 1M merely a slight upgrade. It is easy for those homeowners, many of who are also not necessarily extraordinarily wealthy, to forget that a million dollars in an extraordinary amount of money.
5. Jon | October 31st, 2007 at 8:04 am
Wow. Very interesting.
This makes me curious, are the home in this price range seeing a greater increase in market time than homes under $1M? I would expect them to have a longer market time even in a hot market, but wondering if they have been impacted harder by the slowdown than the less costly properties.
Thanks Ron for the insight.
Jon
6. James | November 16th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Thanks for the balanced report.
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