Real Estate Information Archive

This article in the Oregonian last week talks about even though the Portland area has grown, we have recently been leapfrogged by both San Antonio, Texas and Orlando, Florida in population.  The Portland metro area's population now is over 2.4 million, up 1.7% from last year.  You can read the article here, which has information on other area cities and within the arcticle there is a fascinating link to the US Census bureau statistics which rate fastest growing areas all around the USA.  Its interesting reading!

This article in the New York Times recently talks mostly about the boom in Denver (a city with similar price increases and inventory woes as Portland)  But I can tell you as a Realtor for almost 30 years now in Portland while we have always been known as "pot friendly" and I have always had 3-5 people a year asking me about grow operations this last 12 months or so its coming up all the time!  Oregon has some specific laws on what you can do personally (grow up to four plants) but we have had several real estate sales recently for buyers in the cannabis industry.  You can see the article here...

March Residential Highlights The Portland metro area hada sunny month for new listings this March. At 3,604, new listings outpaced March 2016 (3,409) by 5.7% and February 2017 (2,521) by 43.0%. This was the strongest March for new listings in the area since 2010, when 4,987 were offered for the month.  Pending sales (3,043) warmed 28.5% over last month in February 2017 (2,369) but fell 1.1% short of the 3,076 offers accepted during this month last year in March 2016.  Closed sales, at 2,494, similarly outpaced February 2017 (1,669) by 49.4% but still ended 2.8% cooler than in March 2016 when 2,565 closings were recorded for the month. Total market time decreased by four days this March, ending at 58 days.

Inventory decreased as well, ending at 1.3 months. There were 3,313 active residential listings in the Portland metro area this March.  Average and Median Sale Prices Comparing the average price of homes sold in the twelve months ending March 31st of this year ($404,300) with the average price of homes in the twelve months ending March 2016 ($361,100) shows an increase of 12.0%.  In the same comparison, the median has increased 12.2% from $315,000 to $353,500.

This months chart shows the inventory of available homes in the Portland Metro area dating back to January of 2015. A "balanced" market as defined by HUD and the National Assn Realtors is 5.5-6 months of inventory, and as you can see we are far short of that with only 1.3 months of supply right now.  If you have been considering selling your home, now might be the time to do so.

This months featured home is an amazing estate on the Willamette river in West Linn.  This 4,436 square foot custom built home sits overlooking the river with a huge great room with Brazilian cherry floors, and an incredible gourmet kitchen with a massive island and American cherry cabinets and much more.   There is a formal dining room plus a small master and office on the main floor.  Upper level has the spacious master suite, plus two additional bedrooms and a bonus room too. All bedrooms have their own balconies. This home also sits above a five plus car garage, with a pull through door leading to a boat ramp the river, and has a dock too!  Check it out at http://www.roblevy.com/Property/4993-MAPLETON-DR-West-Linn-17380137

The kitchen is the hub of your home. It's where you entertain, eat and, of course, cook. In today's marketplace, top kitchen remodeling projects include adding an island, stainless steel appliances, farmhouse sinks, as well as customizable countertops and kitchen cabinets.

Before you try to hone in on specific items to remodel or replace in your kitchen, it might be best to take a step back and look at the big picture. From this perspective, consider how you want your kitchen to look by envisioning its overall layout, total amount of storage space and finally the types of materials you want to use.

Layout

Space is perhaps the most important factor to consider when planning your kitchen revamp. If you're working with a small space, one of your best options is a galley-style layout. This allows you to make the most of your relatively limited horizontal space by stacking shelves and counters vertically, utilizing innovative and double-duty containers.

If you're working with a large kitchen space, you might want to give a U-shape or an L-shape design, incorporating a centralized peninsula or island.

The bottom line with your kitchen's layout is to mold and shape it into a space that best fits how you and your family use the room.

Storage

Dishes, pots, pans, utensils and small appliances need to have viable and easy-to-get-to resting places. The more you use it, the closer at-hand you will want to store it.

Space-saving items, such as spice racks, stackable cookware and islands with a lot of drawers and cabinets, can be your best friends when revamping your kitchen. Designate a spot for your most frequently used items on the countertop. Conversely, you can free up some extra space by storing your rarely used kitchen accessories in a storage closet or your basement.

Materials

One of the best ways to avoid a cookie cutter kitchen design is to use vibrant, colorful and high-quality materials.

This is where you can really let your personality shine. As opposed to your relatively standard and limited options with storage and layout, the more interesting and eclectic your materials are, the more interesting and eclectic your new kitchen will be. Consider limestone, stainless steel or concrete for your countertops, mosaic tile for your backsplash, or frosted cabinets to give your kitchen some extra sparkle and shine.

Undergoing a kitchen remodel project can be a big task, but can also have great benefits and increase the value of your home.

Check out my new chart below, I am now showing average and median sales price changes.  All areas of real estate activity are positive when comparing July 2012 with July 2011. There were 2,372 accepted offers, 23% more than the 1,928 reported in July 2011 although down slightly (-2.6%) from last month. The 1,973 closed sales represent a 15.4% increase over the same month last year, when 1,709 were recorded. This represents the highest numberof closed sales in the month of July since 2009.

New listings rose 7.5% from 2,942 to 3,162 when comparing July 2011 to July 2012 but were down slightly (-1.4%) from the previous month.  Overall real estate activity is positive when comparing July 2012 to the same month last year but down slightly from the previous month. We’ve seen a similar pattern in prior years with activity dropping in July from June highs.The unsold inventory in months ticked up slightly from 3.9 in June to 4.6 in July and is lower than any July since 2006. It would take only 4.6 months to sell the 9,041 active listings at the July rate of sales.

Home sale price measures were all positive in July. The median sales price rose 7.8% when comparing July 2012 with the same month in 2011 and 1.2% when comparing it to the previous month. When comparing the percent change of the last 12 months with the previous 12 months we see a 0.7% gain in the median price.

An interesting article in today's Portland Oregonian about prices have declined some in 2011 however Portland is one of a few markets where prices are expected to increase in 2012.  The Oregonian Article can be seen by clicking HERE.  The article says prices fell in 2011 but have now turned the corner into 2012.

Given this information, and also a recent article in the Willammette Week about Portland being "Renter Hell" (meaning a REALLY low vacancy rate), as well as historically low interest rates, maybe now is also a time to look at buying a rental property ?

The Rob Levy team has over 50 years combined experience in the Portland real estate market.  We have unparalelled access to bank owned homes too.  Give us a call if you are thinking about looking for a home now for yourself, for a 2nd home (yes, we are selling many of these) or for a rental.

As the US comes out of the recession, it seems some areas are doing better than others and Kipplinger this week gave some encouraging news when it picked the top 11 cites in the USA to make a comeback, it listed Portland, Oregon as one of them.   The full article can be READ BY CLICKING HERE

Also good news for the Pacific Northwest is Seattle was also on the list.   The Portland area is prime for a comeback according to Kipplinger due to the investment in clean energy, and the high tech field.  There have been many solar power companies putting facilities here, and Intel (the states largest private employer) announced it is bringing 1000 new jobs too.  These jobs tend to be well paying, and bring in an educated workforce.

Portland's location as a city of about 2.25m people and next to a state of 37m people (California) seems poised for more growth once the economy improves, and this is a great step in the right direction.

Metro, the regional government for the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area recently released their projections for population growth in the area for both 2030 and for 2060.

Given the population from the 2000 census being at 1.93 Million, projections are there is a 90% chance that in the year 2030 (only 21 years from today) the population could be as much as 3.2 Million (between 2.9m and 3.2m), and in 2060 between 3.61 & 4.38 Million.

The forecasts are for the seven county area of the Portland-Vancouver(WA)-Beaverton MSA and include the counties of Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Yamhill & Columbia in Oregon and Clark and Scamania in Washington.

With our urban growth boundary, the question remains... Where do we put them all ?  But the bigger question from Portland's top Prudential Realtor's point of veiw is what do I tell my clients when they ask me to look inside my crystal ball and predict where prices will go in the next several years.  Clearly with our land use restrictions, booming population and UGB (urban growth boundary) our prices have no place to go but up in the long run.  In fact even in our slower market, the last 8 weeks have been very busy for us on the Rob Levy team to the extent we just hired a new assistant / office manager to keep up with all the sales.

Clearly in my mind, both from my personal and professional experience, there has not been a better time to invest in the future of Portland.  Prices are down,rates are down, inventory is high and we know the future is bright.