Real Estate Information Archive

I sold a house this week that made me really think.....  A young couple were buying their first home, and they bought the house for more than $50,000 less than what it first went on the market for, and got the sellers to pay some closing cost assistance.   The net out of pocket for the buyers will be about $7,000.   Then - the US Government will pay them $8,000 as first time home buyers meaning they actually make $1,000 when the house closes!   Add to this the 4.875% interest rate they locked in and could there really be a better time for a first time home buyer to buy a home ?

Please listen to my podcast all about the $8,000 credit at http://www.roblevy.com/agent_files/talkrealty/player.htm

CLICK HERE to see the actual IRS form to claim the credit

We had a busy few weeks at the RobLevy team and again were #1 in the Portland area for Prudential Real Estate.  In fact, we have written more offers in the last 10 days than in the last 90 days.  It does seem to be picking up and the information above validates this.

If you know of anyone who could qualify as a first time home buyer (generally meaning someone who hasnt owned a home in more than three years), please

 Well, its that time of year again......  After a somewhat below normal winter the snowpack has been accumulating at a rapid pace on Mout Hood, and as you can see me snowboarding on the right, its the dry stuff too.

Portland Oregon offers great skiing...  The Mount Hood areas are 45 minutes to 1.25 hours away and offer all types of terrain, spectacular views, and lots of night skiing too.  In fact, one area has the largest lighted night ski area in North America.

The three main areas are Mount Hood Meadows.  This is my favourite and where I have my pass.  Its the farthest from Portland but I think has the best combination of lots of lifts, varied terrain and lighted night areas.

There is also historic Timberline lodge, this area also has several high speed lifts, and the historic lodge too.

Last but not least there is Mt Hood Ski Bowl.  Lower down the snow is sometimes damp, and the lifts are slower but thre is a combination of challenging terrain and beginner terrain.

We are lucky to live where we do here....  Its so close, I often leave work early and go up and snowboard for a while, then eat dinner, go out some more and come home.  Other days I head up early get in a couple of hours and come back and am at work by lunchtime.

There are of course many cross country areas too, its all in the Mount Hood National Forest...

So if you are thinking of moving to Portland or are a current resident, think about our gorgeous extinct volcano to the east...  We see it every day but not so many of us use it.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR (National Association of Realtors) spoke recently about the stimulus package, and that it might be too confusing in buyers minds not knowing what is, and what isnt available for prospective home buyers today.

Here is a direct quote from Mr. Yun....   . “Given so much stimulus package discussion in January, some would-be buyers simply sat out for clarity and certainty on the nature of housing stimulus,” he said. “The housing market will soon get a lift from very favorable buying conditions – not only from improved affordability, but also from the stimulus of an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, and higher conforming loan limits that will allow more people to tap into 50-year low mortgage rates.”  The entire article can be seen by clicking here.  

As Portland's top Prudential Realtor, we are (finally) starting to see some movement in the starter home market which has been slow of late due in part from buyers not knowing about what is available to them, and also from investors not being able to buy due to the new limits on loans available for owners of more than four homes.  Both these issues have been alleviated somewhat in recent days.

For more information on the Portland, Oregon real estate market or to receive a list of homes available that meet your needs, or even a list of bank owned homes, contact us today.

Yet another accolade for Portland, Oregon.....

Forbes Magazine has listed Portland as the 5th best city to buy a house in the United States for 2009.   Its an interesting list in that they excluded many cities where prices have plummeted such as Phoenix, or Las Vegas as they want areas where buyers can build equity in a stable area. You can read the Forbes article here.

To see the actual index, click on this link  and you can scroll through the cities listed.

The Portland area continues to win awards or be selected from everything as the greenest city in the US to the best city to raise a family.  Recently Portland was listed as one of the fastest growing cities from in-migration particularly from the educated early 30's crowd.

If you want more information on the Portland area and are considering a move here, email me and I will send you a link to our relocation guide.

Portland, Oregon has become one of the first cities in the nation to be blanketed by "Clear" - a wireless product from Clearwire.   What they have provided is what is known as 4G service (vs current 3g or 2.5g from the cell companies).  You can check out the coverage areas here.

I have been using sprint's 3G Rev-A service for about 3 years and have been delighted with it.  In fact, I am writing this article watching the USC/Washington basketball game with my tablet PC in my lap on my Sprint Broadband modem.

Yesterday I went snowboarding in the morning with a fellow Realtor and friend and while I drove he kept checking to see how far out of town he could get a reliable clear signal, and it went just past Gresham.  Pretty impressive really as the signal handed off from tower to tower as we drove and he had a signal several times more powerful than my 3g.  Coverage doesn't seam to be seamless, but its become a pretty good alternative to Comcast, Verizon or Quest - the old Portland standbys for coverage.

I do think this offers a viable alternative to Comcast, although for now I'm sticking with my Comcast cable and Sprint Modem.  The issue I have is I use Comcast at home and I can't share the Clear with a USB antenna they provide, so I dont see a way my wife and I could use it at the same time.   As for my Sprint Rev-A modem, I have to say I have been really impressed.  I use a tablet PC and visit many clients in their homes, and am continually using the service to sign and then email/efax off forms as needed.  I also travel somewhat as a real estate speaker and have yet to go anywhere in the USA where I cannot use the Sprint modem and get 3G coverage.  I'm continually impressed.

Having these services is important for Portland as a "tech" city.  So I thank Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, ATT and Cricket - and now Clearwire - for making us a leader in coverage for American cities. 

Sales seem to be soaring in some parts of Southern California - so why am I writing about this when I am a Realtor in Portland, Oregon?

Well, a large percentage of our buyers come from California. after all our population is about 3.7M and California's ( our next door neighbor) is almost 37M.  Historically a lot of people sell homes there and move here, but recently they have been unable to do so.

Recent posts indicate a change.  For example in the Palm Springs area sales are up a whopping 94.3% October 2008 vs. October 2007.  Some sites are reporting an 83.9% increase in sales in Orange County.  So you can see, we are directly affected.   Granted, when looking closer as much as 70% of the sales are "distressed" properties - meaning bank owned (REO), short sales or pre-foreclosures but the bottom line is the inventory is selling which means it is lowering.

The outlook for the Portland area remains the same with Metro Regional government still thinking there will be between 800,000 and 1,000,000 more residents moving to the tri-county area in the next 12-15 years.  They expect a huge majority of those people to come from California.

So lets hope those distressed properties keep selling, and then the folks who want to sell their homes and move up here start selling.  Then we will be back to normal.  With the recent huge drop in mortgage rates - currently 5.35% according to Shawn Headlee with Columbia Mortgage, this should start happening !

Enjoy the rest of your thanksgiving weekend !   ROB

 I recently got back from the NAR show - the National Association of Realtors trade show in Orlando, Florida.  I was honored to be asked to speak to two large groups of agents but the best part is I got to hear what is going on around the country, and I am now trying to figure out how that will affect our market here in Portland, Oregon.

On the one hand, I understand that in some areas of California, particularly Orange county sales are up, way up.  Many of them are REO (bank owned) homes.  This is a good thing in that it eats up all the inventory and then people will buy owner occupied homes next.  It is also good as it could be signaling a bottom.  In some areas such as Las Vegas and areas of Florida and the California central valley as much as 75% of the homes sold of late are either bank owned or short sales, but they ARE selling now.

Indications are with the new administration there will be SOMETHING done to get people more comfortable about buying homes, and with the inventory lowered and builders out of business, it could get busy.  Here in Portland, we are down about 7% on our number of Realtors for the year, and indications are another 15-25% will not renew their license January 1^st 2009.

I want you to know that I AM here, that sales are down from last year but we are selling homes, more than any other Prudential agent in the greater Portland area, and that we WILL be here to help you with all your real estate needs.

John Mitchell a Portland economist thinks that the recent uptick in sales if it continues could signal an end.  His recent article in the Portland Oregonian can be found by clicking HERE.

As of this writing I am now about 6 weeks into my iPhone 3G and using it as my primary phone as well as email and web device.  I have to say having been a TREO fan for many years, I am now a solid iPhone guy.

As Prudential's top Realtor in the Portland, Oregon area and as a technology speaker travelling around the USA and Canada speaking to Realtor groups, I rely heavily on my phone as well, a phone  AND as an email device.  Using Microsoft exchange server I am able to see my emails in full HTML.  But the best part is the way PDF files are shown - its like looking at them right on my computer, I can even turn the phone sideways and see the file horizontally.  I just now reviewed a 47 page home inspection in full living colour, and then forwarded it on to the listing agent to review, all while taking a day off on the Oregon coast.  I get my faxes as PDF files and many agents now send documents via emailing PDF files so I truly dont need to drag along my laptop computer anymore.

Other features of the phone include applications such as Trulia's home search program where it uses the GPS function of the phone to locate itself and then show all the homes for sale around you.   There are also several mortgage calulators and more to dowload, and of course the Safari browser is a full-fledged internet browser.

For Realtors, or for anyone I can very strongly reccomend the iPhone 3g from Apple.

I was honored as one of the top 100 Prudential Realtors out of over 68,000 nationwide to attend the 17th annual Prudential Summit held this year at the Century City, in the West Los Angeles California.

Interestingly (and with NO relation to real estate) when I arrived Sunday night in the lobby of the hotel, there was an Emmy award party going on.  I have never seen so many people dressed in such amazing gowns and tuxedos in my life !  And here I was in my travelling Khakis ( at least I wasnt in jeans :-) )

This year we heard from several speakers including John VanDerWall and Laurie Keenan the CEO and President of Prudential Real Estates Affiliates talking about the real estate market around the country.  Again, I count my blessings as we are very very lucky to live where we live.  There are many areas in Florida, California, Nevada and other states where people have lost their entire life savings in house devaluations.  In fact I did not know that 60% of all the foreclosures in the land are in two states - California and Florida.

The fundamentals in the Portland area remain the same.......  (1) We are an in-migration state where Metro (www.metroregion.org) is expecting somewhere from 750,000 - 1,000,000 more residents here within the next 12-15 years.  (2) Our economy is tied strongly to both the Asian and Canadian economies - both strong. (3) We were again voted the "Greenest" city in the Country.  (4) We are the #1 in migration city for the educated 28-40 year old group.   All of these factors and more equate to Portland is a place many people want to be.

The final results are out and I am proud to announce that in 2007 our team was #1 in sales for Prudential Northwest Properties in the entire Portland area.   Since then, we have been also #1 in sales for all of Oregon for the first quarter of 2008.

I want to thank my team in this forum for it may say "Rob Levy" on the sign, but its Sandy, Sandra, Kate, Clinton and Alicia that really help make this happen.  So thanks to my team and thanks to the well over 100 people in 2007 who entrusted us with either helping them find a new home, or selling their exsisting one, or in many cases both!

As the Realtor population is shrinking, its more important now than ever to use an experienced Realtor in selling your home, or buying a new one.  Parade Magazine recently said to not hire a Realtor with less than 8 years in the business.  I have almost 20 - all with the same office - and when you add up the years my team has been in the business we are well over 50 years combined.