A brief history of building codes as they relate to health and safety

Way back when, there were REALLY basic building codes.  King Hammurabi created the first known building codes in Babylon, in 1758 BC.  Here are a few of his rules, per lexology.com

229 If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.
230 If it kills the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death.
231 If it kills a slave of the owner, then he shall pay, slave for slave, to the owner of the house.
232 If it ruins goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect the house from his own means.
233 If a builder builds a house for someone, even though he has not yet completed it; if then the walls seem toppling, the builder must make the walls solid from his own means.

These early building codes, along with many of ours today, focus on health and safety.  Many building code updates and revisions have been in reaction to disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.

After  9/11, changes were made to the codes for high rise building to provide additional stairways, better emergency exit lightning and specific exit paths.

Following Hurricane Andrew, Florida made some changes to their building code, requiring stronger and more impact resistant glass, and minimum design loads, especially with regard to wind resistance.

And after the Northridge earthquake, owners of concrete tilt-ip buildings had to complete mandatory retrofits on certain welds that were considered of lesser quality.   

Over the years, many states and municipalities enacted their own building codes.  As a matter of fact, it wasn't until 2008 that New York adopted the International Building code.

Why am I talking about building codes now?  It looks as though group living may be putting people at higher COVID-19 risk, whether it be room mate situations, care facilities, prisons, dormitories and even apartments and condominiums.  

Here in Portland, we've been moving toward more dense housing.  Tiny houses, accessory dwelling units (stand alone or basement/attic units), micro-housing and co-housing can be seen in the metro area .  Even condominiums and apartments have more common elements; bike rooms, roof decks, common rooms and gyms.

How do you practice social distancing when there isn't enough room?

Will we see a move away from common entry buildings?  Will multi-unit buildings with distinct exterior entries for each unit prevail?  And will these changes be per building codes, or market forces fueled by consumer preference?

Some quick updates on lending and real estate

While states are starting to talk about benchmarks needed to "open,  Portland's real estate market marches on.

Tracking lockbox "opens" can be an early indicator of a changing market.  That is, our electronic boxes allow tracking of how many times lockboxes were opened in a certain week.  Last week, in the Portland area, our lockbox opens were up almost 6% from the previous week.  hmm.

Anecdotally, there are plenty of reports of multiple offers, with listings selling after just a few days on the market.  Tracking pending sales in certain zip codes,  I can see houses switched to pending, in a broad price range.

That brings me to lending.  Lenders are moving pretty quickly to limit their exposure with regard to certain loan types.

 Lending on jumbo loans (in our area, loan amounts above $550,000) is being curtailed.  Some lenders are still offering these loans: mostly banks offering loans to existing customers.  In some cases, banks may be requiring a certain balance of funds on deposit.

Chase Bank is now requiring 20% down and a credit score of 700 or over ,for their conventional loans.  Before the advent of mortgage insurance, all home loans required 20% down.  Consider this a return to tradition.  Other lenders are still offering lower down payment options, and FHA and VA loans are still available.

Most all lenders are being pretty vigilant about employment verification; double checking through the escrow period and before funding the loan for closing.  In addition, some lenders are having employers complete a form with information about borrowers' prospect of future employment.

Get in touch if you have questions about your specific situation or property.

COVID-19 and housing preferences?

I've been thinking a lot about COVID-19 and distancing.  I live in a single family home, with a distinct front door entrance.  I easily control who enters.  My daughter lives in an apartment building with two secure, exterior entrances.  This means, she, the other residents and other residents' guests enter through those two doors.  There is one elevator, and two stairways.  From a germ exposure standpoint, were she staying there (she's staying with us), she'd be exposed much more than we would.

It seems that the density of living situations is playing a part in COVID-19 infections.  New York City is so dense, strict shelter in place rules aren't showing the same positive results as other places.  Similarly, with seemingly rampant cases, care facilities and nursing homes are struggling.  The assisted living place where my dad lives, was quick to keep residents in their apartments, and forbid outside visitors, but for essential personnel.  We're thankful this seems to be working.  But this is a place where all residents have their own distinct apartments.  Imagine working through this in a shared room environment.

As many of us think about "after" and "normal", I can't help but wonder if we'll see changes in housing preferences.  Do some folks realize working from home is great, if only they had a distinct home office?  Will people move to be closer to family, after having been unable to travel to be with family? Will people in shared living spaces want more control of their environment?

Will all off this influence housing amenities?  Buildings with secure entrances and elevators have been popular.  Will people now favor apartments and condominiums with distinct, outside entrances?  Will developers tout superior air handling capacity, mangers advertise aggressive cleaning protocol?  Will lobbies, roof decks and common rooms no longer be seen as desirable amenities?

As our journey to "after" is sure to be slow, possibly with some set backs, it may be years until we can look back to see changes to housing preferences.  That being said, has "stay home, stay safe" caused you to think about possible changes to your living situation (aside from I wish the fridge refilled itself and the laundry got magically done)?

More COVID-19 influenced thoughts

I last wrote about loan forbearance and kittens.

Since then quite a few folks have talked with their lenders, and gotten forbearance agreements for their mortgage payments.  But...many of the forbearance agreements, in the fine print, require re-payment of the full deferred amount at the end of the forbearance period.  This means, if you defer payments for three months, you'd have to pay those three months' payments after three months.  So unless you'll somehow come by that due balance all at once, I'd think twice before signing such an agreement.  It may still be worth contacting your lender to ask, but do read the fine print.

Currently, real estate activity is still permitted in both Oregon and Washington.  Open houses and brokers open houses are pretty taboo, and our multiple listing service has removed that data field, making it challenging to promote open houses.  This is as it should be.  Most offices have recommended  protocols in place for property showings including cleaning, booties, hand washing and social distancing.  Title companies are continuing to close transactions, and county recording offices are handling electronic recordings.

The City of Portland permit office is closed, so building permits, including those for sewer repair/replacement and radon mitigation systems are not available.  Multnomah County's in-person recording window is closed.  It's a challenge to get repairs completed prior to closing, and moving  companies either aren't working, or are very booked.

It sounds as though some loan programs geared toward first time and low income buyers, may be tightening their lending requirements.  Programs like FHA have traditionally allowed a buyer to have a lower down payment, lower credit score and higher debt level than conventional loans.  While these programs will remain more approachable than conventional loans, they will be requiring buyers to have an amount of financial strength.

A few blogs ago, I talked about ibuyers; Zillow, OpenDoor and others.  These companies can offer an easy button to sell your house quickly when timing or other circumstances make selling via traditional means untenable.  Now seems like a great time to use this service, if, for instance you need to sell for a job relocation, to lessen expenses during the pandemic etc.  Oh, but Zillow isn't buying right now, and I'm not sure about OpenDoor.

Who is working now, (carefully) are Realtors; licensed and doing business here in Portland.  We're taking plenty of precautions, with cleaning and distancing protocols in place.

And kittens!  What about kittens?!  Actually, today I'm thinking about puppies!

The folks at One Tail at a Time will soon have puppies available for adoption.  If a puppy seems like too much work (they are very busy creatures) One Tail at a Time has more mature dogs too.  You just might need a buddy...