Leslie Jones' Blog

Don't Throw That Away!

2012-03-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

No, this is not a blog about Tim Tebow, though it could be. This is a blog about restricting what goes in to our landfill as one way to increase our recycling rates. The State of Vermont, sometimes a kindred spirit to Oregon, is considering restricting recyclable materials from being dumped in their landfill. Should Vermont HB 485 pass, plastic and glass containers, cardboard and paper would be prohibited from Vermont landfills starting in 2015, with yard debris following suit in 2016. The idea being, obviously, this would help increase the recycling of these goods.

Oregon, like Vermont, currently prohibits the dumping of used oil, tires, batteries and e-waste. Oregon also prohibits vehicles and large industrial or home appliances, Vermont doesn't allow white goods and paint. Of course, Oregon has the premier paint recycling program in the country.

Lessening our waste stream takes a variety of approaches. As we know, Portland has tried by reducing our garbage pick up to twice monthly, while increasing yard debris pick ups to weekly and including kitchen compost in the yard debris. This effort puts much of the burden squarely on the shoulders of individual households. And while Vermont's approach makes garbage haulers responsible, proper sorting and disposal is still up to individuals.

I know there are lots of studies on what motivates us to take the time to recycle. What gives you that extra umph to take your plastics to Far West Fiber or find the right place for those styrofoam peanuts?

How's The Market?

2012-03-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Okay then. I, and agents in my office, have been feeling the market take off; but for too few houses on the market. The market stats, released today by RMLS support this feeling.

Year over year, both pending and closed sales are up from February 2011 to February 2012. Closed sales are up 17.5% and pending sales are up 32.5%. At the same time, new listings dropped 13.6% Between January 2012 and February 2012, closed sales grew 3.1% and pending sales grew 15.7%. So we have been busier compared both to last month and last year, but with fewer choices for our buyer clients.

This increase in activity is slowly being reflected in prices. The average sales price increased from February 2011 to February 2012 by 4.3% to $255,100. This is a month to month increase of 2.4%. Are prices going to take off? I don't think so. Though we may see some slight gains in housing prices over the coming months.

Our total market time is hovering around 138 days as compared to last February's total market time of 177 days. This represents a 22% decrease in market time, so things are moving more quickly.

Recovery? I don't know. We do expect to see an increase in foreclosed properties hitting the market as a result of the robo-signing settlement reached recently. We do expect to see some banks accelerating the rate at which they approve short sales and an increase in the % of short sales , also as a result of the robo-signing settlement. Inman News did an interesting article on this.

Have questions about your house or neighborhood? Thinking of buying or selling? Give me a call: 503-312-8038

Going Up?

2012-03-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

In the 1980's I worked in a boutique hotel in San Francisco. It was a quaint hotel, catering to artists performing at the San Francisco Ballet, Opera and Symphony. With the quaint hotel, came a quaint and quirky elevator; quirky, not necessarily in a good way. As the front desk manager, I got to ride in and provide customer service around what some might have considered a rather terrifying elevator. Since then, I have had, on occasion, icky elevator dreams. I'm not afraid of elevators, though I do prefer a less than bumpy ride, an accurate ride and the ability to exit the elevator when appropriate.

This past week I stayed at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas during the RE/MAX International Convention. Unbeknownst to me, at the time, the Luxor has famous elevators. The Luxor is that black pyramid of a building. As the elevator departs, one feels a bit of a horizontal sway, not a typical elevator feeling. And as one nears one's floor, the horizontal sway is felt in the opposite direction. No silent elevators here, with guests staring at the illuminated numbers. Most everyone comments on the sway. So after a few days, I consulted my friend Google.

Come to find out, the elevators at the Luxor are considered one of the 10 Fascinating elevators in the world. They travel up the side of the pyramid at a 39 degree angle. Wow, with this in mind, the slight sway I was feeling was minor. The elevators are restricted to guests and require a key card to operate. This system was designed in anticipation of the hoards of folks who would flock to the Luxor to ride this "attraction". Not so. While the sway is noticeable, I certainly didn't feel as though I were in a fascinating elevator; one of those times when boring is good.

Do you have an elevator story to share? No, not THAT kind. :)

We should all be a bit more like Eli Manning

2012-02-29T16:39:00.004-08:00

Okay, I'll confess, I am a tried and true Giants fan. So I do pay attention to articles and blogs about my favorite team. I noticed something recently, about Eli Manning's "athletic amnesia". That really caught my eye. The article, by Doug Farrar, talks about Eli Manning's athletic amnesia as the " ability to learn from one's mistakes at the same time you avoid the mental and emotional backlash that can happen if you take those mistakes to heart too often". Oh yeah, I could use a bit of that; learning from mistakes, but not beating myself up.

Believe it or not, in life, as in football (yes, I just said that), it seems even more important for key leaders, or players, to have this "amnesia". If you are central to the workings of your business, team, family etc you will be involved in and touched by more mistakes, and will need your "amnesia" to learn from them and move on. AND your "team" is affected by your demeanor, so getting down, or beating yourself up over a mistake will have a ripple effect. Whereas, shaking it off and moving on will be noticed and emulated by your team.

This year's superbowl was contentious in my household, as my daughter is an avid, over the top, Patriots fan. So there we were, our favorite teams pitted against each other. In case you didn't watch, the Giants pulled off yet another come back from behind under the leadership of a calm, collected Eli Manning. Gambling that Emma won't read this, I'll venture to say that a certain Patriots quarterback could use a bit more athletic amnesia.

ap photo/Greg Trott

A Casual Conversation

2012-02-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

I stopped in yesterday, to drop my taxes with my accountant at, The Epstein Group. As you might expect of a conversation between a Realtor and an accountant, we quickly got to market conditions and potential tax changes that may effect the market.

Victor Epstein, as would befit an accountant, has always been very good about keeping up on changes and potential changes in the tax code, and how they might effect his clients. I am thankful for his attentiveness as I often eke a good little tidbit out of a discussion with him.

"Tell your investor clients to sell", he said. Now mind you, I am a "buy and hold" sort of a gal, so those are pretty strong words. The longer version goes something like this. The "Bush tax cuts" are set to expire, and may or may not be extended. The Obama health plan (of which I am an ardent supporter) is scheduled to be funded in part by a slight increase in the capital gains tax, and Oregon may be taking a bit from folks' capital gains also.

What Victor was saying, or what my conservative ears heard, was that taxes on capital gains (such as those incurred by the sale of investment property) taxes will be going up. And though we think the real estate prices will be increasing in the next few years, we expect increases in capital gains taxes will outpace any increases in real estate prices. So if you have an investment property you are planning to sell in the next few years, now may well be the time. Call me.

Oh, and take a second to go to Victor's website and check out the "Irreverent" tab, showing the fictional accountants' Hall of Fame. And scroll down for songs about accountants. Very fun.

How our legislators may not deliver on homeowner protection

2012-02-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about house bills and ideas that could ease the way for Oregonians facing foreclosure.

" House Bill 4137 would add more specific requirements for servicers to follow, including deadlines to respond to borrower inquiries and limits on fees.

Senate Bill 1564 would bar lenders from putting a homeowner in a trial modification program and foreclosing on their home at the same time, the so-called dual-track process.

Senate Bills 1552 and 1576 and House Bill 4140 would require lenders to mediate with homeowners before foreclosing, as Washington, Delaware and Nevada do."

In addition, that blog talked about the emergency regulations Attorney General John Kroger issued, that brought the mortgage services industry under the Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act.

Today, the Oregonian reports, in an article by Elliot Njus, that although the Senate has passed most of the above reforms, Republican leaders in the house have removed much of the homeowner protections. For instance, instead of barring lenders from using the dual track processes as seen in SB 1564 above, lenders would be require to contact homeowners with whom the lender has not had contact, let the homeowner know if they might qualify for a loan modification and inform them of the scheduled foreclosure date.

The GOP leaders also took out the requirement that lenders actually meet with borrowers before taking their home in foreclosure. Instead, the new proposal would make mediation voluntary AND ease some legal hurdles for foreclosing. Other changes include removing the emergency regulations of last month, involving the Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act, and a retroactivley validating the Mortgage Electronic Registration System .

A quick primer on MERS: way back, whenever a mortgage was sold from one financial institution to another, documents were actually filed and recorded in the public records, providing a record of who owned what loan. In addition to providing accurate information, the lenders paid fees for the recording of the documents. When mortgage shenigans were in their infancy, MERS was created by the lien holders as a way to "register" ownership and changes of ownership on the loans, while avoiding the fees. Oregon has long had a rule requiring such filings be recorded. This discrepancy led to some courts in Oregon saying foreclosures involving MERS were improper and violated state law. Make note that last year, legislation validating MERS died in a house committee. hmm.

Hello!? I think these bills were aiming at some protections for homeowners, not making foreclosing by lenders easier. So what started out as constructive measures intended to focus on specifics of helping homeowners in trouble, becomes something that makes foreclosure easier, doesn't make a lender actually talk to someone before taking their home, and validates a questionable practice of tracking who own what loan.

Really?

How's the Market?

2012-02-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

The RMLS released the monthly statistics for January late yesterday. The trends we have seen over the past months continue, with increased pending sales and closed sales, low inventory and slowly declining prices.

When comparing January 2012 to January 2011, closed sales increased by a whopping 18.3%. These are the highest sale numbers since January 2007. Pending sales also grew at a rate of 22.4% and market time shortened from an average days in market of 160 to a more manageable 136.

Still, looking from 2011 to 2012, inventory was down, with 16.5% fewer properties on the market. Of cousre, many of us real estate agents have been telling our clients not to sell, to wait it out. It is seeming more and more, that this may be the time to sell.

Prices, may be nearing leveling off. January 2011's average sales price was $248,900 and for 2012 we saw $249,100. Is this what the bottom looks like?

In Defense of the Warm Up Band

2012-02-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

As do many of you, I enjoy seeing live music and make it a point to get out and do so every now and again. Usually, I am spurred to action by a lead or headliner, and end up getting exposed to the opener, or warm up band. Yes, no doubt, I am there to see the headliner.

But, along the way, with a bit of patience and an open mind, I have enjoyed and come to really like many warm up bands. They do, if they are good, warm us up and get us in the mood. They reflect a bit, on someone's taste affiliated with the band we have come to see. If the promoter, venue, manager or someone thought to pair these folks together, maybe we should take notice. Since my days of seeing mega bands in huge stadiums is long gone (anyone go to that Grateful Dead and The Who show at the Oakland Coliseum?), and I am much more about small, intimate settings, perhaps I am ripe for "warm up band appreciation"

And how else does a band get known and get stage time if not by being a warm up band? Okay, maybe these days groups can go from internet sensation to the top of the play bill, but rarely. Weren't they all a warm up band at some point?

So here are two warm up bands I was exposed to in the last year or so, and really enjoyed. At the Decembrists' last show at the Edgefield, there were two warm up bands. The first, from here in the Portland area, Ages and Ages. My daughter and I loved them! Bought the CD and listen quite often.

And then just recently we were introduced the The Milk Carton Kids, who are touring with Over the Rhine this season. They remind me of a young "Simon and Garfunkle", only better. There is something so basic and grounding about the simplicity of one or two people and one or two instruments. In this case, two guys and two guitars. Give them a listen, or visit their website where they invite you to download their albums free of charge.

In the Milk Carton Kids case, I saw them as a warm up band in November and headliners in January! Keep an eye on these guys.

Do you have a favorite music find you'd like to share?

Concrete Counters, Solar Panels and Stainless Steel...

2012-02-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Lots of different materials are being used in new and remodeled homes these days. With them, come new home repair and maintenance guidelines. The Oregonian's Homes and Gardens section recently had some good tips.

Limestone and Marble: Acid and grit are the biggest threats to these surfaces, so you might consider sealing them. Use mild cleansers such as a soap stone cleaner or liquid dish detergent, but go easy. And avoid cleansers with abrasives, or containing lemon, vinegar or other acids.

Vinyl Windows: Inspect these regularly and clean the window tracks. Don't use abrasives and never lubricate with WD-40, use a silicone spray instead.

Crawl Spaces and Attics: Over the years these spaces are sealed tighter and tighter. What used to be a part of your home's ventilation system may no longer be. You'll want to make extra sure no moisture or water is building up, that will lead to mold.

Hardie Plank/Fiber Cement Siding: Lots of homes are sided with these products, which hold up very well in the Pacific Northwest climate. But the joints and contact points with windows and trim do need to be caulked regularly to prevent water from getting behind the siding.

Stainless Steel: I love how this stuff looks, and it can be easy to clean, but boy, fingerprints and cooking splatters really show up. Stainless steel cleansers and polish can help make a barrier against such things. 3M makes a decent product.

Composite Decking: This stuff is WAY easier to maintain than wood decking, but does need a bit of tending to. Sweep or hose debris off regularly, and wash at least once a year to prevent mold and mildew. Power washing may not be a goo idea, and can void some warranties.

Concrete Counter Tops: Wipe up spills as soon as they occur, use a light dish soap or detergent to clean, and avoid harsh chemicals, such as bleach. Some consider using a wax to build up a protective film over time, which will create a slick, smooth, easy-to-clean surface. If your countertop begins to show signs of wear and dulling, reapply an additional coat of wax.

Solar Panels: While these don't NEED any real maintenance, a layer of dust and debris can diminish the productivity of your solar panels. A spray with the hose a few times a year can really help.

Do you have some other tips for maintaining materials around your house? Please send them my way.

The Real Estate Market is Weird

2012-02-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

The S &P Case-Shiller Index, recently released for November 2011, showed a distinct and definite decline in home prices. The S&P Case-Shiller Index looks at a 20-city "weighted average" as a gauge of the market (which also then gives us data on those individual cities). As Portland is one of those 20 cities, we do get some interesting data and basis for comparison. As this data trails our local RMLS market data by a month, the S&P Case-Shiller Index tends to provide more context and less precision.

In any case, Portland showed a 4.8% decrease in home prices over a year ago, compared to the national decline of 3.7%. Seattle, showed a 6.3% decrease and interestingly, Phoenix, Arizona, thought of as one of the absolute worst markets in the country, showed a 3.6% decline AND a slight increase from October to November. hmm

Contrast this to a few local experiences; Ron Milligan, in our office, listed this three bedroom, two bath house in Sellwood on Friday. Nice house, but not the cream of the crop. He thought he priced it to sell, but not low by any stretch of the imagination. This past Sunday's open house drew over 40 parties through, and by Monday he had five or more ( I haven't heard the latest) offers in his hand.

And Alexis Wolf, in our office, is about to list a condominium. Again nice property, good value, but nothing incredible. She has been chatting about it before it is listed and has generated quite the buzz.

And Jamie Orr, also in our office, has had this house listed for TWO YEARS. Yes, the price has come down a lot and was probably going to come down again in the coming weeks. Until this weekend...two offers!

I'm not denying the S&P Case-Shiller report. At all. But some combination of the low inventory of decent houses in Portland, combined with low interest rates and buyers tired of waiting on the sidelines is equaling activity.

Read the most recent S&P Case-Shiller report

Sellers, we NEED good houses on the market. If you've been waiting it out, now might be the time to get on with it and sell. Call me if you need an updated market analysis.

Solar Power Update

2012-02-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had the guys from Imagine Energy in to give us an update on options for residential solar power installations in the Portland area. Though it has been only 18 months since Don and I got ours installed, a whole new program has become available. A California company, SunRun, has a lease program, driving the entry cost into such a project much lower.

SunRun leases you the panels for 20 years. You pay an up front, one time lease fee. This fee can vary a bit by which is your power company, but is somewhere around $6000. The system is installed. As with ownership solar, there are certain requirements as to your electric panel and system, and the condition of the roof. You get the Oregon State Residential Tax Credit of $6000, paid out in $1500 over four years. You get any benefits of net metering; that is your power company buys any extra power you generate at the same rate at which they sell you power.

SunRun gets, and re-sells on the secondary market, the remaining tax credits and incentives. SunRun maintains and monitors your system for the life of the lease. At the end of the lease period there is a buy out option. Preliminary calculations show this buy out will be low as Sun Run has little interest in paying to remove the panels from your roof, and ending up with a supply of used solar panels.

Wow. What a deal. You still get the same smooth, professional service from Imagine Energy; the one point of contact we found so nice. There are even some financing options available for that initial $6000 cost. Umpqua Bank has a nice option through their Greenstreet program. Get in touch with me, or Josh Halley at Imagine Energy (j.halley@imagineenergy.net) for more information.

Oregon's Move Toward Foreclosure Protections

2012-01-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

The Oregonian ran a pretty good article this past Saturday on measures the State of Oregon is taking to assist and protect homeowners facing foreclosure or trying to modify their current loans. In the short term, Oregon Attorney General, John Kroger, issued some temporary rules, effective immediately, that include loan servicers under the unlawful trade practices act.

Previously, banks, lenders and funders had operated outside these rules; giving them certain protections. These new rules give homeowners and the state the ability to hold mortgage servicers accountable. But, these rules really only help those who have already been wronged, and especially those in some sort of legal action; the minority of distressed home owners. Yes, I suppose the rules also act as a bit of a hammer or deterrent encouraging loan services to behave.

More interesting to the average distressed homeowner, are the homeowner protections one hopes the lawmakers will consider in the upcoming legislative session. Mortgage reform and foreclosure protections are hot buttons that pit the strong banking lobby against home borrowers and distressed property owners, with the legislators in the middle; a place they don't relish. This may at partially explain why some of the measures below, or their predecessors didn't get full consideration in the last legislative session. In Saturday's Oregonian article, by Brent Huntsberger, lists the following bills expected to be considered:

" House Bill 4137 would add more specific requirements for servicers to follow, including deadlines to respond to borrower inquiries and limits on fees.

Senate Bill 1564 would bar lenders from putting a homeowner in a trial modification program and foreclosing on their home at the same time, the so-called dual-track process.

Senate Bills 1552 and 1576 and House Bill 4140 would require lenders to mediate with homeowners before foreclosing, as Washington, Delaware and Nevada do."

So I say "yay" for Attorney General Kroger for taking these short term measures by creating these temporary rules. But the folks in Salem must not be intimidated into inaction by the power and emotion surrounding the foreclosure issues. Get to work.

Oh, and for some perspective, the Oregonian article cites CoreLogic's statistics that 2.88% of mortgages in Oregon were in foreclosure in October (the most recent numbers available) and 5.65% were considered delinquent.

If you have questions about the foreclosure process or short sales please get in touch.

The full Oregonian Article

Que Vision. Does your store have it?

2012-01-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

I often shop at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, and noticed several months ago a large monitor at the front of the store named Que Vision. If has a graphic of three yellow circles, labeled; Open, Action Now and 30 Minutes. Or some such. The first checker I asked about the screen said , "Oh that. Ignore it. It is useless". Still curious, on a subsequent trip I asked a different cashier and got a bit more thorough of an answer. Apparently the system has sensors that measure how many people enter and exit the store and may even measure where we are in the store. It then uses historic data to predict when we'll check out. In theory, this system helps managers anticipate rushes and slow times, and allocate cashiers accordingly. I think this is pretty cool, and an interesting use of crowd data for a practical use. I also love the idea that I might screw up their predictors. Ha! The system thought I was headed toward checkout, but instead I veered a quick right to ethnic foods.

I did a bit of googling and happened on the Kroger employee bulletin board and a discussion of the system. It sounds as though Kroger has an initiative to only have one person in line, in addition to the person checking out. This seems to be a departure from their previous two people in line in addition to the person checking out. To meet this goal, without having a bunch of cashiers standing around on the payroll, the employee discussion board says all departments are being cross trained to serve as cashiers. So in a heavy period, folks from other departments help check out, and in slower times they work in their assigned departments. I haven't noticed this at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, in general usual cashiers are at their stations. The employee bulletin board made it sounds as though Kroger designed this system themselves, rather than buying any of the already on the market products.

Does your grocery store have Que Vision, or a similar substitute? Do you think your wait times at the checkout line have been reduced?

How's the Market? December's multiple listing stats are in!

2012-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Wow! December's numbers are better than I expected. The comparisons to last year continue to show lots of improvement in activity, while prices continue to decline. I have seen a few forecasts showing rising prices, and we do see some tiny evidence of that below.

So, when comparing last year,December 2010 to December 2011, the number of closed sales increased 10.3% and pending sales increased 11.7%. Even month to month, closed sales rose 6% from November 2011 to December 2011. Pending sales did fall, 14.4%, which we expect as fewer folks are looking at real estate and making offers in December (though I did get an offer on a listing on December 26th!).

In looking at prices, the average sale price was down 6.2% from December 2010 to December 2011, with an average sale price of $260,800. Make note though, this is a 0.5% increase in the average sale price from November 2011 to December 2011.

Also of note, there are fewer houses on the market than there have been for a long time. At the current rate of sales, it would only take 5.3 months to sell off what is currently listed. Compare that to January 2009, when it would have taken 19.2 months to sell of the inventory at the then current rate of sales.

While this makes me feel very optimistic, at least some part of the low inventory is due to the slow rate at which banks are foreclosing on loans in default. Banks, in general, are slowly streamlining their processes for both short sales and foreclosures. This has got to help get things moving.

As always, give me a call or shoot me an email if you'd like information about buying or selling in today's market.

Read the full Portland Area RMLS report for December 2011.

How Is Your Technology Confidence?

2012-01-13T07:56:00.001-08:00

There are those of us who embrace new technology more easily than others. It isn't that they already know how to use said new technology item. But it seems they are predisposed to be enthusiastic about what the new thing might be able to do, AND they aren't afraid to give it a try; to play around with it.

I'm pretty good with new technology; better with software than hardware it seems. There is a ton I don't understand, believe me. But I seem to have the propensity to give it a try; a baseline confidence that I won't screw it up and that there is probably some intrinsic value in the new technology. How about you? Do you get sweaty palms when encountering a new program or "device"?

A friend and I were talking the other day about how it seems you need a certain level of tech confidence and understanding to be willing to call into a tech support line. Without the confidence, fears of not understanding their instructions or questions, along with the fear of seeming stupid, are overwhelming. So the folks who need tech support the most, often avoid it.

She also said something like, " People with low tech confidence need to get an iPhone". That is, that the iPhone (and I think Droids also) help you to do so many techie things at the touch of a finger, you feel like a master, leading to that "bring it on" attitude we all need.

I think this predisposition to embrace something new isn't just tied to technology. There are those who embrace new innovations of what ever their "thing" is. My husband is one notch above a Luddite when it come to computers and such. But he is way beyond handy when it comes to construction. He can build, plumb, wire, and weld most anything. If not, he'll figure it out. And as you might imagine, he LOVES a new tool. Is he afraid to try and figure out a new tool? Not at all. Put my iPhone in front of him, and all confidence, and logical thinking disappear.

And how far things have come. So much is "plug and play" and most things have those handy pop ups that ask if you are sure you really want to completely wipe out your hard drive, before letting you do so. So bring it on, give it a try and play around. You may discover some cool new things and raise your tech confidence at the same time.

How's the Market?

2011-12-15T17:41:00.000-08:00

Our Regional Multiple Listing Service released the market stats for November 2011 this afternoon. In general, it is a bit more good news.

Both our closed and pending sales are up when compared with November 2010. Closed sales increased by 18.9% from November 2010 to November 2011. Pending sales increased 18.1% for the same time period. In addition, the number of newly listed properties decreased by 18.1%.

When comparing October 2011 to November 2011, closed sales rose, pending sales fell and new listings decreased. This is consistent with the usual seasonal slowing we see in November and December.

In looking at average the average sales price, we saw a decrease of 4.6% from November 2010 to November 2011 for an average sales price of $259,400. It should be noted that this is a slight increase (0.3%) from October 2011.

Read the full report here.http://www.rmlsweb.com/v2/public2/loadfile.asp?id=6392

We are seeing more positive than negative market factors, which could mean we are starting to get a bit of "lift off" after bumping along at the bottom. The inconsistenices in how foreclosed properties are processed and put back on the market cloud efforts to classify the current real estate market. The market we have today is what we know...

If you'd like to know more about your specific home or neighborhood, give me a call.

Things that make you go hmmm.

2011-12-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

I sat down this morning to write a blog referencing an article in yesterday's Oregonian that said Oregon incomes, during the recession, didn't fall as fast and nor as far as incomes in the rest of the country. I liked this seemingly positive nugget in what can sometimes be a downer of a subject. As I always do when referencing an article, I went on line to read it again and link to it.

Imagine my surprise when I found the article had been "amended" to say the complete opposite;

"Portland-area incomes fell faster and farther during the recession than national per capita income. And as Oregon takes longer to recover, incomes here continue to lag the national average as well as similar cities such as Seattle, Denver and Minneapolis."

You can read the full article here. And if you scroll down from the top, you'll see Tuesday's article below.

Wow. I know how we interpret data can vary greatly. I can't though, help but be struck by this absolute switcheroo. Had I not been looking into the article, I'd be walking around a bit more optimistic than usual at the thought that Oregonians haven't faired all that poorly.

hmm.

Mortal enemies, but for when it is cold.

2011-12-06T08:51:00.001-08:00

This condominium seems like such a good deal, don't you think?

2011-12-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

A client of mine is looking for a condominium for his aging mother. She is still quite independent and wants to live on her own, but is moving to Portland to be closer to her son and the support he and his family can offer.

We're looking for two bedrooms, over 1000 square feet, close in, one level and under $300,000. As you might imagine, it is the one level that is the challenge. So many condominium projects with larger units are on more than one level.

Last weekend we looked at a condominium in Sellwood that really caught my eye. The neighborhood wasn't quite right for my client's mother, but I keep thinking about that place. Hence this blog.

8401 SE 23rd is located deep in the south end of Sellwood, sort of that unincorporatedish part. It is an easy block and a half south of Umatilla, and about three blocks east of 17th. The street is very quiet and does not go through to McLaughlin.

What really struck me about this condominium was how pleasant and spacious the 1027 square feet felt. The spacious rooms really make the place feel like a home. In addition, this unit has a very generous back yard and patio with room for gardening and entertaining.

The homeowners' association dues are $305, per the listing, which covers water, sewer, garbage, commons and exterior maintenance. You can see the RMLS listing here. Portland Maps does show this in a flood zone, so flood insurance would be needed. The grounds are lovely. You don't see many close-in complexes with this.

All this for $179,900. If you think of who needs this, please send them my way. This is not my listing, but I'd be glad to show it.

Fine Homebuilding's Remodeling Blunders (to avoid)

2011-11-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Fine Homebuilding magazine is a bit too lofty for me. We can't all afford the perfect setting, materials, timeline and all. But every once in awhile I do find a feature, building material or approach that resonates. Mind you, the majority of my 22 year real estate career has been selling old houses in Portland's close-in neighborhoods. There are countless atrocities once can bestow on old houses. I have seen many of them.

The November 2011 issue of Fine Homebuilding cover article is, " 12 Restoration Blunders, Don't let poor planning and unrealistic expectations destroy a great old house".

#1 Proceeding without a plan. Now Fine Homebuilding may expect quite the elaborate plan, and maybe you can't quite afford that. But do plan.

#2. Don't expect to flip. Enough said. Just don't.

#3. Assuming an unrealistic budget. Yes, we all know remodel budgets and timelines expand exponentially. Plan for that.

#4 Failing to coordinate your team. We have found the intersection between trades one of the more challenging tasks of remodel work. There is both timing to coordinate, order of projects and what I call "the edges". While you do want to put together your own team, contractors who often work together can alleviate a lot of unnecessary hassle and delay.

#5 Mishandling Environmental Hazards. Asbestos, lead based paint, heating oil, freon etc. With good reason, these hazards are regulated and have stipulated methods for remediation. Follow the guidelines.   No excuses.

#6 Leaving it leaky. This is about air intrusion and energy efficiency. Great strides have been made in tightening up old drafty houses. Seal attics and crawl spaces, consider a blower door test to find elusive leaks and insulate, insulate, insulate.

#7 Installing new windows. Fine Homebuilding says to forget the spendy window replacements, we don't lose that much energy through windows anyway. I beg to differ. Window replacements aren't just about energy loss. New windows can alleviate some of the more hazardous lead based paint, provide sound attenuation (from a gal who lives on a busy street). And new windows that open and close more smoothly certainly provide a quality of life improvement.

#8 Replacing rather than repairing.   I agree. From a conservation standpoint, why dispose and buy new when you don't have to. Hardware, moulding and trim, old growth lumber; these things are what give an old home the class and patina we like. So when you can, avoid gutting and stripping.

#9 Ignoring historic tax credits. You don't hear much about these, and for smaller projects the administration hassle may over shadow the benefit. Check out this link for more information.

#10 Forgetting to document. Pictures are invaluable, as are accurate plans...not how you planned to build it, but how it ended up. This kind of information is especially valuable with regard to what is behind the walls and where it is.

#11 Ignoring an old home's assets. I think this could be #1.   Take a good hard look at the assets of that old house before you start planning the job. What do you have to work with? Are there some hidden assets?

#12 Blowing the chance to leave behind a better house. Be sure what you put in is quality. We all know building materials won't last forever, but using stuff and practices to lengthen the life will make a huge difference.

While you are thinking about all there is to consider when planning a house project, keep these twelve more things in mind. If you have questions about what features sell in Portland's market, feel free to contact me for a bit of advice. Happy remodeling!

Market Update for October

2011-11-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Not much new here. As with the past few months, when compared with last year, the number of closed and pending sales are up while the number of properties on the market has continued to decrease. Similarly, looking month to month, we are seeing the expected seasonal decline in sales activity.

So, closed sales increased 14.1% from October 2010 to October 2011, while pending sales saw an increase of 15.1% in that same period. There were 22% fewer new listings in October 2011 than October 2010. Some of this decrease in inventory may be, in part, due to a slow down in foreclosures, which in turn has fewer bank owned properties on the market. The average sales price fell 6.5% when compared with October 2010, to a current average sales price of $258,700.

From September 2011 to October 2011, we see 7.1% fewer closed sales. We always have a funny, "before the holidays" blip, shown by a slight increase in pending sales from September 2011 to October 2011, of 0.9%. These are sale folks are planning to have closed prior to the holidays.

I am still describing this market as bumping along at the bottom. The sales volume increase can show an improving market, while declining prices are, well, declining. I don't expect some incredible "lift off", but can imagine, with enough months of increased sales activity, that we'll start to see slight upward movement in prices. Several cities around the country are seeing some price increases. I'll save that for another blog. Read the complete Regional Multiple Listing report.

What's Going On With the Old Waverly School?

2011-11-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

We walk the dogs by this place most every weekend. It is a beautiful old building on a large piece of ground in a nice residential neighborhood in close-in Southeast Portland. The grounds are a haven for squirrels, and thus remain quite popular with our dogs.

Originally a Portland Public School, the property has had a variety of social service uses over the past 20 years. Vacant for about the past two years, the property's highest and best use clearly no longer includes a large dated brick building. Yes, we all bemoan the loss of these old buildings, but really now, how many can be made in brew pubs, condominiums and community centers. The McMenamins can't restore every old building.

So in comes some pretty cool plans for a residential community. It looks like co-housing, only everyone has their own house. The plat shows about 10,000 square feet of common space including a fire pit and community gardens; all surrounded by single family homes ranging from 1600 to 2600 square feet. Waverly Commons, as the project is called, is brought to us by developer Mark Desbrow and his development team. Also incorporated into the project will be sustainable architecture, options for solar or geothermal heating, and a tool lending library. You can see proposed plans and more about the project here.

I don't see prices posted yet, but the "How this Works" tab lays out some deposit and financing guidelines that bode for some pretty pricey homes. This neighborhood easily supports home prices in the high $400,000's. I'd expect new construction, with high end and sustainable features and the luxury of the "commons" will be priced upwards of there, perhaps considerably.

The Southeast Examiner's November issue reports that demolition of the old building will begin in December, with construction expected to start in February 2012. While the dogs won't appreciate the construction and will mourn the loss of "squirrel haven" as we call it, I'm sure Don and I will look forward to dog walks allowing us to keep an eye on the project.

Petroleum Puppy? Hydrocarbon Hound? Diesel Dog?

2011-11-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

I posted a ditty about this gal the other day, but here is a bit more information. Meet Terra. Terra is a petroleum sniffing dog, quite possibly the only such dog in the country. Terra belongs to Don Francis, of Eco-Tech. Eco-Tech is a multi-faceted company providing a variety of environmental services including radon testing and mitigation, buried oil tank search and decommissioning services I have known Don for several years as his company has provided services for clients and he occasionally conducts continuing education classes for at our office.

Don started the search for a petroleum sniffing dog several years ago. In addition to being able to be trained to sniff out fuel, he wanted a good family dog to fit in with their family; including their twin human children. Not all working dogs make good family dogs as some are so focused and serious about their work, they don't have much patience for fun and snuggles. After quite a search, along came Terra. She was trained by Puget Sound Detection dogs, and started work with Eco-Tech last summer.

As with many search tools, Terra is not fool proof. She brings though, an additional set of skills and information to the oil (and oil tank) search process. Terra doesn't find tanks, she finds oil, even traces of it. In residential circumstances, she might find an existing buried oil tank (with oil), or locate where a tank had been, and oil still exists. Terra has been known to find contaminated soil from a tank that had been buried under a drive way; one of the more challenging residential situations.

Terra came out to help with a tank search at a four plex a client of mine is in the process of purchasing. She is a very businesslike gal, eager to get about her work. While I was glad she didn't find a tank, or oil traces, I had hoped to see her locate something just for my curiosity. I am told she signals a find by sitting, a definitive sit. I imagine it is a sit much like Mollie's when she is telling me she doesn't want to go outside in the rain. Kerplop.

Not only has Terra found tanks, she has found oil where no tanks are, and most interesting of all she found fuel in soil that had been thought to have been cleaned up. Through Terra's detection, the soil was sent for further lab (laboratory, not Labrador) testing and the fuel was confirmed!

So keep you eyes out for Terra as you may see her around town.

In researching this, I came across a completely unrelated, but cool website for Pit Bulls used in law enforcement. Check it out: Pit Bull Detection Dogs

Wood Composite Sewer Pipes? Are you kidding me?

2011-10-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

I love my job, partially because I truly do learn something new every day. Some days I learn really big things. Today was one of those days.

A client is buying a four plex in the Brroklyn neighborhood of Southeast Portland. The plex was built in 1961. Today, we did the sewer scope, which involved going in through three different cleanouts in order to inspect all the sewer lines servicing the four plex.

All of the lines, until the city sewer main, are made of a product called Orangeburg Pipe. These pipes are made of a wood fiber impregnated with coal tar, buried in the wet ground to carry water. Made of wood? In the ground? To carry water? What, is this the sewer pipe version of Louisiana Pacific Siding (wood fiber and glue)?

From what I read, this material was first made in the elate 1800's as electrical conduit in Orangeburg, NY. It started being used for a variety of liquid transmissions in the early 1900's. Experience though, showed it did not hold up well to liquids under pressure, but did work for flowing or gravity liquids. So starting in the 1940's up until about 1970, Orangeburg pipe was used for sewer waste lines.

I have been selling old houses in Portland since 1989. Either I've never seen this stuff, or have and didn't know what I was seeing. As you might imagine, Orangeburg pipe hasn't held up so well against some of the more widely used products that include cast iron, terra cotta, concrete and now pvc products.

I really thought by the second World War we'd have figured out a wood fiber might not be best for a water pipe. I guess the pressures of building all those subdivisions after the war, combined with the savings this product could bring kept this product alive a bit longer necessary.

Orangeburg pipe can continue to perform. I wouldn't yank it out of it is working (this is my advice in most things), but...spot repairs don't particularly work on this stuff, so when it goes it is gone.

Listening To My Husband, Kind Of

2011-10-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

I'm always on the look out for cool, simple calculators that can give a quick, gut check on data. My husband, Mr. Finance Calculation Guy, came across this tool to use in deciding whether or not to refinance one's home: Optimal Mortgage Refinancing . With a few rentals, along with our home, we seem to have an ongoing discussion around refinancing this or that. Don does all sorts of mind numbing calculations in which I express some modicum of interest. Most often our method is to make additional payments to principal, which, over the life of the loan, decreases the interest paid. And it seem easier to do this, than endure the now painstaking process of refinancing.

I'm not sure if this tool is enough for Don to actually cease the incessant calculating. I have a strong suspicion he enjoys all that number crunching. It will probably be somehow factored into the calculations and will serve as a focus for me while I nod at Don's presentation,

Your household might not be quite so exciting as ours. This little tool could be all you need. Pop a few numbers in, press the button and voila!

Enjoy.

Trees and Money!

2011-10-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Many of Portland's older neighborhoods have some lovely, really old trees. Some seem to live on in perpetuity, while others reach that "old age" place, where, for safety, removal becomes a necessity. It is a sad day when a big old tree has to come down. Friends of Trees has long been helping Portlanders replant the urban canopy for so long now that some Friends of Trees trees have become part of the mature tree inventory. Thank you Friends of Trees!

Forest Service researcher, Geoffrey Donovan, along with a few others, has been researching the value of trees in addition to the obvious; shade, air cleaners etc. A few years ago, we saw results of his study showing trees adding to home values. In that 2010 study, his research showed that mature street trees add an average of $7020 to a home's value. Mr. Donovan is a busy guy. In 2010 he also he published a study about the effect of urban trees on crime rates. In that study he found that houses with street trees are less prone to crime, houses with large yard trees are less prone to crime and houses with smaller street trees are more prone to crime. Then in early 2011 Donovan published a paper on urban trees and birth outcomes; showing that "canopy cover within 50 meters of a house reduced the risk of a baby being born under weight".

Donovan's most recent study, referenced in today's Oregonian finds just as trees increase real estate property values, they also increase residential rental values. This recent study showed "trees planted on a rental house lot increased average asking rent by $5.62 per month, and trees planted along the street increased the monthly rent by $21".

Wow. With less crime, healthier babies, higher home sale values and higher rental values, trees seem like a pretty good idea. There are some hard and no so hard costs to urban trees. Planting a tree in your parkway, through Friends of Trees costs from $35 to $75, slightly higher if it is in your yard. Friends of Trees does a great job helping you choose the right tree for the spot in which you are planting. But maintaining a tree over the years can cost some money. Some view leaf raking and disposal as a cost while other see it as a belovedd fall ritual. And of course, way down the line, you may have to pay to remove the tree. Way down the line.

If you are put off by the responsibility of owning trees, Friends of Trees has a variety of ways to support Portland area trees through gift trees and their Green Space Initiative. And of course you can always donate, or help out on a tree planting crew.

How's the Market?

2011-10-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

As you might imagine, I get asked that question A LOT.

The market is mixed, and has been for a few months. I think we must be bumping along the bottom, sort of like a plane trying to take off. Some factors in the market are giving us some "lift", where as others pull us down.

In comparing September 2011 to September 2010, things are looking up. Both closed and pending sales are up, 13.4% and 17.5 % respectively. Month to month, August 2011 to September 2011, both closed and pending sales are down, 12.1% and 14.9% respectively. This month to month decrease in sales activity is to be expected due to seasonal changes.

Prices though, are down both when we look from last year to this year, with the average price at $268,200 down from $284,000 in September 2010, and when we look to last month, with the average sales price at $268,200 down from $271,800 last month.

Inventory, how many houses we have to sell, is measured by how long it would take, at our current rate of sales, to sell the properties currently on the market. We're at 6.7 months now, and have bumped along between 6.0 and 7.2 months since March. This level of inventory is considered to be low.

Market time, the average of how long it is taking properties to sell, is at 131 days, exactly what it was last year. Hmm.

So how is the market? Well, that depends. If you are buying right now, it is pretty good. Prices and interest rates are down, but so is inventory, so finding what you want is the trick. If you are a seller, prices are actually fairly stable, market times not TOO long and the low interest rates do have a fair number of buyers in the market. If you are an investor, now is a great time to buy, see above about low prices and interest rates. If you are a renter...good luck. Rents are on the rise and landlords of desirable properties are being overwhelmed with applications.

Read the Portland area report here.

Teenagers?

2011-10-13T08:56:00.001-07:00

Do you have teenagers? What are they up to for Halloween?

Tom Ferry!

2011-10-12T16:36:00.001-07:00

Shadow Inventory; no, we aren't counting your shadows

2011-10-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

If you listen to media on the real estate market, especially the distressed part of the market that includes short sales and foreclosures, you'll probably hear the phrase "shadow inventory". Shadow inventory means all the properties not currently on the market that are expected to come on soon.

These properties are being held off the market until the market improves or other conditions change. Such properties can be those that are eligible for foreclosure, but lenders are worried about the pitfalls of foreclosing or don't want to hold too many properties in inventory, (remember, it costs lenders money to hold houses while they prepare them for sale). While statisticians can identify properties not yet delinquent, but likely to become so, these are not included in estimates of shadow inventory. Also not included are properties being held off the market by individuals waiting for the market to improve; retirees wanting to sell the family home in favor of a smaller place, owners that became involuntary landlords when they were unable to sell, but had to move, landlords ready to convert their properties to cash and so on.

CoreLogic is a data and analytics company that tracks shadow inventory of residential properties. CoreLogic's recent report shows a slight decline from July 2010 ( 1.9 million units) to July 2011 (1.6 million units). This is is big decline of 22% from the peak in January of 2010. These units are broken down into three categories; seriously delinquent, in some stage of foreclosure, and those already foreclosed on but not yet on the market.

CoreLogic estimates " the aggregate current mortgage debt outstanding of the shadow inventory was $336 billion in July 2011, down 18 percent from $411 billion a year ago". Holy Cow, $336 billion in outstanding mortgage debt?! No wonder Bank of America is looking to their debit cards as a profit center. And while it is great that these numbers are down from last year, there are still 1.6 million (!) properties tumbling toward foreclosure. Set aside the sterilization and depersonalization of calling these "units" instead of "homes", and you've got 1.6 million folks about to be out of a home. :(

I am an optimist though; glass half full and all that. So I take solace in the improving numbers as an indication that things may be improving, if ever so slowly.

Thank You vs. Self-Help

2011-09-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I love seeing different folks' take on the world, and their different theories of "the way', or "the better way" or some such. So I've recently paid attention to two popular, and I might say, loud voices in business and culture today.

I was introduced to the first voice at the RE/MAX Convention this past spring; Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary has written a few marketing books, Crush It and most recently, The Thank You Economy. Gary is also "the wine library guy", so maybe you have heard of him. Gary has built his business upon and his marketing theory touts the personalization of business. He is a champion of reaching out and truly touching the client, and says social media gives us a way to touch clients like we haven't been able to since the corner grocery store disappeared. For Gary, business and life are about connecting with, recognizing and thanking those around us. Business will come from that. "Don't sell like a 19 year old boy". I love that line. Establish the relationship first and then earn the business.

I find this in huge contrast to Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek and more recently The 4-Hour Body. Just as Ferriss went out on a limb positing that we should all farm out most tasks to remote personal assistants and basically stop reading news, in The 4-Hour Body he has experimented with and recommends a variety of therapies, working toward the"minimal effective dose". A recent article in The New Yorker by Rebecca Mead says Ferriss's goal, whether it be about the body or business, "is to determine how much can be achieved with how little".

But while Ferris is in search of the minimal effective dose, he lives a very full and busy life. Is there a disconnect between his passion and his message?

Both these guys are visionaries. They both are on the edge of and leading the way in their fields. I'd bet they know each other, and may even hang out. Gary, there doing his high touch connecting and appreciating, and Timothy touting his "just getting by" approach, while going all out. If you have a minute, check out their work.

Those Micro-Houses on SE Division

2011-09-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

So I stopped in those micro houses at Southeast 43rd and Division the other day, as I've been curious. In general, I have thought the development a good thing, and quite an improvement on the run down houses and such that occupied that space before. And it is quite interesting that DR Horton, who usually builds larger suburban projects like Sandy Bluff or Windswept Waters, would take on such a different product in a close-in neighborhood. This is not DR Horton's first close-in project. They also built the Trolley Barn Condominiums in Sellwood eight or so years ago.

Anyway, back to the Micro-Housing project, and a bit on its marketing. Division 43, as the project is officially called, consists of 29 units varying in size from 364 sq ft to 687 sq ft, as taken from the DR Horton project website. Though the same website does not cite prices, a flyer I picked up from the model, quotes prices from $129,000 for the studios to $179,000 for the two bedroom, two bath units. The project has appealing community space with locking bike storage and comfortable grounds. It IS Southeast Portland afterall, and the project is intended for those with a bike/public transportation lifestyle, so there is no on site parking.

Here is the area map from the DR Horton website:

The units are quite aesthetic, with interesting and durable finishes and nice use of light and windows. There is little, if any space, wasted on entry ways and halls, though some units do have stairs, which eat up a bit of floor space. The units are certainly energy efficient and I thought I remembered hearing they were seeking a LEED certification, but see nothing of that on the DR Horton website. Storage, as you might imagine, is at a minimum, or below. Yes, this is micro-housing, but I think the folks that live here might have a tennis racket or skis, camping equipment, winter clothes and the like. I get building small, but would at least be marketing these with a small storage unit nearby, prepaid for the first year.

And a bit more on marketing. The folks who showed me around were knowledgeable about their product, but came off like they were selling McMansions in a suburb. Having salespeople a bit more in tune with the neighborhood might be beneficial.

These units do represent some great values (that means I think the prices are good), in a great location with good access to public transportation. In general, I counsel my buyer clients to buy space that allows for a life change; you lose your job and take in a roommate, you meet the person of your dreams and shack up, your out of work sister comes to live with you etc. I think it risky to buy place, that if your life changes, won't work for you. If you can fit what you need; both stuff and lifestyle, in one of these units, go for it.

Re-Run on the Vaux Swifts at Chapman School

2011-09-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Often the meeting of nature and human development puts nature at a disadvantage; such as the case of car meets squirrel. But every so often we are treated to a nice meeting of the two. The annual visit from the Vaux's Swifts to Portland's Chapman School is one of these rare, win win meetings. The Chapman School roost is thought to be the largest known Vaux's Swift roost in the world.
Vaux's Swifts, small migratory birds, visit Oregon in the warm months; from May to late September or early October. They winter in Mexico. In years past, Swifts roosted in hollow trunks of old growth trees. Over time, we have less old growth and more chimneys. Many folks end up with small nests of them in their chimneys and such. But in the 1980's, the Swifts started nesting in the large chimney at Chapman School. At that time the chimney serviced the boiler system at the school, and often, heating of the school was delayed until the Swifts had started on their way south. About 15 years ago, through a joint project between Portland Public Schools, The Audubon Society, the Collins Foundation and the Metro Central Enhancement Grant Committee installed a new heating system for Chapman School and reinforced the aging chimney. The $60,000 project provided a safe roosting spot for the swifts and heat (even in September) for the school.
Most evenings, the Swifts, when returning to their roost, perform an elaborate "dance", circling the chimney as a large group, flying into the chimney at some seemingly agreed upon moment. Many evenings the folks from Audubon conduct a count. Last time I was there, they estimated 18,000 swifts entered the chimney that night. To see the Swifts and the show they put on most evenings in September, head to Chapman School in Northwest Portland. The grassy hill above the school is best. Aim for Northwest 26th and Pettygrove. Most evenings over 1000 people gather to watch the show so parking is scarce. Consider public transportation or bike. Montgomery Park also offers parking. Otherwise, go early and please park courteously.
Bring a picnic, blankets, beach or stadium chairs and binoculars. Good friends are an asset too. Remember no alcohol is allowed on school grounds. It is best to arrive about an hour before sunset and expect to stay about a half an hour after sunset. Click here for sunset times. . This is a great family event and aside from the $60,000 community investment some years ago, is cost free. Some make an adult evening of it and walk down to NW 23rd to stop in at a pub
For more information, check out the Audubon Society about the Vaux's Swifts and their Chapman School layover.

Market Update - new stats out

2011-09-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Regional Multiple Listing Service just released their stats for August 2011. I think we are still in that transitional market...moving from the bottom, ever so slowly.

As I predicted last month, we did see some positive growth in August. Closed sales grew a whopping 30.7% from August 2010 to August 2011. Pending sales also went up (29.6%) and new listings dropped (24.8%). In addition, when we look at July 2011 to August 2011, closed sales increased by 5.6% and pending sales went up 13.4%.

But...we are still seeing a decrease in prices, with the month to month average sales price decreasing 1.2% to $271,800. Year to date, the average sale price dropped from $284,600 to $264,000.

There are a few forces at play that could make these numbers a bit harder to read. First, many banks are holding off on foreclosing until inconsistencies in their procedures get cleared up. So while there may be fewer foreclosed properties hitting the market, this doesn't necessarily mean we have cleared through the backlog of unsold properties. Secondly, in an effort to standardize how short sale properties are reported, we have driven, in the last month, lots of short sales from active to pending status. At least a portion of the increase in pending sales is attributable to this change.

I expect we'll see continued increases in closed sales, and minor increases in pending sale as the short sale standardization efforts have fewer ripple effects. Fall is traditionally not a time folks put their homes on the market, but an influx of bank owned properties could increase our new listing count.

If you have questions about the Portland area real estate market, or want an market analysis of your property, please get in touch. You can read the full Portland area report from RMLS here.

St. John's and My Fab New Listing

2011-09-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Actually, the listing is in the Cathedral Park neighborhood, but many folks think of that whole part of North Portland as St. Johns. Way back when, there was a City of St. John's, annexed in to Portland in 1915. The Cathedral Park neighborhood, and park were a part of the City of St. John's.

For years, St. John's was a quiet, working class neighborhood, considered to be too far from downtown to be of much import. Gentrification, MAX light rail, and bike lanes have all contributed to, in the past ten years or so, St. John's (and Cathedral Park) moving closer, in our minds, to Portland's central neighborhoods. The tight knit communities of St. John's and Cathedral Park, reasonable real estate values and core commercial area have recently made St. John's a "go to" destination. Graced by the soaring towers of the St. John's Bridge, the lush green lawns of Cathedral Park and beautiful views to the west, St. John's is one of many unique Portland neighborhoods.

My new listing, at 7034 N Ivanhoe , with a walk score of 74, is well located. A hop, skip and a jump to Fred Meyer, Kruger's Farm Stand, various coffee shops, and several bus lines.

This 1930 bungalow has been in my client's family for three generations. Listed at $264,000, it has three bedrooms, one and one half baths, living room, dining, breakfast room, and den. The unfinished basement has TONS of storage. Hard and soft wood floors (some need work), built-ins, beautiful wood work and lots of built-in storage are all part of the package.

The built-ins are lovely. Don't be fooled by the fireplace though, it is electric and there is not actual chimney. This could be a great use for one of those direct vent gas fireplaces.

Check out this sweet corner built-in in the breakfast room. And I just love the double garage:

The covered patio, garden shed and yard make for comfortable out door living. The gardens were once lovely, and just need a bit of attention to "bring them back". This house is a bit of a fixer. Yes, you can move right in, but I imagine there are several projects one might put on "the list".

To take a peek, give me a call at 503-312-8038.

A New View of Foreclosures

2011-09-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

HUD, The Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently released a new interactive map. This map identifies mortgages that had been under written by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA, that have since been through foreclosure.

These are properties that will eventually come back on the market, but may not yet be.

So what good is this map? You can't zero in on specific properties (or I haven't been able to). What I do find informative is looking at a slightly broader look. For instance, in looking at Multnomah County, in Oregon, I immediately notice the swathe of foreclosures in the southeastern part of the metro area. Where as the close-in portions of North, Northeast and Southeast Portland are almost devoid of such foreclosures. And wow, look at all those clustered up in Vancouver.

Keep in mind, this map just shows forclosures of houses that had these particular loans. Different loan products, home values and buyer profiles sought out different loan products that may not be reflected in this map.

Tina Fey's Rules for Improv

2011-09-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I just finished Tina Fey's book, Bossypants. And what a book it was. Lots of good stuff in there, and I highly recommend the book. One of the many things that stuck with me was her "Rules of Improvisation that Will Change Your Life and Reduce Belly Fat" Not sure about that last part, but some of these rules sure apply to life also.

1) "Agree and say yes. Agree with what your partner had created and start from an open minded place." I really like this one. It can apply to so many parts of our lives from relationships to collaborative work efforts and beyond.

2) "Yes, and. Agree and then add something of your own." Tina highlights this one as, don't be afraid to contribute. Wow this is even better than #1. For whatever reason it is far easier for folks to tear down what someone else has put forth, than it is to add a complimenting piece, or even add a unique contribution. I'd even expand on this to say if you can't agree and add, then create something new. I know, that might not be the best rule of improvisation, but it sure could work in life. In our house, if you don't like what is planned for dinner, make a suggestion of your own, or be quiet. I suppose "yes, and" would work like this.Me: "We're having shrimp tacos for dinner". Don or Emma, " yes, and let's have grilled salmon burgers too". Okay, not a good example, as I'm not making both those things on the same night. So maybe it becomes, No, but" as in, "No, I don't want shrimp tacos, but how about salmon burgers".

3) "Make Statements". As in, don't ask questions all the time. This could also be a good one for kids. This relates to "yes, and". Put something out there of your own, questions and questioning can be a form of doubt, and down right lazy. My daughter asks a lot of questions when she is tired as it is easier than formulating her own complete thoughts. So make statements, don't be lazy.

And lastly,

4)"There are no mistakes, only opportunities" Tina Fey extrapolates on this far better than I. I'll only make this sound like all to motherly and fake. Read Tina's book!

Not so "Smart Money"

2011-09-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

My husband has a subscription to Smart Money magazine, a Wall Street Journal publication. While I'll admit I don't read it cover to cover, I do glance at a few articles now and again. The September 2011 issue had a little ditty that caught my eye; The Perils of the Feel-Good Job, by Reshma Kapadia. As you might guess, the article is about baby-boomer corporate types taking jobs with non-profits both as a transition from working to retirement, and in search of personal fulfillment.

As expected, life of an executive at a non-profit is very different from that of a CEO in a for profit corporation. At non-profits consensus building is a norm, potential donors must be considered and the expense account virtually non-existent. Executives at non-profits often find themselves rolling up their sleeves and pitching in to get things done, even if it involves metering some mail to get a project out on deadline. It occurs to me that corporate CEO's might consider doing this too.

But what got me in the article was this, " At many non-profits, progress is measured by squishier metrics." This said in contrast to corporate folks thinking about profits and shareholders. Really, squishier? I think not. Most non-profits are quite results based, but money isn't necessarily the goal. A housing non-profit might measure success in the number of families housed, folks working with the homeless look at how many people they get off the streets, animal rescues measure how many animals they place in a certain time period, health clinics measure now many patients served or immunizations given, or lives saved, and so on.

Perhaps this could have been better stated as something like CEOs finding they need to adjust to success measurements other than the bottom line. But "squishier", I found that a bit offensive.

Finishing up the Road Trip

2011-08-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Sierra Mountains and Yosemite played a big part in my childhood. Both my parents enjoyed the High Sierra; my dad a climber and my mom a backpacker. Childhood vacations most always involved a drive across "the valley", and a climb through the foothills to a trail head. While we mostly sought less crowded spots at higher elevation, many a trip involved at least a stop over in Yosemite.

Much is the same in Yosemite Valley today; Curry Village is still a busy hub of families with kids, presenting a myriad of activities, and always feeling a bit hotter than other spots. The grocery store at Yosemite Village is still abustle of back country folk stocking up, or treating themselves to something cold after a long trip, combined with campers getting a few supplies (hot dogs, s'mores etc) and others grabbing a few souvenirs and a cold bottle of water. A few steps away, the Ansel Adams Gallery is still a quiet, cool and soothing spot to take in some aesthetics, see Yosemite through the eyes of world class photographers and contemplate a purchase or two. The Ahwahnee remains a classic jewel, tucked away from it all in the woods, with that huge quiet "lobby" for relaxing, a delicious dining room and of course historic rooms (in which I have never stayed). The Yosemite Valley of the Ahwahnee always seems much cooler than other parts of the valley.

But much has changed, and in general, I think, for the better. Back in the day, we did see the iconic dumping of fireworks off Glacier Point at night. Wow! What a show, but probably not the best for the environment. The valley shuttles, when first introduced, were open air trams, with an optional shed roof in inclement weather. I really liked those old trams as you got wonderful views and fresh air while scooting from one place to another. On the other hand, I'll admit the air conditioned coaches of today were pretty comfy. In years passed, there was an informal spot in the meadow by El Capitan where folks would gather to get a glimpse of climbers on the rock face. Today, the air conditioned El Capitan shuttle, takes folks to said meadow where most days a climber/docent is posted with a telescope to pinpoint climbers and lend some reality to the view. I like this, as many folks who wouldn't have stopped, or even known what all those folks were looking at, get some exposure to the climbers and the idea of spending three to five days on a rock face.

Favorites from this year's trip included lunch at The Ahwahnee Hotel, floating the Merced and watching the climbers on El Capitan. We had made reservations at the Ahwahnee as I was sure we would need them, but in the end, they didn't seem necessary. While dinner at the Ahwahnee is a formal affair, dress code and all, lunch was nicely informal and relaxed (you know me). I had, most likely, the best rainbow trout I have ever had, and the girls seemed to like the special Ahwahnee ketchup; some sort of BBQ sauce and ketchup mixture. We all enjoyed the soaring ceilings of that dining room, "lodge" decor and beautiful views. My niece loved the look of meadow and want to frolic in it.

Our float on the Merced was also quite a treat. The recreational rentals (bikes and rafts) are at Curry Village. Depending on the timing, especially for rafts, there can be quite a wait, about an hour for us. The place though, is quite well organized, and has a good system for forms, equipment and explanations. Four people to a raft (though I saw some exceptions with kids) and rafters much be a minimum of 50 lbs. We felt bad for the 47 lb. girl who hung out with her Mom while her brother and Dad got to raft. We were actually lucky to be able to raft in mid-August as the river is usually too low by then. The late wet season had the river higher than usual. It was quite a leisurely float, with a wee bit of directional paddling (don't hit the bridge pilings) and some paddling required to get through slow spots. The float itself took about an hour and a half, maybe two. With another half hour added on for the shuttle back to Curry Village. I highly recommend this float if you have a chance, but it is spendy.

On our last day, in the late evening, I snapped this photo from Curry Village:

One of the great things about Yosemite, is views like this, ALL THE TIME. While it had been several years since either my sister or I had been to Yosemite, we vowed to return, and a bit sooner this time.

I won't bore you with the drive back from Yosemite to Portland. It was long and pretty boring. The fruit stand we stopped at outside of Merced had to much schlocky stuff and fruit inferior to what I can get at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer. We got tired of our CD collection that had been so inspiring that first day, and grew a bit weary of each other's company. It is always nice to be home.

That Road Trip: Part One

2011-08-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

Back from the road trip I had blogged about a few months ago. Many hours of driving lends itself to quite a bit of thinking, and now and again a few revelations, or at least novel thoughts.

We set off from inner Southeast Portland, heading across the Ross Island Bridge; a cooler of drinks, yummy car snacks, a big stack of CD's and the atlas. On the road! We sat in a classic Ross Island Bridge traffic jam for 45 minutes. So much for our big start. A bit of humility is good for us all.

Day 1 took us to Crater Lake for a late lunch, ending in Yreka - a favorite stop over. I had only been to Crater Lake once as a child and remember the squirrel stealing my sister's hotdog more than anything else. We still talk about it. It had even been years since I had been over Highway 58 and on Highway 97 that far down. When you turn on Highway 138, heading toward Crater Lake, the pavement stretches out before you; over ten miles of straight, gradually rising road. And then, pop, there you are perched above the lake with the first breath taking view. As we were aiming for a late lunch, we resisted the many incredible overlooks and made our way to the Lodge.

Arriving at the Lodge at 2:07 pm. We had just missed lunch service in the dining room. Thanks Ross Island Bridge. They were though, serving soup and salad in the lobby. Fed and bathroomed, we set off to sight see. We didn't have time to take the boat trip around the lake, and have put that on the list for next year, but got some great views and a real since of scale - as in how huge it all is and how tiny we were. The rock formation, Phantom Ship, appears to be about the size of my two story house. It is actually about 500' long and about 200' tall. We really need to take that boat trip.

I was also reminded of how recent of a formation Crater Lake is. They say the most recent, caving in of the mountain to form the lake occurred about 7700 years ago. Holy Cow! In geological time that must be less than a second. Feeling tiny and a bit out of breath, we made our way down the west side to I-5 and our evening destination. My daughter had not yet mastered the art of taking a picture of road signs while speeding down the interstate, so we have no photo of the "Welcome to California" sign.

Day 2 took us through California's central valley and up through the Sierra foothills and gold country to our hotel at El Portal ( I have trouble writing that without writing Portland instead). If we endeavor to eat food grown locally, we may want to move to the central valley. I grew up in California and travelled through the valley lots in my child and teenage hood. And yes, Oregon has plenty of agriculture, no doubt. But I had forgotten the huge scope of agribusiness in California. Wow. We were most impressed with the fields and fields of sunflowers, clearly being grown as a crop for the seeds and such, not for the floral value. Somehow this seems sad and a waste. Our route took us down I-5 to Stockton (one of the worst real estate markets in the country), down I-99 to Highway 140 and over. That stretch of I-99 is a rather awful part of America; old freeway travelling through semi-abandoned factories smattered with cookie cutter strip malls.It was so nice to leave I-99 at Merced, though we could have done without the closure of the Yosemite exit, absolute lack of detour signage and plethora of construction that flummoxed I-pad maps and the GPS.

My sister and niece were about an hour ahead of us, having left that morning from Los Angeles. We had gotten texts of them passing through "bleak, dead, brown fields of nothing" on Highway 140. The Highway 140 we were on (same stretch) was beautiful rolling hills of golden grass dotted with gorgeous aging oak trees. I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. We arrived at our hotel, the Yosemite View Lodge in time for a quick dip in the pool before dinner. It didn't take us long to realize we were quite the minority at our hotel, as most of the guests were speaking other languages, primarily french. The girls seemed to enjoy the handsome young Frenchmen.

Transportation around Yosemite has grown up a lot since we visited in the 1960's and 1970's, go figure. I had remembered the open air trams that served as the park shuttles. First off, YARTS (Yosemite Area Rapid Transit) is a thorough bus system with service from Merced to Yosemite Valley, and on to Tuolmne Meadows and Mammoth; full size coaches with luggage compartments and air conditioning. Picked up at our hotel, we took YARTS into the valley and connected to the valley shuttle service (now also air conditioned buses) that did a great job of getting us around. Yosemite was not nearly as crowded as we had feared, nor as hot. There was though, a forest fire nearby(started by lightening) that made for smokey views.

Check back for the second installment: some Yosemite activities and the long road home.

Some musings on energy efficieny and savings

2011-08-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

Living Social is offering a version of a home energy audit today, performed using infrared imaging. I've seen presentations on this technology, but haven't had this particular service done on our house. I was impressed though, by what an experienced technician can learn from information resulting from this imaging. Differentials in temperature are clues both to heat loss (or gain) spots and moisture intrusion. Click here to see today's deal.

As to solar energy, The Oregonian ran an article today (front page) on the changes we'll see in large solar energy projects now that the Legislature made some pretty deep cuts in the business energy tax credits. As an emerging renewable energy source, the market for those large projects has relied heavily on federal and state dollars. The trick with these subsidies is to phase them out just as market demand for the "goods" is created. When hybrid vehicles were first around, there were some very nice tax credits to those who purchased. As the hybrid vehicles became more sought after and folks were willing to pay a premium, the tax credits were phased out, without much ill effect on the market.

Enter the economic woes of the last few years, where state budget issues, not market forces, have dictated the fate of energy tax credits and the like. The Oregonian article uses the huge solar project in Klamath Falls' ribbon cutting as an example of the type of project that will no longer see the sizable subsidies in place since 2007.

Subsidies for residential solar projects in Oregon are still reasonably generous and vary with the size of the project and local support. Click here for a link to complete list of subsidies and supports in Oregon. Navigating these various programs can be a bit intimidating. Our solar installation, by the folks at Imaginenergy, was quite simple as they coordinated the different programs to help us maximize the available subsidies and incentives.

Just as commercial solar projects have lost the majority of their support, expect the subsidies and incentives for residential projects to wane in the coming years. These programs have probably played a large role in the marked decrease of the cost of solar panels we have seen in recent years. Get in on the sweet spot of incentives and lower panel cost while you still can.

New Portland Area Market Stats

2011-08-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

The latest market data for Portland was released by RMLS today. Remember that history lesson from last month's stats. In June of 2010, the home buyer tax incentive transactions had just closed, July of 2010 being the first month with no home buyer tax program for 18 months. So now, looking to July of 2010, we see the first backward look at a normal market. Or kind of a normal market, as there was probably a slight dearth of closed sales since so many closed in June of 2010.

In any case, now, when we look back, we see that from July 2010 to July 2011, both closed and pending sales are up. Closed sales grew 21% in July 2011 compared to July 2010 and pending sales grew 18.4%. That is good. Prices though, are still down from July 2010 to July 2011, with the average price declining by 7.4% from $297,000 to $275,100.

Month to month though, June 2011 to July 2011 we saw a slight increase of 3% in the average prices from $267,100 to $275,100. Sales activity from June 2011 to July 2011 is down a bit, with closed sales decreasing by 12.7% and pending sales decreasing down 3.7%. I'm not surprised by this decrease as we expect seasonal slowing in the summer. I guess we'll see similar slowing in sales activity from July 2011 to August 2011, with an uptick from August to September once folks get back from vacation and start shopping again.

We won't know we've reached the bottom of the market until we can look backwards and see improvement. Consistently. So for now I'll ask the question. Does increased activity year over year and increased prices month over month constitute a hint that we bottomed out?

Check here for the full Portland area report.

Privitization of Water?!

2011-08-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

I know there is a whole world of water politics to which I am not privy. Let me just get that out on the virtual table. Oh yeah, I saw Chinatown and read The Cadillac Desert. My dad has a cabin up above the Owen's Valley in California, and has watched Los Angeles water politics in that area for awhile. Hydroelectric power is no longer considered a renewable energy source as the water to provide that power is disappearing. And of course, there have long been private contractors building water treatment plants and such.

I recently read though, an article in Smart Money, Water World, on Aqua America, which runs water treatment facilities and utilities in several states in the U.S. Wait, what? A private company is running water bureaus around the country? Wow. Where have I been? It is not a surprise that water and sewer infrasturctures are old and failing. And cash strapped cities and municipalities do not have the resources to invest in important upgrades. What I didn't know, but might have realized if I'd thought about it, is that not only is the issue aging water treatment plants, but aging pipes. In the interview with Aqua America's CEO, Nicholas De Benedictis, he says some cities lose 30 to 40 percent of their water through pipe leakage. That is a lot of water to treat and not use.

Private companies like Aqua America are buying utilities from municipalities. Yes, they increase rates. Not only do rate increases pay for fixing the systems, but private sector utility owners pay tax, where as utilities owned by municipalities don't. Hmm. I wonder what would happen if municipal utility owners raised their rates by that 20 percvent and used it to make needed repairs? It must be more complicated than that.

De Benedictis says about 15 percent of water utilities are currently run by the private sector. With hard economic times for cities and towns, combined with tighter rules from the EPA, he expects this percentage to rise. And, Aqua America also expects their business to increase from the natural gas extracting in Pennsylvania. All that fracking takes lots of water. Interesting though is that Aqua America's focus is smaller towns. De Benedictis says towns of 10,000 and under are their area of expertise. I guess there are some French firms who specialize in larger towns; Veolia and Suez. I'll find out about them for a future post.

Prices up and foreclosures down!?

2011-07-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

S&P Case/Shiller and RealtyTrac released some interesting stats this week.

The S&P Case Shiller Indices showed a second consecutive month of price increases for their 10 and 20 City Composites. 16 of the 20 market areas watched showed some increase, month on month. Detroit, Las Vegas and Tampa showed decreases and Phoenix was unchanged. Looking at annual numbers, Washington D.C. was the only area with a positive change and Minneapolis showed the worst decline at 11.7%. As the spring and summer are usually busy real estate months, seasonal adjustments can decrease the impression of these housing gains. Portland shows an increase from April to May of 1.2%, but an annual decrease of 9.1% Though I don't see it in print, I remember hearing the NPR story on this data earlier in the week where the Case Shiller folks said something like, " Hey, seasonal adjustments or not, any increase is good". I feel the same way. The Report

RealtyTrac, tracks, among other things, notices for defaults , scheduled home auctions and home repossessions, all signs of impending foreclosure. Their stats show that in the first two quarters, a majority (84%) of metropolitan areas saw a drop in their foreclosure rates as compared to 2010. At first blush this is encouraging. Industry insiders, like me :) attribute this less to the health of the economy and more to issues of unlawful or at least questionable foreclosure practices.

Remember "robo signing"? Where bank employees were supposedly approving legal paperwork without actually reviewing it? That kerfuffle resulted in a slowdown of procedure and paperwork. So in those instances, foreclosures are down because proper procedures are being followed. Something to celebrate, I guess.

Oregon is a non-judicial foreclosure state, which means, as long as proper procedures have been followed, lenders can foreclose without going through a court of law. As long as proper procedures have been followed, there is the catch. With the securitizing of mortgages, and the frequent resale of mortgages, lenders created MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System. This is a mechanism allowed the sale of mortgages, without recording those documents in the county in which the property is located. Thing is, a non-judicial foreclosure in Oregon is predicated on the recording of transfers of titles and liens. There is at least one court case where a foreclosure was overturned due to this exact issue. This MERS issue is slowing foreclosures down a bit too.

So it isn't that fewer houses are subject to foreclosure this year compared to last. The situation is more that questionable practices surrounding foreclosures have mucked up the foreclosure machine. Though in the spirit of the comment above regarding any market increases being a good thing, I suppose any slowing in foreclosures is a good thing also.

Solar Power and Home Values

2011-07-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

We're closing in on a full year with our "photovoltaic energy system". I call it our solar system, but that keeps being misinterpreted. We've had a few luxurious months where we have used less power than we have generated, resulting in the sale of power back to PGE. Hooray! So, we are starting to be able to calculate the day in, day out value of our "solar system". This then, leads the Realtor in me and the real estate magnate in Don, to wonder about the effect of our solar power on the value of our house.

Conveniently, the smart folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, along with some funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and the U.S. Department of Energy, recently concluded a study on this exact question. Well, almost this exact question. They looked at homes in California, 72,000 to be exact, including 2000 that had solar power installed at the time of sale.

The data was spliced and diced a variety of ways; best for you to refer to the report and summary for the particulars. The study found pretty convincing evidence that houses in California, with solar systems (believe me, the Lawrence Berkeley Labs folks don't refer to them that way) sold for a hefty chunk over homes without such systems: nearly $17,000 for a newish and averaged size system.

Do Don and I think our system added that much? Not quite. California has more sun, so a similarly sized system to ours will produce more power throughout the year. And real estate markets value different amenities differently; swimming pools in Arizona vs. Alaska, for instance. The Lawrence Berkeley Labs study tells us how the California market values solar power... A similar study was conducted in 2010, that looked at homes in the San Diego area. This study arrived at a similar conclusion, still in California.

I would wager the Portland market values solar power a lot, probably as much as the California market, when adjusted for less power generation due to less sun. We aren't selling anytime soon, so the question is a bit academic anyway.

As an aside, I've been feeling our house is a bit cooler since we installed the solar panels on the roof last summer. Don scoffs, but it makes since to me that something else, not our roof, is absorbing or at least intercepting, the suns rays on the most exposed face of the roof, the house just might not get as hot. Speculation anyone?

Read the research report summary here.

And remember, the work on our project was done through Solarize Portland and the great folks at Imagine Energy.

Decision Paralysis; why I'm having such trouble buying shampoo

2011-07-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

I am a decisive person. I make decisions quickly and well, rarely revisiting or regretting a decision I have made. In my work, I help other people make decisions; buyer and seller clients, agents in my office I counsel on their business, my daughter etc. Most of you who know me, know I don't dither and wring my hands over making a decision.

So why, the, am I having so much trouble buying shampoo?

I try to live in accordance with my values, with a practical approach. I have few absolutes in my life and manage to find the line that works for me. For example, while I am an animal welfare advocate, I am not vegan, and I do wear leather here and there. But I don't need animal products in my shampoo. And in general I buy organic when possible, but am plenty comfortable getting groceries in small town USA with not an organic vegetable in sight.

So why am I having so much trouble buying shampoo?

Up until a few months ago I had a purple streak in my hair. It was adviseable to use shampoo gentle on colored hair. I bought it at the salon. It was not tested on animals, had no animal products and was expensive as hell. I got tired of the purple streak and was freed from the designer shampoo.

So why am I having so much trouble buying shampoo?

Here are the priorities and thoughts that come into play in the shampoo buying decision (I'm sure there are more at play, but these are the obvious ones); no animal products, no animal testing, phosphate free, larger bottles as wasteful packaging drives me crazy, I want my hair to look good, I get sucked into the media message that I need special things for my hair to look good, I understand the active ingredients in most hair products are the same but for texture, color and scent, so anything will work, buying local would be good. And then I walk in the store and see a kajillion different products.

The last stuff I bought came from the "nutrition" section at Fred Meyer. Smaller bottles, no animal testing or products, cheaper than the fortune I'd been paying at the salon, phosphate free. I am not fulfilled and look forward to the day those bottles (shampoo and conditioner) are empty.

I was at my Dad's mountain cabin recently and REALLY liked his shampoo; Pert all in one . Nice big bottle, must be phosphate free as he is quite strict about phosphates up there. And since it is shampoo and conditioner, it is one less bottle and one less product! But Pert does contain tallow (an animal ingredient), doesn't claim not to have been tested on animals and certainly isn't located locally. hmm.

Now you might see why I am having such trouble buying shampoo. An associate of mine at work, who I think has great hair, tells me she uses a bar of soap for shampoo and "body wash' and uses no conditioner. Maybe I don't need to buy shampoo at all? Inaction, not buying shampoo, could be a decision in itself. That Trader Joe's bar of oatmeal soap may be just the thing.

Market Update

2011-07-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

RMLS, our regional multiple listings service, released their statistics for June on Friday afternoon. The numbers are interesting.

A bit of history. Remember that last year, the homebuyer tax credit was sunsetting and we were in the midst of closing all the transactions that had been put together under that incentive. So for months now, the closed sales for this year have been diminished by the numbers of last year. We are almost able to look back and compare normal market to normal market, not incentivized market to normal market.

So, as expected, closed sales were down when compared to the closed sales in June of 2010. But...pending sales jumped by almost 24% from June 2010 to June 2011. Wow. And in a closer look, closed sales increased 12.4% from May 2011 to June 2011.

Another way we look at the market is by inventory; how many properties are on the market. At our current rate of sales, how many months would it take to sell all those properties? It is thought that six months of inventory or less signifies a seller's market, and more than six months is a buyer's market. June's statistics show six months of inventory, our lowest point since July 2007. Does this mean we are in a seller's market? Not quite, though we are seeing some multiple offers and sales prices over list prices in well priced, well cared for and staged properties in the close in neighborhoods. I am also reminded that a major reason inventory is so low is that we, Realtors, are telling you, homeowners, that this is not the time to sell. We could be wrong. And, many homeowners, who bought in the last six or so years, with 100% financing, don't have enough equity to sell and buy up. Until the housing market tumbled, homeowners sold and bought every seven years.

Prices do continue to decline. So the pressure we might see from low inventory is not reflected in the price increases one might expect from normal, supply and demand economics. The average year to date sales price at the end of June 2011 for the Portland metro area was $260,000, compared to $280,000 in June of 2010. The median year to date sale price at the end of June was $219,100 compared to $239,900 at the end of June 2010. These numbers show decreases of 7.8% on the average sale price and 8.7% on the median sale price.

We are nearing the tine of year when we see seasonal slowing in the market as the "before school starts" transactions wane, and folks go on vacation. There is though always ( but for fall 2001, after 9/11) a bump in the market from the "before the holidays and the end of the tax tear" transactions. In 2010, the fourth quarter was my busiest. You never can tell.

See the full Portland area report from RMLS.

Those Darn Party Sewers

2011-07-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have written about these lovelies before, but want to keep this subject top of mind, or at least not buried below the surface.

Portland's sewer system is old. And much of it was cobbled together over the years. In the city's close in neighborhoods, not all houses have their own direct connection to the city sewer. Many houses then, have some sort of joint/cooperative/party line, that heads to the city main. Many streets have NO sewer main in them, leading sewer connections to join with neighbors to get to a connection on another street. In the past, the city required, when a line on a party sewer failed, that the "guest" on a party sewer install their own distinct connection. In the past few years, this requirement became more stringent; requiring that once discovered (even if the party line were in good working order) the guest must install their own line.

It has been suggested that home buyers "scope" sewers as part of home inspections for five to ten years. As with many new inspections, it can take a few years for such an inspection to become a norm in the marketplace. "Really", a buyer might ask, "you are suggesting I pay $100 for someone to send a little camera down the sewer?". Yes, That is what I'm suggesting. In those early years of sewer scopes, we were only concerned with the functionality of the line, as the party sewer was only an issue when the sewer failed.. And a failed line needed work anyway, so the extra cost of the distinct connection was nominal.

There are many folks out there who bought their homes in the last ten years, diligently paid for a sewer scope, found a good sewer, and yet are in danger of having to pay for a new sewer connection. There are also lots of folks out there, minding their own business, but who are on a party sewer with a house being sold. Chances are 50/50 that they'll be the guest and will be required to install a new sewer connection. Make note, if you are the "host" and yours is the dominant line, you usually are unaffected as it is the guest who is forced to leave the party.

I had a listing this year where not only was it a party sewer, the required abandonment of the party sewer would effect a total of four dwellings on three different streets! The City of Portland has proscribed noticing and waiting periods, but inaction is not an option and having no sewer connection is not an option (than goodness).

I had another listing where both the house being sold AND the neighbor were required to install new connections. My seller clients were quite friendly with their neighbor (this is Portland after all). The neighbor had been unemployed for two years and was quite financially strapped. My seller clients were horrified that their move to their dream home would cause such a financial hardship for their friend and neighbor. In this case, my clients worked with a contractor on both sewer connections, thereby getting the lines at a slight discount, and even paid for some of the neighbor's connection...this is Portland, after all.

Also in many of the close-in neighborhoods, the lack of a city main in the street caused some folks to (way back when) pay to have a private line installed in the city right of way. These connections are also seen to be non-conforming, and the work to make these "proper" can be quite a bit more extensive and expensive. Many neighborhoods are affected by these issues.

I have had transactions in Brooklyn, Richmond, Buckman, Sunnyside, Hillside and Arbor Lodge all with party sewer issues. The Southeast Examiner had a recent article by Reuben Deumling on sewer issues, especially as it affects the Sunnyside neighborhood. Is your sewer a party sewer? Are you having hosting a party? Or merely a guest?

Olympia Washington as a vacation destination, really?

2011-07-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

Really. I have a good friend who lives in Bellevue, Washington, and I in Portland. Most years, our families vacation together on the Olympic Peninsula. This year, a combination of forces made scheduling such a trip nearly impossible. We decided, instead, for the two of us to meet somewhere in the middle, Olympia for instance. This trip was really about spending time together, with a bit of sightseeing thrown in for context.

Boy were we pleasantly surprised!

We stayed at a somewhat tired business class hotel: the Governor, no worries about confusing it with the Governor Hotel in Portland. The location was quite central to downtown Olympia with nice views of the lake and Olympic Mountains, along with close proximity to the waterfront. In addition the reasonable room rate included a pretty decent breakfast.

Our first afternoon we took a bit of a drive to orient ourselves and ended up at Tugboat Annie's for a long leisurely dinner in a comfy corner booth with great views. Ahhh. A leisurely dinner with a good friend is one of my most favorite things.

The next morning we took a nice walk along Percival Landing, the waterfront and moorage adjacent to downtown, and ended up at the farmer's market. Olympia's farmer's market has a semi-permanent home in a covered space, stalls have access to electricity, there are nice restrooms with flush toilets and several more permanent food stalls. We found some goat cheese with garlic and herbs, a fresh baguette and a bunch or rainier cherries for a picnic lunch later, and of course a few baked goods. We passed up some gorgeous handmade beeswax candles, living wreaths (wish I'd have bought one) and yes, tie died clothing.

The view from Percival Landing toward the Capitol

Our afternoon took us to Wolf Haven, a wolf sanctuary about 10 miles outside of Olympia. We had a lovely picnic lunch at the picnic area bordering the prairie, accompanied by a large flock (?) of ravens. Wolf Haven began in 1982 and now houses 55 animals; 20 in their species survival plan and 35 residents. The species survival animals are not on tour as they are preparing to be released into the wild and their contact with humans is minimized. The 35 residents are not candidates to be released into the wild as at some time they were kept as pets or in other sanctuaries where they became too accustomed to humans.

Diablo, whom we met.

Our tour, led by a knowledgeable volunteer, took just less than an hour. Just as we began, the wolves (all of them) set to howling. Wow, what a sound. We visited eight enclosures, each housing a bonded pair of wolves. We learned much about the specif wolves we met along with lots about wolf behavior, endangered species, re-introduction and the like. I enjoyed, but wasn't surprised to learn that the strong or alpha female is integral in hunts...she organizes them of course! I was also interested to learn of the symbiotic relationship between ravens (our lunch guests) and wolves. Ravens often lead the way on hunts and even direct wolves to their prey. In turn, the wolves actually allow the ravens to do a bit of clean up after a hunt, an honor not afforded any other animal or bird.

Jacob Black, not on tour, but a permament resident.

After a bit of downtime at the hotel we took a nice stroll through downtown to dinner at the Oyster Bar. We again enjoyed a leisurely dinner, with a great view and reasonable food (and a great beer menu). Downtown Olympia is more lively than I'd have thought, with a variety of interesting and primarily independently owned shops and restaurants.

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend with surprisingly a lot to do. Give it a try!

How long does it take for that electric car to pay off?

2011-07-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Liam Denning writes about a Boston Consulting Group analysis of the ownership costs of combustion, hybrid, all electric and plug-in vehicles. The BCG study calculated the combustion vehicle costs based on tightened emissions standards, projecting 47 miles per gallon in a compact car. They looked at the increased costs of attaining this efficiency versus the costs involved in hybrid, electric and plug in vehicles. Other assumptions included a gasoline price of $4.50 per gallon and annual maintenance costs of $400 for the internal combustion engine vehicle down to $200 per year for the pure electric vehicle.

In the end, the payback on the hybrid took just under six year, the plug-in payback took seven years and the electric about eight years. While the article didn't talk about the average length of car ownership in the United States, I was surprised that these paybacks were seen as " a long time in car years; beyond the expiry of a typical lease". What is missing here, I think, is an understanding of the mindset of the hybrid/electric car buyer. Do you really think these niche consumers lease and get a new car every few years? I'd posit these vehicle purchasers are motivated by conservation values, and realize the waste, both of finances and natural resources, in the purchasing habits based on the disposable society. I'd love to see a study of how long owners of "high efficiency vehicles" keep their cars, as compared to owners of internal combustion vehicles.

As some of you know, I drive a 2006 Toyota Highland Hybrid. None of the calculations in the article or study pertain to a SUV that gets, on a good day 29 mpg and gas prices well below $4.50 per gallon. That being said, I bought the hybrid in the spring of 2005 and expect to have it about another four years. Some day my pay back will come...

The Wall Street Journal won't link to the whole story (you'd have to subscribe on line for that), but you may read the intro if you click here.

Saying "NO"

2011-06-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

I have a REALLY hard time saying “no” to certain types of requests. Is this a female thing? A Mom thing? An insecure thing?

For years, I’d say no, and then qualify the no, “ No, mother in law, I am not interested in going to the Opera with you, if I anything, I prefer ballet” But that just got me somehow obligated to accompany my mother in law to the ballet, so why did I say that!? How about just plain, no.

And in my work, the classic is, “do you have a minute?”. There are times when I should answer, “no, I do not”. But somehow, I feel that I always should have time for the agents I train and supervise. I mean what if they have some burning issue, and my lack of time and attention causes the burning issue to become and explosion (yes, real estate transactions can indeed have explosions). So today, for instance, I replied, “ No”, the agent made that “are you seriously telling me you don’t have time for me” face, so then I added, “unless it is important and quick”. Well I might as well have said “yes, I have time”, because to any of us, our issue is important, and in general we believe it can, or should be quick.

A place my inability to say no comes from is the little school girl. Remember her, wiggling in her desk with hand raised, hoping to be called on to give the answer? I was that girl, and so as an adult, if I know, or know where to find the answer, I’m game to answer the question. Am I proving myself? And if so, to whom? In my work, many agents in my office ask me all sorts of questions; many of which are based on information readily available to all of us and not something specific to my principal broker’s license or training. And how nice for them that, in most instances, I avidly answer the question or look it up for them. “Look how much I know”, I must be screaming.

So this leads me to think about how others say” no”, and how I and others receive “no”. Is there a polite way to say no, that isn’t an invitation to override the no? “No, I don’t want to go for a walk today, it is too rainy”. Can elicit the response , “ You can borrow my rain coat and umbrella, let’s go”. And do we issue different “no’s “ to different people; pushy people get the firm “no”, whereby sensitive people get the softer qualified “no”?

What I do know is that I need to say “no”, really “no”, more often. For folks who know me, hearing me issue a flat, unqualified, unapologetic “no”, will be a shock. Get ready…

That Case Schiller Price Index Thingy

2011-06-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have caught the story on NPR this morning, or may have seen it on the web already. Surprisingly, Standard and Poor's/Case Shiller Index reported that prices rose in thirteen of the twenty cities they track. As has been consisten for awhile, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Seattle showed the biggest price increases, along with Atlanta. Even Portland eked out a cute little 0.1 increase from April to May of 2011.

There is still plenty of doom and gloom to be found in the real estate. the rust and sun belt cities (along with one other) seem to be hurting: Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami and Tampa. Phoenix though, showed a similar gain to Portland, when looking at the April 2011- May 2011 price change, and Cleveland showed a nice gain also.

The New York Times has a nice interface with the S&P, Case Shiller graphs, which is pretty interesting. And don't forget that fun calculator that looks at when you bought your home, how much you paid, and how much it might be worth now. My home has actually bumped up a tiny bit since I last checked it in March of thsi year. hmm,

Some New CDs in the car!

2011-06-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

How do you find and purchase new music? As a baby boomer, I'm still attached to the idea of the "album", or CD as the case may be. Oh yeah. here and there I will buy a song from iTunes, but in general, I buy and load to my iPod, whole CDs. And an affliction of baby boomers is full iPods as we load whole albums, not just songs here and there.

In my younger years, I found new music through the radio and friends. But as time has passed, my tastes have diverged pretty far from the radio, and somehow music is less and less a topic among my friends. Or, which radio I find my music from has changed. I realize I have actually bought quite a few CDs as a result of reviews on NPR. OMG! Really ?!?! NPR is a source of my music? Why yes, and I think they have pretty good tastes in music and love their "tiny desk" concerts. Here is a link to Adele's Tiny Desk Concert this past February:

Yes, I have a teenage daughter, and occasionally she will introduce me to some new music I like...occasionally. Another way I find new music is by paying attention to the opening acts of concerts I attend. I came to enjoy Over The Rhine when they opened for the Cowboy Junkies, and Lucy Wainwright Roche when she opened for Over the Rhine. I'm guessing this thread will go on.

So, my new CDs are: "Mercy Now",Mary Gauthier; "Courier", Richard Shindell and "Little Red Boots, Lindi Ortega. Mary Gauthier and Richard Shindell will be on the Roots on the Narrow Gauge train trip this fall with Over The Rhine. So it is like I'm paying attention in advance to opening or complimenting acts. And Lindi Ortega? I heard her album reviewed on...NPR of course!

That Sweet New Listing...and why are they selling NOW?

2011-06-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

14 years ago, (I remember because I was pregnant with Emma at the time), I sold this sweet house to some dear clients; dear now, as we've done business together for 14 years, back then it was our first transaction together. They paid $98,600 for what was then a bit of a fixer in an okay to not so good neighborhood.

My clients are extremely hardworking people, doing most all of the fix up themselves; evenings and weekends after their fulltime jobs and while raising two lovely girls. Oh yes, and between tenants of course. Over the years they have added hardwood floors, remodeled the kitchen and bath, recrafted all of the period woodwork and much more.

In time, these folks bought more rental properties and switched their focus a bit to duplexes that were built as duplexes (not conversions with odd floor plans), in nicer neighborhoods. As many landlords find, these duplexes are easier to manage and bring a higher level of tenant. So my clients have decided to sell, and exchange this house into a duplex. The exchange is a tax slight of hand, where by they'll defer paying any taxes on their financial gain from this sale, as long as they put all their proceeds from this sale into their new purchase.

These folks are selling now, in what some think of as a "bad" market for two main reasons. 1) Though the house is seen as having lost value in the years since 2005, the plexes we'll be looking at have also decreased in value, so the market adjustement can be seen as a wash. 2) Since these folks bought 14 years ago, and did not load up this property with debt, they have reasonable equity with which to move into a more preferrable type of project.

Currently the house is listed at $229,900. It is located at 705 NE 72nd Avenue. Oh yes, and the neighborhood as improved alot in those 14 years. A typical Victorian, the bedrooms are small, but there are three of them, plus a nice parlor, living room and dining room. Because the basement is really more of a cellar, the laundry is on the main floor; so nice NOT to take one's clothes to the dirtiest part of the house to clean them. The gleaming hardwood floors are a treat as houses of this vintage weren't built with hardwoods and these are new, so even houses built in the 1920's and 1930' wouldn't have floors in this good of shape. The forced air gas powered heat, gas hotwater and gas cooking are crowd pleasers too. To view the virtual tour, click here.

The house will be held open on Sunday, June 26th from 1:00 - 3:00 pm. If you'd like to see it before then, give me a call at 503-312-8038. A few photos are below:

More Market Data

2011-06-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Case Shiller report came out a few days ago, looking at data from March 2011. The news wasn't great, and the financial markets took notice. Though we say there is no national real estate market and that all real estate is local, some national indices can be informative. According to the report, the U.S. National Home Price Index declined by 4.2% in teh first quarter of 2011 after having fallen 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Nationally, home prices are reaching the values we saw in 2002. Some had predicted a "double dip", which we are now seeing. Home prices were propped by by last year's home buyer tax credit. The effects of the home buyer tax credit's expiration, along with a even more foreclosures due to interest rates resetting, has indeed pulled value lower. Washington D.C. and Seattle are the bright lights , with Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas values falling below their 2000 levels.

When we get specific to Portland, we never saw much of a bump from the home buyer tax credit; values and real estate activity just didn't fall as far as they might have without the stimulus. From February to March 2011 Portland's index has fallen 0.7% compared to the National 4.2% fall. The nations one year change was -5.1% as compared to Portland's -7.6%. Ew.

See the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices here

It has been a dreary spring, but our solar power is rocking!

2011-05-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is a periodic follow up on our solar power installation of last summer. Since the system wasn't up and running until August 19, 2011, we have yet to experience a full "power year" of solar. We are still learning and being surprised by weather and celestial conditions make for good solar generation. It is not what you would think.

Solar power is generated from brightness, not heat. This idea can be counter intuitive, as a hot day isn't necessarily a powerful day. And a cool or cold day can rock. Looking at our generation for any given day doesn't necessarily tell the story. This month's power bill tells a great story!

From April 19, 2011 to May 18, 2011 our net usage for the billing period was 0 kWh and we generated 36kWh back to PGE to be credited to us on a future bill. So our daily usage was 0.0 kWh. In the same billing period in 2010, our daily usage was 10.9. hmm.

The down side is, we are of course still connected to the grid, and need to be. So even in months were we generate more power than we use, we pay for the grid. So our power bill was $9.92. Oddly, how it shows up on the bill is $9.00 for 0 kWh energy and $0.92 in taxes and fees. Oh yes, and our per day energy cost was $0.31 for 0.0 kWh per day. New math?

We continue to be thankful to the folks at Imagine Energy and Solarize Portland for such an easy process and installation.

Rain Camping

2011-05-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Some hearty folks partake in snow camping; digging snow shelters or pitching the tent on top of the snow. It is said that snow camping really isn't all that cold (if you have the proper gear) as it can actually be cold enough to be dry. I have never snow camped, but imagine it is beautiful.

And then there is rain camping. This may be a uniquely Oregon activity. People who have warm, dry houses pack up a bunch of gear (and not necessarily the "right" gear) and head to the mountains where it will most surely rain; for example Timothy Lake on Memorial Day weekend.

Activities while rain camping include erecting tarp villages with no ladder (and being sure NOT to get them too close to the fire), lighting and keeping a fire going in the rain, managing puddles and pools that collect in the tarp city and of course, drying shoes and clothes without burning or melting them. As a parent, an additional activity is trying to keep your kid from getting irretrievably wet, while they she is hanging out with friends not too close to you.

Benefits of rain camping include sparsely populated campgrounds; who in their right mind goes camping in the rain? Another benefit of rain camping is the exquisite pitter-patter of rain on tent, )as long as you are completely secure that no water is getting in the tent), and the close bond you establish with your co -campers as you endure, err I mean enjoy, the weekend together.

This weekend will mark our family's ninth (and last) Memorial Day weekend camping with the terrific families from Winterhaven School. There have been drops of rain all none years, and all but two of those years it has poured. Next year I expect will gather with some of the families we have camped with over the years in a warm, dry, sunny, spot.

So How Is the Market?

2011-05-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

You know those bumper stickers, Keep Portland Weird? Well the real estate market is helping to achieve that mission.The Portland real estate market is just plain weird.

Anecdotaly, my office and several others close in have been very hectic. Many of our buyer clients have written offers ending up in multiple offer situations, losing out. We've seen this both in the lower, first time buyer/investor price range, ($200,000- $300,000) and in the higher move-up range of $500,000 and up.

Then, out comes the RMLS monthly report with the Portland market stats, which gve few if any hints to the market we have been experiencing. The ony sign of an improving market is that the average sales price came up slightly from March 2011 to April 2011 from $261,100 to $267,300. The median price also came up from $215,000 to $219,400.

But...both the number of both pending and closed sales are down, and the number of active listings on the market have increased a tad.

We know the housing recovery will be long and slow, but ...

Click here too see the full Portland market report.

Oregon in the News

2011-05-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Two items in the Oregonian caught my eye today.

The first was the hilarious article about Pendleton's relationship to "the Dude" sweater in The Big Lebowski. They made it! Per the Oregonian article, the original sweater from The Big Lebowski is to be auctioned for charity later this month. At auction it is expected to go for somewhere in the $4000 to $6000 range. In the article, Pendelton says they are bringng back "the Dude" (and yes, calling it that) at a price of $188. I didn't, though, find "the Dude" on the Pendelton website.

The second article cited Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp as ranking second and third in the sale of green power (through voluntary programs) to their customers. It is no surprise that clean power is important to Oregonians. We like to think of our hydroelectric power as "clean", and ignore or are unaware of the coal fired power sources in our grid. Anyway, it was an interesting piece of paying for green power. We started buying green power years ago. I hope your household has made that choice also.

Can Pets Really Help Sell Houses?

2011-05-09T20:02:00.001-07:00

As you well know by now, I am a borderline crazy animal person. I have two dogs and two cats, oh yeah, and two foster cats in my guest room. But, I am well aware that when it comes to selling houses, it is usually best if pets arr not seen, or smelled, especially smelled.
A friend recently sent me a link to a New York Times article on how pets can help sell. The article talks about a few rare instances where having the right pet coincide with the right buyers can make a very positive and lasting impression. For some, an animal makes a place feel homey and welcoming. I’ve had a few of these experiences myself.
Many years ago, I listed a lovely, spacious home in Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood. My clients had two very large, very sweet and friendly male cats. These cats were ambassadors for the house. They’d tour with prospective buyers; rolling on the floor here and there to slow folks down and help them really feel the space. The eventual buyer was moving from Switzerland, and choosing to leave behind her aging cat rather than subject her to the stresses of quarantine. Was there any way, she asked, that the sellers might actually consider leaving the cats (her realtor was embarrassed to ask) My clients, as it turned out were moving to the east coast, but would be travelling awhile before settling down. They had been worried about how to transition “the boys”, and yes, they would consider leaving the cats. Now it is kind of odd that animals are considered belongings, or personal property. So just as our transaction included the refrigerator, it included the cats.
About ten years later (okay, so animals selling houses doesn’t happen everyday), I was showing a good friend and client several houses in Irvington. The kind of day when we really saw too many houses and they all blended together. Somewhere in the middle we say a great house, only two bedrooms, but it had a wonderful, spacious kitchen, sizable living room and other cool features. It also had a very large, very friendly, very white dog. The dog was quite energetic, so it wasn’t as if he was just some beautiful poser in the corner. He was front and center. And while my client didn’t even have a pet, the dog made a great impression and helped us remember this house distinctly. This house did NOT blend in with the others. My client bought that house (it was 1996 as he closed just days after my daughter was born), and to this day we still talk about ” that great dog”.
Never underestimate the power of a friendly, furry face.

Home Improvement, The Feline Way

2011-05-09T19:59:00.001-07:00

As the days are getting warmer, and spring is in the air, our 20 pound cat, who was converted to an indoor cat over the winter WANTS OUT. NOW. So the idle plans we’d had for some sort of protected outdoor cat enclosure quickly became imperative.

Guido

First, some background. We live on a busy street and have been lucky not to lose any cats to the traffic. As our cats age, it seems we all have thwarted reality long enough. Guido, the twenty pounder, has been a neighborhood fixture; holding court on the front sidewalk, walking the dogs with us, going into other people’s houses and beating the crap out of their cats.
He has lived large long enough. The other bit of background is that my husband, Don, can build anything; just bring money and time. He is the champion of scope creep. More later on this.
It used to be most cats went outside, but for those coddled by little old ladies. And many never were let inside. Over time, we’ve all become a bit more indulgent of our pets, and veterinary science has told us loud and clear that indoor cats live longer, healthier lives than their outdoor relatives.
Meet the catio. The cat lovers’ answer to giving your cat a bit of outside space, safe from predators and the temptation to roam (or go in neighbor’s houses and beat the crap out of their cats). If you look at the history of home improvement trends, the catio is still in its infancy. Catios can be small or large, lavish or relatively inexpensive.
In my mind a catio should be large enough for humans to comfortably enter and interact with the cats; kind of like a patio (go figure). Below are a few pictures of a friend and client’s catio she had built on the home I sold her last winter. Truth be told, she chose this house in part for the good catio beginnings. I believe the project cost was several thousand dollars.

Catio; no dogs allowed.

Cats enjoying the catio, furniture and all.

The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary puts a professional spin on their cat enclosures, but then they house hundreds of cats in groups settings spread over a number of buildings and enclosures:

Best Friends Cat Enclosure

Our cat enclosure is not a catio per se. As yet unfinished, even will done it will be a cat space, not a people space. It will be composed of a few modular pieces. The main part is pictured here on the back deck, and encompasses the “dog” house, which the cats have used exclusively since Don built it seven and a half years ago:

Don working on the cat enclosure.

When complete, Guido will access this via a 24″ wide and high ramp out one of the dining room windows. The majority of this is built from steel 2″ by 2″ material of a pretty thick gauge. The material itself provides the structural strength. Construction is mostly welding. Once conceived, Don added a few gates for access to the litter box and such (scope creep). We expect we’ll build (Don will) more “modules” to go out other windows, though I expect this will be the largest. The budget for this first installation will reach about $400 including saw blades and grinding wheels.
To learn more about catios and see more examples, the New York Times wrote on catios here. And my friend, Kate Benjamin, of Modern Cat has an ongoing web page on catios here.
When making your next move, don’t forget to consider your animal friends!

Predicting Price Reductions in Portland?

2011-05-08T11:10:00.001-07:00

Predicting Price Reductions in Portland?

Trulia, one of the real estate data aggregators, has come out with a new, Home Offer Report. The first report debuted March 31st, 2011; the end of the first quarter of this year. The report shows, by area and even zip code, how often prices of listed properties are reduced, what the average percentage of reductions is, and the probability of a second, or ensuing reduction.
Forbes, in conjunction with this report, issued a list of the top ten cities with the biggest price discounts:
#1 Phoenix, AZ
#2 Mesa, AZ
#3 Minneapolis, MN
#4 Long Beach, CA
#5 Baltimore, MD
#6 Oakland, CA
#7 Las Vegas, NV
#8 Sacramento, CA
#9 San Diego, CA
#10 Tucson, AZ
You can read the full Forbes article here
To access the Trulia interactive map go here. At a glance, I think the Trulia map looks reasonably accurate. As this is the first iteration of the report, further reports will speak to accuracy. Trulia projects this report will help buyers settle on offer prices by anticipating when and by how much a seller might reduce a property price. I’m not sure the data will be quite that accurate as every seller’s situation and motivation is different. I do though, find it an interesting tool.

Solar Power Update in Portland

2011-05-08T10:16:00.001-07:00

This past Friday, August 20th marked the completion of the solar panel installation, and the first day the system was up and running. They say the system was active at about 12:00 noon. Though we’ve yet to get the web based monitor (more on that later) the Sunny Boy data panel is telling us how much we are and have generated, along with a variety of other data. We estimate our daily usage is somewhere around 10 kwh per day. On Friday, 8/20 from 12:00 on, we generated a bit over that. The slightly cloudy days of the weekend generated slightly over 10 kwh each, and Monday 8/23 was a bit over. Today, a hot sunny day, we have generated 15.9 kwh by 5:15 pm.

Solar Panel installation

Today we did have our inspection from the city, as scheduled. I love things happening as scheduled. Imagine Energy showed up a bit early to place a few required stickers and such – safety stickers letting anyone working on our electric panel know that it is fed both by the standard incoming line AND solar panels. Our house is fairly new, built in 2003. My husband and I both noticed that our electric panel was missing the requisite blue inspection sticker from when the house was built. In an effort to avoid inspection hassles, I printed the inspection record from 2003, showing complete approval of the electric system. And indeed, the guy today remarked on the missing sticker, but with the records in hand, put the required blue sticker. on, back dated to 2003.
Yet to be completed are Portland General’s installation of the net meter. This mechanism accounts for the excess power generated. Portland General then credits us on the following month’s bill for any overage (or debits us for our usage). The program is set up such that individuals with larger systems won’t be getting rich off their excess power. The formula is a bit intricate, but after a year (April to March, I believe) any excess power is given to the low income energy assistance program. I like this. We didn’t install solar to have some sort of passive income stream. We installed solar power to minimize our carbon footprint, because it is the right thing to do, and because my husband is obsessed with it. That we can contribute a bit to those in need is a great benefit.
Also yet to be completed is the “communictaions” part of the system. Getting Sunny Boy to feed his data to the ether, and for us to be able to access that data.

Sunny Boy

My husband and I have felt this last detail could be a weak spot in the project. While I am the tech support in our household, I didn’t sign on to get this thing working. I can be sure the modem is good, reboot the wireless, troubleshoot the printer, tinker with the on demand netflix to the fancy tv. I do not know how to hook this thingy up. I’m told “they” will need to get back into our crawl space to finish this up. Mind you our crawl space is accessed through the floor of the hall closet. The hall closet that holds, coats, rain boots, that old pair of crutches, extra toilet paper, the large box of furnace filters, spare rugs and towels for pet bedding, bottles of wine we’ll never drink and keep forgetting to serve our guests, the folding table, packing boxes for any recent electronics purchase should they need to be returned. Given that “they” will be back any day now, we’ve got those above mentioned treasures “stored” in the living room, awaiting this last step. Now it is not Imagine Energy’s fault that our crawl space access is so centrally located, but having the stuff scattered about does make me very aware of any extra time this last step takes.

Even in Rainy Portland we Conserve our Water

2011-05-08T10:15:00.001-07:00

What is so important about saving water? This is rainy Portland for goodness sake! Yes, but fresh water is hard to come by, and much of the Pacific Northwest is not as rainy as Portland.
So a quick education on water in the Northwest. We get our water from two main sources, rain and snow pack. Rain is a fairly immediate source, with some being stored in reservoirs. Our reservoir system does not have enough capacity to store these fall rains into late summer. Our second water source is melt from the winter’s snow pack. So in general, we use rainfall rain as it comes and hope for a healthy snow pack (nature’s water storage system) for our summer water. Climate change seems to be bringing us wetter winters (less snow) and drier summers (less rain for immediate usage). In addition, population growth in the Pacific Northwest has put increased demands on our water; farm irrigation, industrial uses, municipal uses and now increased fish protection. Often these uses have conflicting goals and demands.
While we are doing okay with our water, the future may be a bit different. You may have seen the article in the Oregonian last week talking about a Federal project to take water from the Columbia River both for irrigation purposes and to help restore the Columbia River Basalt aquifer. This article by the USGS tells about the variety of effects of declining aquifers, including

drying up of wells
reduction of water in streams and lakes
deterioration of water quality
increased pumping costs
land subsidence

There is hope! There are LOTS of things you can do at home, in your every day life to reduce your usage and reliance on municipal water. As with many changes, small translates to big. Small savings on a daily basis add up. If we can reduce our usage by 10 gallons per day for every person in our household, that becomes a HUGE savings over the year. And if our neighbors change too, wow!
So here it is. And many of you may already have done some or all of these. Yay. If not, here you go. The City of Portland (if you are a water customer) has all sorts of tips, tools and devices. Their top 10 water saving tips for indoor usage are:

Replace older toilets with WaterSense labeled high efficiency toilets.
Regularly check for and repair leaks
Wash only full loads (my daughter and husband need to read this!)
Let your dishwasher do the work
Check your toilet for leaks(that running sound is your water and $’s going down the drain
Install a high efficiency shower head (available free of charge to Portland Water Bureau customers )
Install aerators on your bathroom and kirchen sinks (also available from the Portland Water Burea)
Turn the faucet on only to rinse when brushing teeth, washing hands and shaving
Know where your water water shut off valve is and
Select an Energy Star-approved clothes washer.

I recently ordered a five minute shower timer from the water bureau and will install in tomorrow.

Shower Timer

I think I take quick showers, so I’ll be curious to see how quick they really are. My daughter made it known, loud and clear, that her showers will NOT be timed. And my husband, while a saver of much, takes pretty long showers. The shower timer even came with a small disclaimer: This device does not “shut off” the water after 5 minutes, although many parents of teen agers have asked for the feature. It doesn’t look as though it would turn off the water.
The Portland Water Bureau also has tips for cutting down on our door usage, along with lots of other great information on water conservation. If you aren’t in the City of Portland, your local government may have similar resources. In addition, the State of Oregon has pretty good resources too.

When Can it Make Sense to Spend Money to Sell That House?

2011-05-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

The April/May issue of Realtor magazine (the trade magazine for the National Association of Realtors) has some great tips both for Realtors and home buyers and sellers. One that caught my eye is an excerpt from Home Gain’s 2011 Home Sale Maximizer Survey on “Worth-the-Price Fix-Ups”.
In this market we’ve been saying we’re in a pricing war and a beauty contest. The market doesn’t seem to reward such big fix ups as kitchen remodels by giving a return on that investment. And for awhile we’ve been advising sellers not to spend much of anything on preparing a home for sale. But smaller projects may have a place. This market has lots of properties in not great shape, combined with buyers expecting the picture perfect, like they see on television, homes. What to do?
The Realtor article highlights six projects under $1000, and their average expected return.
#1 Cleaning and decluttering; estimated cost: $290, return: $1990.
#2 Brightening (clean windows, replace curtains, update lighting fixtures etc); estimated cost: $375, return: $1550.
#3 Smart staging (rearrange furniture, new accessories etc); estimate cost: $550, return: $2194.
#4 Landscaping enhancements (bark mulch, add bushes and plants); estimated cost: $540, return: $1932.
#5 Repairing electrical or plumbing (ground fault interrupt outlets where needed, under sink leaks etc); estimated cost $535, return $1505.
#6 Replacing or shampooing dirty carpets; estimated cost $647, return: $1739.
In general, buyers are drawn to houses where the seller has put some effort getting their home ready to sell. Many buyers are turned off by and won’t even consider houses that feel as though they are in disrepair. Sometimes the difference in doing some work before marketing a home can be the difference in the home selling or not. Lastly, items that will most certainly be issues in the buyer’s home inspection should be addressed up front. Some repeat offenders we see in most inspections; working and properly vented bathroom fan, pressure relief valve and earth quake strapping on the hot water heater and improper hand rails (especially on basement stairs).
I’m glad to give your house the once over if you have questions about potential projects. Give me a call.

My Rant about Short Sales, It Isn't What You Think...

2011-05-08T10:12:00.001-07:00

Most of you by now are familiar with the term short sale; when the market value of a home for sale is less than the indebtedness. Many realtors have ranted for a few years about the ineptness of the banks holding those loans in processing and responding to and closing short sale transactions. This is not that rant.
Over time, the lenders holding the loans on short sale properties have figured out how to do them. They have instituted processes and formulas allowing these transactions to be addressed on a predictable timeline with predictable milestones. In addition, some government programs, HAFA and HAMP have added layers of steps and protections for sellers in this position. Generally, and there will always be exceptions, short sales can move more quickly and smoothly than they did a few years ago.
This rant is about the plethora of real estate agents who consider themselves short sale specialists and the wild variety of medieval theories and processes these agents have put into play. These “experts” see THEIR method as the best, even if it thwarts multiple listing service rules and regulations and may not be in the best interest of their client, the seller. An aside; being a realtor can take a fair amount of confidence and ego, especially in marketing yourself. But some of us have a hard time keeping our ego out of other people’s transactions (a whole different rant).
Here is MY short sale method, which of course, is the right one    A buyer writes their offer subject to the approval of the underlying lender.   The seller may counter that offer to achieve what they hope is the best price. That best price offer is then submitted to the lender for approval. No other offers are solicited, the house is marked as having a pending offer. Once the lender approval is obtained, the transaction becomes “normal” with timelines for inspection and such commencing at that time.
Some of the other schemes out there, that drive me crazy.
1) Multiple offers are collected and forwarded to the underlying lender at various times, while the listing remains active in RMLS. My rant: the poor lender is trying to process this file, but keeps having to reset the tasks and such as these offers come in; clogging the system and slowing things down. In addition, buyers think properties are available when they may well not be.   Who knows? Our multiple listing service has a spot to show whether or not any offers have been received which can at least give agents and their buyers a hint that it might not be available. Many agents decline to use this field. Another note; sellers needing to do a short sale often have the clock ticking on an impending foreclosure. Getting a short sale approved quickly is often a huge priority for a seller. Good buyers who are ready to buy and pre-approved may not wait around for this ongoing process; often leaving lowballers and those of questionable financial ability to ride it out. Getting approval, with foreclosure looming and having a sale fall apart on the buyer’s financing is not in the seller’s interest either.
Another method: The seller doesn’t sign a buyer’s offer. One or more unsigned offers are sent to the underlying lender. Unsigned contracts don’t bind anyone to anything. So the sending multiple offer issues above are compounded by nothing being binding. Lord knows what the lender is approving or how the buyers may or may not be feeling once they get a response. This has the same issues as above.
In approving short sales, most lenders limit, usually to zero, the amount of money or assets a seller can take from the transaction. The lender doesn’t want to take a loss while the seller walks away with $’s. The lender does, then, look at the seller’s assets and if there is cash lying around,may require the seller to pay some of that (retirement accounts are generally exempted).   Many houses, when they were bought, had personal property as a part of the transaction; that cool stainless steel fridge, wolf range etc. Now, when going into a short sale, some agents are suggesting the seller remove or hide these appliances from the lender. The seller can then sell these separately and pocket the money. This feels a bit like loan fraud; hiding something froma lender is rarely good. I don’t wajt any part of one of these transactions. So in a sense, those houses aren’t really on the market either.
As a managing broker who actively lists and sells real estate I see new versions of short sale “prowess” daily, and long ofor a simpler time.

Energy Efficiency Performance Scores in Portland

2011-05-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

A few months ago we had that Home Energy Performance Test done by the folks at Imagine Energy. We ended up with all sorts of valuable information, much of which we are still mulling over and putting to work. In addition to the analysis of the different facets of our house; insulation, mechanicals, ventilation, I really have valued the energy breakdowns. Our energy usage was parsed several different ways, including by fuels (natural gas and electricity), on a consumption basis, usage basis (heating, hot water, plugs) and a cost break down. It costs us $1032 per year to power our house, with heating being our highest expense at $398 per year, and hot water and plugs being quite close at $235 and $251 respectively. Note, these numbers aren’t our total utilities, so water, sewer and garbage are in addition to the $1032. No wonder it seems kind of inexpensive.
Before the housing crisis hit, Oregon, and Portland in particular, was poised to institute some “point of sale” energy efficiency standards; one with regard to the efficiency of furnaces and the second an energy rating system of homes, letting buyers know estimates of future energy use in advance of their purchase. Our sister “green” city, Austin, Texas has energy conservation audits in place in certain, and most real estate transactions. Yes, there is a place in the United States that may well be greener than Portland, and it is in Texas!
Homeowners in Oregon, in conjunction with the Earth Advantage Institute and The Energy Trust of Oregon, have used the Energy Performance Score voluntarily. The idea of a point of sale standard on home energy performance reporting is coming up again, not so much a result of an improving real estate market, but more I think, a result of increased energy consciousness. Representative Ben Cannon recently introduced House Bill 3535 which contains a variety of energy efficiency measure beyond just the Energy Performance Score. It isn’t clear how far the bill will get in this session.
The Home Energy Performance Score may well be linked, through an easy “one stop shopping” center, giving home sellers and home buyers easy to understand information and buying opportunities to improve a house’s energy efficiency. Many of us think energy efficiency is only driven by expensive upgrades such as new furnaces and replacement windows. But even small tweaks can bring noticeable efficiencies. From our Home Performance Test we learned of leaks in the duct work of our heating system ( in our home built in 2003). Caulk and mastic are not expensive, and can make a huge difference when applied to the right areas by someone who knows what they are doing. We noticed warmer rooms and less drafts immediately.
As you might imagine, there are many different opinions on a mandated Energy Performance Score. Per a recent article in the Portland Tribune, t he evaluation to arrive at the “score” is estimated to cost anywhere from $200 to $400. And whether a seller gets the evaluation done prior to marketing the home, or a buyer has it completed as a part of their professional inspections, the cost increase the amount of money it takes to transact a real estate sale.
Point of sale regulations and standards of practice are an efficient way to catch certain issues and property conditions. The State of Oregon now requires both smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms (starting April 1, 2011) be installed in a property before the title transfers. These are arguably very valuable tools that should be in place in a home. And while it isn’t regulated, oil tanks tests in real estate transactions turn up, and cause to be cleaned up, many leaking underground heating oil tanks. And sewer scopes in the city of Portland cause many “party” sewers to be separated every year (the City of Portland requires party sewers be separated within 180 days of discovery). The list could go on. The point being, real estate transactions can be an easy and, in a sense efficient, way to improve both individual properties and the quality of our overall housing stock.

Tags: carbon monoxide oregon, energy efficiency, Energy Performace Score, Home Energy Audit
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New Portland Area Market Stats

2011-05-06T09:58:00.001-07:00

New Portland Area Market Stats

Our multiple listing service just released the most recent market stats for March 2011. Just as our office has been seeing a marked increase in activity, the region has also been doing more real estate business.
Both closed sales and pending sales are up from February 2011. Comparing March 2011 to February 2011, closed sales jumped a whopping 50.4% while pending sales rose 26.5%. Spring is the begining of our busy season and these numbers back that up. My buyer clients have been bemoaning the lack of new inventory on the market. It seems like they just don’t have that much to choose from. They are right. There are fewer houses on the market than there have been since May 2010, with only 7.1 months of inventory. Since January 2009 we’ve only seen inventory this low twice. And in January 2009, our inventory was at 19.2 months!
Year to year, the numbers are down. Closed sales are down 10.2% from March 2010 to March 2011. Pending sales for the same comparison are down 16.2%. I am not surprised by this as last spring we were staring down the end of the homebuyer tax credit. This created a bit of an artificial bump in real estate business.
Click here for a link to the Portland area report from RMLS.
Tags: Portland Home Prices, Portland housing market, portland housing prices, portland real estate

Posted on Saturday, April 16th, 2011 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Housing Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.

Smog Eating Roof Tiles?

2011-05-04T14:27:00.001-07:00

A recent ditty in the Journal of Light Construction (yes, I do read scintillating things don’t I?) touched on smog eating roofs being installed by KB Homes. My curiousity was piqued.
MonierLifetile, a Boral roofing company, indeed makes such a tile. Their website explains the technology, ” The BoralPure™ SMOG-EATING Technology works via a catalyst embedded in the upper portion of the roof tile. When exposed to sunlight it speeds up oxidization reducing nitrogen oxide, which can be generated from fossil fuel burning processes resulting from operation of motor vehicles. Working much like a catalytic converter does in a car; SMOG-EATING Tile transforms harmful substances into safe ones, protecting the quality of the air we breathe.”
The claim is that 2000 square feet of the tile eats up nitrogen oxide equivalent to a car driving 10,800 miles. That is pretty good. Now, a 2000 sq foot roof is a big roof. Per the JLC article, KB Homes is intstalling these roofs in California, where I suppose there are more ranch style homes, and hence larger roofs. A quick search of KB Homes website didn’t turn up anything on these roofs, though I’m guessing it is contained within their Energy Star or Built to Order sections. As an aside, I did notice that KB Homes is using the Home Energy Performance Guide and provides a performance profile on each of their new homes. Kudos to KB Homes.

Cycling, Ink and Fitness; Portland and Oregon

2011-05-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Portland has the best bike culture, Oregon is one of the top five states for physical activity, Portland is the fifth most tatooed city (behind Miami Beach, Las Vegas, Richmond Virginia and Flint Michigan), and Springfield, Oregon has the most strip clubs per capita of any city in the United States. Oregonians are well rested though, ranking 47th in the number of sleepiest states, and we are the sixth skinniest state.
I was surprised to see that Vermont residents are number one in their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, with three other Northeast states in the top five (Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire). You’d think number one would have better access to fresh fruits and vegetables year round. I suppose absence does make the heart grow fonder.
Today’s Parade Magazine (yes, I do read it with the Sunday Oregonian) had some fun numbers about the United States; all 308,745,538 of us, and our 78 million dogs.
Read the full article and see other statistics here.