Portland's Ladd's Addition

Way back when, Portland was actually three separate cities; Portland, East Portland and Albina.  In 1891 the three cities aware combined into a single city, and that same year, the Madison Street Bridge (now Hawthorne Bridge) opened.  These two events led to an eastside boom.

Also in 1891 , William Ladd and his wife Caroline Ladd filed the plat of Ladd's Addition, dividing the land into 32 blocks with 716 lots.    Bounded by SE Hawthorne and SE Division, SE 20th and SE 12th, Ladd's Addition remains one of Portland's closest neighborhoods to downtown and the central east side.

Photo courtesy of Oregon Historical Society.
Circa 1915

The neighborhood is distinct for its street layout, which was Ladd's own idea (against the advice of his surveyor).  Some say it was based on the layout of Washington DC, though there is no real evidence of that.  Aside from the layout, Ladd's Addition is unique for its five parks that interrupt the street layout, and for the service alleys.  The neighborhood is considered a monument to the City Beautiful movement.

The five parks were part of Portland's 1903 Olmstead Parks Plan (Olmstead, of New York's Central Park fame).  These parks are lushly gardened with roses (Portland is the Rose City after all), rhododendrons and azaleas.

As the neighborhood was built out, street tress were planted, (mostly elms, maples and lindens), making Ladd's Addition one of America's most treed neighborhoods.  Dutch elm disease has hit Ladd's Addition hard.  There is a community based tree inoculation program, and volunteers regularly plant trees to maintain the neighborhood's lush tree canopy.

It was thought the alleys of Ladd's Addition would lend it a tone of affluence.  There are few curb cuts on the main streets of Ladd's Addition, and many houses have garages accessed from the alley.  In addition, most utilities were run down the alleys, giving the streets a clean look.  Today, most residents park their cars in front of their houses, on the street.  The garages are most often used for storage.

As with many neighborhoods in Portland, Ladd's Addition originally had deed restrictions, excluding racial minorities (except as servants).  As those restrictions expired, some Asian American families moved in to the neighborhood, and in 1939 the Portland Realty Board informally designated Ladd's Addition as suitable for "oriental" families.  Seemingly African Americans and other minorities continued to be excluded by zoning or deed restrictions until the Fair Housing Act of 1968.  Other tactics continued racial discrimination in housing well past 1968.

Referenced above, the City Beautiful movement was an effort to introduce beautification and monumental grandeur in cities.  It was thought such beauty would lead to civic and moral virtue, creating social order through beautification.  Read more about that movement here.

Ladd's Addition was Portland's first residential historic district (1977), and in 1988 the Ladd's Addition Conservation District Guidelines were adopted, with rules and restrictions on changes to the street/garden system, new buildings and exterior rehabilitation of existing buildings.  These guidelines address preservation of sidewalk details and horse rings, park use, front and side yard visibility, parking strips, trees, and many restrictions on remodeling and new construction to keep properties consistent with the historic character of the neighborhood.

Horse ring in a Portland curb

Today, Ladd's Addition remains a very sought after neighborhood.  The combination of architecture, close-in proximity, superior access to public transportation and bike routes, and nearby amenities of the surrounding neighborhoods have Ladd's Addition at the top of many lists.

I'll soon have a listing in this fab neighborhood.  The house I'm listing is shown in the photograph above! Check back in about a week.

Thanks to the Oregon Encyclopedia ( a Project of the Oregon Historical Society) and the American Planning Association for their excellent information).

The August market stats are out from RMLS, with no particular surprises.  What I see as seasonal slowing  is evident in lower pending sales; down 4.5% from July 2013, but still up 9.5% over August 2012, and lower closed sales; down 5.2% from July 2013, but up 13.5% from August 2012

Our market time got a tad longer in August; 69 days vs. 63 days for July 2013.  I attribute that slight slow down to...VACATION.  At any given time, at least half my clients were out of town, so everything took longer.   Yes, many houses are selling in their first few days on the market; houses that have it all - condition, price, location and preparation.  But with 69 days being the average, you know plenty of houses are still taking months to sell.

The median home price for the first eight months of this year up 15.2 over the same period in 2012 to $265,000..

And inventory; measured by how long, at the current rate of sales, it will take to sell all the houses on the market, has bumped along, from 2.5 months in May 2013 to 2.9 months in June 2013, 2.8 months in July 2013 and now to 3.1 months in August 2013.  Contrast this to July of 2012 with 4.6 months of inventory and July of 2011 with 7 months on inventory.

I do believe we are starting to see the increasing interest rates effect the market.  Buyers who may have started looking with rates in the high 3 percents, are now locking in rates as high as 4.99%.  That much of a jump makes a clear impact.  My trusted lender, Julee Felsman, with Equity Home Mortgage, thinks we'll be up in the fives for 2014 and that we should expect, in the long term to see rates increase about 1% per year, and level off around 7 or 8 %.  None of us have a crystal ball, but Julee is one smart gal.

If you're thinking of making a move, you might talk to a lender to see how increasing rates might play into your plans.  You can contact Julee at juleef@equityhome.com  or 503-288-9284.

Read the full report for the Portland area.

Sometimes scary electric panels

Those old Portland houses I love so much, didn't have electricity way back when.  And then in dribs and drabs, knob and tube wiring, connecting to through fuse boxes, were installed.  Power surges, peaks in demand and such, would cause a fuse to blow - a good thing as it prevented over heating and fires.  To restore electricity, one would replace the fuse. 

In the 1950's (mostly) folks started replacing the fuse box with circuit breakers.  In a power "issue" the breaker would flip, cutting off power to the affected area.  Rather than replacing a fuse, the breaker would merely be flipped back into position to restore electricity. 

For years, twenty four in my case, in selling an old home, we'd be relieved to see any form of circuit breaker box, as opposed to fuses.  But also for years, almost as many, we've heard circuit breaker panels made by Federal Pacific have issues.  To a homeowner, the issue with a breaker would be that it flips to often or unnecessarily.  But you want the circuit breaker to flip when needed.  The Federal Pacific panels have been known not to flip, or trip, when they should.  Ack. This poses a huge fire risk.

In addition, we are hearing that even "good" circuit breaker panels age out, or wear  out.  I've been told the reasonable life expectancy of a circuit breaker panel is about fifty years.  Many of those early circuit breaker panels had a pretty small capacity of 60 or 100 amps.  And as we consume more electricity, many folks have upgraded their panels to accommodate 200 amps of service. Often  circuit breaker panels are upgraded in remodels and additions.

 Other safety features have shown up in the newer boxes, including a "main disconnect" by which one can shut off all the power to the house by flipping one switch. We're also seeing whole house surge protectors (rather than those things you buy at Office Depot to protect your electronics) and whole circuits protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter (rather than GFCI's on individual outlets).

I have facilitated real estate sales where a Federal Pacific panel is replaced as part of the buyer's repair request.  I have not yet seen a buyer request a non-Federal Pacific, but old panel be replaced just because of age.  I do wonder if this is on the horizon.