Loan forebearance and kittens!

I hope you're all staying healthy, and surviving whatever version  of "social distancing" you are observing.

A few things, real estate related, to know.

It looks as though mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the is about half of all US loans) will be eligible to have mortgage payments reduced or suspended for up to 12 months.  Don't just stop making your payments!  Contact your loan servicer to work out a plan.  I'm optimistic some lessons learned by lender in the 2007/2008 financial crisis will help implement this plan quickly.  Rumor has it, you won't have to submit a bunch of paperwork in triplicate.  I believe they are working for this process to be completed by phone.  You will, eventually, have to make these payments.  This is not loan forgiveness, just a break from having to pay if your income has been affected by COVID-19.

If you are a tenant, or housing provider in Multnomah County, the county is placing a moratorium on most residential evictions for the duration of the crisis.  In addition, tenants may pay partial or no rent, not be subject to late fees, and have up to six months to pay back the owed rent.  Non or partial payment of rent would not threaten their status as tenants in good standing.  Currently, the state of emergency declared by the county goes through April 8th, so this policy would just be for April rent. I expect the state of emergency will be extended.

Not so real estate related.  If you have been considering adding a pet to your family, now might be a great time.  With folks around the house MUCH more, your family would have plenty of time to help a new pet settle in.  Or, you might consider fostering for a local rescue group. Also, kitten season is here! this gorgeous mama will be ready to part with her kittens in May.  You can find out more through Animal Rescue and Care.

Lastly, people actually are transacting real estate.  Sincere efforts are being made by all involved to have "clean" showings, interest rates remain low and seemingly folks have more time to contemplate a move. Who knows, maybe being home bound has folks looking for more, or different space.  I am working, just with a bit more space between my clients and me.  If you'd like to look at houses, I'm glad to do so, but let's take our own cars.   Similarly, I'm glad to list your home, but will steer away from open houses.

A funny thing about Zillow

I put a new listing on the market last week; a nice mid-century classic in Northeast Portland, priced at $435,000.  At the time, the zestimate was $429,000 and change, and showed the value had increased $5000 in the previous 30 days (I should have snapped a picture).

Two days after the listing went live, the zestimate was $437,000 and change, and showed the property increasing in value by $13,000. in the previous 30 days.

Today:

This is the same house, over less than a week.

We're looking at offers tomorrow, and I expect we'll have at least four from which to choose.  Zillow can be a handy tool, sometimes, to gauge the general value of a property.  And clearly our pricing is right in the range, though I priced to comps, and didn't look at Zillow until it was listed.

I'll update once the sale closes, with the final selling price.

On-line reviews vs. personal recommendations

A marketing specialist I work with recently told me that people trust online reviews and much as personal recommendations.    This blew my mind, as I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to online reviews.  Oh, I read them, but always with a grain of salt.

This graphic from Bright Local shows trust in reviews, broken down by age group.

To me, personal recommendations, on the other hand, really matter.  And knowing who they come from affects the power I give the recommendation.    With online reviews, I usually have no idea who the reviewer is, which in itself, makes the review/recommemndatio less valuable, to me.

Generational generalizations are risky but...the above chart really does show generational differences.      Certainly, the 18-34 year olds have grown up with more of their lives online. Heck, I've been in business as long, or longer than they have been alive.

My business is primarily referral based.  That is, the majority of my clients come to me through personal recommendations.   I assume, once recommended, folks go look for me on-line, and that's where reviews come in to play.  I suppose its not personal recommendations vs. on-line reviews, but personal recommendations and on-line reviews.

How do you weigh personal recommendations vs. on-line reviews?  Does it bother you to be asked for a review?

Thinking about co-housing

The co-housing movement has been around quite awhile, having some relation to communes and other intentional communities.

Some co-housing communities are conceived of, and started by a group of people looking for some efficiencies in housing combined with a sense of community, and maybe a commonality such as religious belief, dietary choices or age based. Communal gathering areas, reservable guest quarters and community gardens can be some of the shared amenities.

This project started as retirement/ senior housing.

PDX Commons

Other co-housing communities are developed and built for the general public, with the developer obtaining the contraction financing ring, and bearing the financial risk.  Buyers then, get a conventional loan for the property they are buying (and buy-in to the community).

There are a few projects in the Portland area that have been built inconjunction  with Proud Ground, a local land trust.  Some of the homes are sold at market rate prices, while others are sold under the land trust model, whereby Proud Ground owns the land and builds affordable units.  Buyers then are only paying to buy the structure, not the land.  These projects have both affordable and market rate housing.  I love this model.

Here are a few of those:

Cully Grove

Cully Green

Some other projects:

Daybreak Co-housing in the Overlook neighborhood.

Adams Creek in Hood River  (still in development)

Cascadia Commons one of the areas older co-housing communities.

Financing and development guidelines have proved challenging over the years.   Who pays for the underlying land?  Do future owners get their own construction financing chiming?  How are common elements financed? Are these condominiums?  Private ownership?

I get the desire to live with like minded people, or folks with whom you have a common bond or passion.  It seems though that "like minded people" can also be code for excluding "undesirables"from the community.   There isn't a long jump to "whites only" or "wealthy people only", or "no kids", or "you must have kids."

That being said, some of my friends dream of intentional co-housing; animal rescue folks who want to live and care for animals together,  Reed College Alumni wanting multi-generational housing and engaging academic interaction etc.

Do you think about pooling resources with other folk to live a more efficient and intentional lifestyle?  Would the loss of a small amount of privacy and control bother you?

Some resources:
Co-Housing Association of America
BusinesInsiderArticle

Check out some electric cars!

The Portland Auto Show is coming to the Oregon Convention Center,  February 20th -23rd, 2020.  In general, auto shows are put on by new car dealers associations, with vendors being dealers of car brands.  So if you look at a Toyota RAV4, you'll most likely be talking with salesperson from a local dealership.

If you know me, I'm all about the electric car (and solar, but that's another story), which ends up not being very well represented at traditional auto-shows.  This is due to a few causes. 1) not all electric vehicles are sold through dealerships, so new electric cars sold directly from the manufacturer to the public, will not be at the show (Tesla).  You may see a few of those vehicles in the electric vehicle section, exhibited by private owners.  2) Few car salespeople specialize in electric cars (dealers would be wise to have electric car specialists).  Instead, they are sold by salespeople who usually sell and know. more, about internal combustion engine cars.

You'll see some electric cars on the show floor, but it may be difficult to get info on charging options, range, service needs etc.

This year's show will have both the Electric Avenue to showcase electric cars and charging options. If you go, check out the cool Chargeway beacons, offering all sorts of great charging and trip planning options.  And the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association will have a section where you can interact with electric vehicle owners.  The Tech Center, at the show, will also have some electric cars, along with showcasing new vehicle  connectivity, safety features and vehicle apps.

If you are left wanting more, wait a few months for the Electric Vehicle Symposium  and Exhibition, June 12-17.     This show is a deep dive into the world of electric  transportation.  And Forth is a great  unbiased resource for electric vehicles, as they don't represent a specific dealer or manufacturer.

All that darn plastic

Many of us are trying to reduce the single-use plastics in our lives.  There is so much, and it has really crept into many parts of our lives.

I recently started a thread on facebook, asking what folks are doing toward this goal.  There were lots of ideas and plenty of discussion; something like 92 responses.

Different households and lifestyles are different, and we all choose places we can make changes, or not.  This post is NOT meant to be judgmental about the lifestyle or choices made by different households.  Maybe though,  you'll see something here you might try, or you'll have an idea to share.

I find, much of our single use plastics are either about food,  cleaning supplies or personal care products. Here are some of the ideas from that facebook thread.  The included links are for information only, and are not product endorsements.

Food storage: reusable mesh produce bags, reusable grocery bags, beeswax/cloth wraps, glass reusable  storage containers, wrap some vegetables (especially leafy greens) in a dishtowel.  I have included a few links, but I have bought both the mesh produce bags and beeswax wraps at New Season's.

Personal care: switch from liquid soap to bar soap, bar shampoo and conditioner, deodorant in recyclable containers, non-tube toothpaste (powder, tablets), washable cotton face pads, toilet paper wrapped in tissue (not plastic), shave soap.  I've recently started using the tooth powder, and find the test to be pretty medicinal.  The upside is I end up brushing longer in an effort to get rid of the taste.

Cleaning: Powdered laundry detergent from cardboard container, powdered dishwasher detergent from cardboard box, liquid dish soap in recyclable milk-carton style containers.

Getting rid of these single use plastics has become a bit of a game in our house; what can we get rid of next?  Once I decide to make a switch, I'm impatient to use the remainder of the offending product.  Apparently, I had stockpiled quite a bit of Mrs. Meyers liquid hand soaps, as it has taken time to switch over.

If you have additional ideas or products you are using to cut back on single-use plastics, please share them!

Updated 2019 housing report

Leslie’s annual 2019 housing report
Now that RMLS's final numbers are in. for 2019, here is my 2019 housing report.

 What I said last year: I predicted 2019 would bring a slightly slower market, with market times closer to 60 days, and that buyers would have more power, and more houses from which to choose.  That the median price would rise 5%.  That the Portland area would continue to be a desirable place, with folks moving here from out of state, that volatility in the stock market, and slower growth in global markets would reduce the number of cash sales.

How’d I do?: Once again, I was kind of right.  Our market did slow, with the increase in the median price, year to date at 2.5% (so, slower than I had projected).  This left our median price at $410,000.  The year to date market time is at 55 days, up from 46 in 2018. 

Interest rates have stayed consistently low, and the number of properties sold is very close to 2018 (year to date 25,085 in 2019 vs 25,551 in 2018).    Oddly, with the slowing rate of price increases and longer market times, our inventory has remained low, especially in lower price ranges.  This low supply keeps some pressure on demand, and results in some multiple offer and bidding wars here and there.

A few interesting tidbits:  The National Association of Realtors reports that homeowners now stay in their homes for 9-10 years, up from the pre-recession stay of 5-7 years.  Lots of folks are moving over the river, to Clark County.  In Oregon, 34% of owned homes have no mortgages.

Some changes to our real estate landscape: 

Statewide rent control: In February 2019, the state legislature passed SB 608, which got lots of attention as the first state-wide rent control in the nation.  There were some lesser publicized sections of the bill, effecting the owners’ of rental properties ability to sell their property.  The basic premise is, to sell a tenant occupied property, the tenant must be given 90 days-notice, once an offer is accepted, from an owner occupant buyer.  This means the owner cannot move the tenant out and do fix up work in advance of selling.  It also means the seller is looking for an owner occupant buyer willing to wait for 90 days to purchase the property. These state rules are in addition to the City of Portland’s tenant relocation assistance. 

Tenant Screening: Coming, most likely in March of 2020, will be the City of Portland’s tenant screening and security deposit rules, which are pretty complicated, in their own right.  The screening rules offer two screening paths, based on how the owner chooses to screen.  In addition, there are limits on the amount of deposits that can be charged, they must be held in a separate account, and if interest is earned on that account, it must go to the tenants, and the tenant is entitled to an accounting of the interest at regular intervals.  I’m off to find a non-interest-bearing account, as it will cost more to keep track of and account for the interest than the amount of the interest itself. J  I’ll have more information on this as the actual rules are written.

iBuyers: Also, new to our market this last year is the influx of ibuyers, or instant offers.  The prevailing players in the Portland market are OpenDoor and Zillow, though Redfin is also starting a similar program.   While their models vary slightly, all are a good option for folks who need to sell quickly or with a minimum of interference in their lives. Think of these as the “easy button”, used for relocations, busy household, need to sell to buy….  OpenDoor only buys properties built after 1950, under $550,000, no swimming pools, on public sewer and ½ acre or less.  These companies make their money in the fees (they don’t call it commission).  In the Portland area, their fees run around 9%.  They do re-sell the properties, but aren’t flippers.  That is, as a practice, they aren’t fixing their inventory houses up.  Their fee structure does allow for a buyer or seller to have their own real estate representation (me!).  If you’d like more information on these programs, get in touch with me.

The hotspots: Gresham, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Beaverton, Hillsboro.  These areas are seeing above average % price increases.   They all have decent, affordable housing stock.  Some have sweet downtown areas.  Portland’s close-in neighborhoods remain popular, but are less affordable than they used to be.

My 2020 predictions: The Portland real estate market will be very similar to that of 2019; low interest rates, lower rate of price increase (but prices will still go up).  The construction of larger multi-family projects will wane.  Construction of high-end spec homes will also wane.  Buyers, in certain segments will have more power than they have had in recent years; new construction being one of those segments.  The slowed rate of price increase does mean a buyer should plan to stay in their home longer (at least 5 years?), before expecting to sell with any sort of gain.

I remain honored to help folks with some of the biggest decisions of their lives, and humbled by the trust placed in me.  My business is based on referrals.  I will always take good care of anyone you send my way.  Be it selling, buying or just curious, I am always here to help.

ps. I’m moving away from the monthly mailing, to an email newsletter.  I’ll be able to link to handy information, while losing the wasteful paper and envelopes.  Look for the email newsletter early in 2020.