Smile! You’re on PortlandMaps

252/365 eye spy by obo-bobolinaI noted the possibility of this a little over a year ago, and now it has come to pass, albeit quietly.

As of September 17, 2007, the names of homeowners in the Portland metro area are now displayed online to users of PortlandMaps.com, the City of Portland’s property information portal.

From the PortlandMaps site:

After many months of research and discussion, within the City and Multnomah County, there was concurrence that based on State Statutes, the property owner names were public records and the property owner names should not be blocked from view on the internet. Once Multnomah County, the custodians of property records, authorized the City to display names, the City made the decision to make the names available on the internet through PortlandMaps.com.

To view the owner information, you need to search an address, then look under the Assessor link. As a compromise to privacy and safety concerns, users cannot search by owner’s name.

The city rationalizes that the information is public (and has been available by telephone or visit to the county office) and that it is a common practice in other jurisdictions (although I haven’t seen it available anywhere else in the Portland area).

Making taxpayer information readily available online isn’t a surprising move, but nothing in the About statement mentions displaying data from anything outside the City of Portland.

Nevertheless, it appears that Washington and Clackamas counties are also feeding owner information to PortlandMaps. I was a little surprised to see my name pop up since I live in Washington County. (I also need to let the county know my name is not ‘Don’.)

Links:
PortlandMaps.com privacy statement

[tags] Portland, Oregon, tax, assessor, PortlandMaps.com, real estate [/tags]

Photo by obo-bobolina, used under Creative Commons license.

November 15, 2007 · Filed Under Communities

Comments

One Response to “Smile! You’re on PortlandMaps”

  1. Ron on November 16th, 2007 2:23 pm

    County records on more recent closings may not have made their way over to the PortlandMaps database yet, and may be skewing your understanding of the actual unit sales. I don’t know how often PortlandMaps refreshes its data, but I know but RMLS updates tax information only quarterly.

    I agree that an $80K appreciation in 4 months is absurd, so if it’s true, it will just sit with the others.

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