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Week Links – October 31, 2008
A collection of recent Portland and national real estate news, compiled for you to read in your sugar-induced, zombie state tonight.
Because Everyone Else Was Doing It
This American Life – 355: The Giant Pool of Money —A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News and This American Life. It’s several weeks old, but if you hadn’t heard it, I highly encourage a listen.
Case-Shiller Shows PDX down 7.6% over 12 months
Consistent with what you’ve read here, the August 2008 Case-Shiller home price index for Portland dropped 1.3% from July, and 7.6% from August 2007. Tom Cusack at the Oregon Housing Blog says it was the largest decline in the 20+ years (where annual change data is available). Portland now has the 7th best ranking in the 20-city survey, but in January was #2.
Foreclosure scourge spreads into Oregon
Ryan Frank checks in on tri-county foreclosure rates and pillaged properties.
National Median Values
The National Association of Realtors rolls out a Google map of median housing values by metropolitan statistical area (MSA). If it’s easier to read values from a table, they have that, too.
Why Mortgage Workouts Are Stalling
Tom Royce at The Real Estate Bloggers comments on a CNBC report that the covenants of the mortgage-backed securities are hindering owners from renegotiating their terms.
U.S. Homeowners in Denial?
The delusion isn’t so pronounced in the West, but a recent Zillow survey shows that half of US homeowners are still under the impression that their homes have not lost value.
Finally, I leave you with:
What is it about Bacon?
Looking for bacon reviews? Bacon-inspired recipes? Of course you were! So, here is Portland’s own BaconGeek. Enjoy!
Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
…and the Indian casinos, loggers, and soldiers, too.
Not particularly relevant to Portland real estate, but I found it interesting, nonetheless. This map details the percentage of state territory owned by the federal government in the U.S. Oregon ranks #4 overall, with 53.1% owned by the Feds.
Map courtesy of David Kennedy, from the fascinating article in Stanford Alumni magazine.
From Strange Maps:
The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) – nearly 30% of its total territory. These federal lands are used as military bases or testing grounds, nature parks and reserves and indian reservations, or are leased to the private sector for commercial exploitation (e.g. forestry, mining, agriculture). They are managed by different administrations, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Department of Defense, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Bureau of Reclamation or the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The top 10 list of states with the highest percentage of federally owned land:
| Rank | State | Percentage |
| 1. | Nevada | 84.5% |
| 2. | Alaska | 69.1% |
| 3. | Utah | 57.4% |
| 4. | Oregon | 53.1% |
| 5. | Idaho | 50.2% |
| 6. | Arizona | 48.1% |
| 7. | California | 45.3% |
| 8. | Wyoming | 42.3% |
| 9. | New Mexico | 41.8% |
| 10. | Colorado | 36.6% |
Connecticut and Rhode Island have the least amount of federally-owned land at 0.4%.
It’s GO time.
Says it all, doesn’t it?
For those of us here in 1977 and through a couple good runs in the 90’s, the most highly anticipated sports season in Portland in many years begins tonight against the defending Western Conference champs, the Lakers.
Only residents under rocks or living in caves haven’t heard something about Brandon, LaMarcus, Rudy, and the big GO, Greg Oden. Dwight Jaynes previews the season and says this team will put a smile on local faces. I agree, even if expectations are sky-high.
We got a little weary of selfish, overpaid, underachieving, towel-throwing, dog-fighting, teammate-punching, ref-baiting potheads and thugs. So, even if the team doesn’t win 50 games this year, they have already endeared themselves to a city longing for someone to root for.
Before long, you’ll want to download the schedule, and hardcore fans will follow the fan-driven Blazer’s Edge and OregonLive’s Blazer blogs.
And welcome all you Seattle readers. Sorry about you losing your team to…who was it?…oh yeah, Oklahoma City.
Moving Day for Ladd Carriage House
Be sure to look both ways crossing Columbia St. tomorrow. You might get run over by a 267-ton house.
Saturday, October 25 is a literal homecoming for the Ladd Carriage House. The house William Ladd built in 1883 for horses, carriages, coachmen, and hay storage will rumble down Columbia St., back to its foundation on Broadway. The structure was originally moved last June to facilitate the construction of underground parking for the Ladd Tower.
The move starts around 7am and should conclude by mid-afternoon. The Friends of the Ladd Carriage House have lots of details about the house and the moving ceremony. Here, too, is some advance coverage by the Oregonian.
Squeezing by on Columbia St. Image courtesy of Daniel Friedman. Thanks Dan.
I will post links to videos when they become available. You can see last year’s coverage here.
UPDATE: Video coverage from the Oregonian.
| Moving Day |
Early Tickets Available For Street of Eames
If you act quickly, you may be able to secure advance tickets now to Portland’s only annual tour of mid-century and modern contemporary homes.
The Street of Eames tour is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, 2009, and if previous years are any indication, you may want to avoid the crush of online ticket seekers when the general admission tickets go on sale in mid-February.
The first three SoE shows were instant sell-outs.
Reflecting the demand, ticket prices are up some this year. General admission tickets are $50 and student tickets will run $40, but for a limited time, you can secure advance tickets with an additional $150 tax-deductible donation to the tour’s Project Return/Chapman Foundation, which provide after-school programs for homeless students attending Chapman and Beach elementary schools. The all volunteer-run home tour effort has raised $283,000 toward these programs in the first three years.
Modern design and architecture enthusiasts can find additional information or purchase advance tickets at http://www.streetofeames.org.
The board also announced an additional event:
Street of Eames fundraiser Nov. 12
Rejuvenation, a sponsor of the 2009 tour, is offering a lecture called “Inside the Atomic Ranch: Great Interiors” from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at Rejuvenation’s showroom at 1100 S.E. Grand Ave. Suggested admission: $10.Join Jim Brown of Atomic Ranch Magazine and Erin Marshall of Kismet Design for an evening of ranch-flavored show and tell. On the menu: 1940s – 60s mid-century modern interiors. Raffle tickets will be available for prizes, including 2009 tour tickets. Snacks provided by Devil’s Food Catering, and libations courtesy of Pour Wine Bar & Bistro. Please RSVP by Friday, Nov. 7, by contacting Nicole Curcio at Rejuvenation, 503-230-2644 or by email.
Portland Real Estate Market Results – September 2008 Final
Some reports on the Portland market may focus on the better-than-expected unit sales performance of September 2008 (compared to September 2007), but the fact remains, the Portland metropolitan real estate will be carrying a large inventory into the hibernation months.
At September’s rate of sales, the 17,000+ active listings would take 10 and a half months to absorb. Year-to-date, the market has been down 35% in units sold compared to 2007, but September’s 1,640 closed sales were down just 12% from September 2007.
Still, with economic uncertainties swirling, buyers are expected to continue their cautious ways in the quieter winter months. We’re likely to see as many expired or cancelled listings as sales over the next couple months as ‘listing fatigue’ sets in.
September median home prices were down 11.6% from the peak in August 2007, and off 4.6% from the previous month.
September 2008 Market Activity
| September 2008 | August 2008 | September 2007 | |
| Median Sale Price | $267,000 | $280,000 | $283,500 |
| Average Sale Price | $315,300 | $331,300 | $334,000 |
| Closed Sales | 1,640 | 1,770 | 1,866 |
| Pending Sales | 1,705 | 1,908 | 1,930 |
| New Listings | 4,200 | 4,398 | 4,966 |
| Active Listings | 17,006 | 17,556 | 16,054 |
| Total Market Time * | 129 days | 121 days | |
| Inventory (in months) | 10.4 | 9.9 | 8.6 |
Here’s how Portland’s various market areas break down, year-to-date:
| Area | YTD Avg. Sale Price | YTD Median Sale Price | 12-Mo. Appreciation | Total Mkt Time* |
| Lake Oswego / West Linn | $552,700 | $450,000 | 5.4% | 188 |
| West Portland | $485,100 | $399,400 | 6.8% | 156 |
| NW Washington County | $402,200 | $374,000 | 0.4% | 142 |
| Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville | $356,500 | $325,000 | -3.8% | 132 |
| Northeast Portland | $324,800 | $282,500 | 2.1% | 104 |
| Milwaukie / Clackamas | $324,700 | $290,000 | -6.7% | 111 |
| Oregon City / Canby | $319,800 | $285,000 | -3.7% | 149 |
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove | $284,200 | $259,900 | -4.1% | 131 |
| Southeast Portland | $279,800 | $247,400 | -1.5% | 97 |
| Beaverton / Aloha | $275,400 | $250,100 | -3.8% | 114 |
| Yamhill County | $273,200 | $226,100 | -1.5% | 168 |
| North Portland | $269,900 | $252,500 | 2.7% | 93 |
| Gresham / Troutdale | $260,700 | $245,000 | -5.0% | 141 |
| Columbia County | $227,200 | $214,000 | -8.2% | 164 |
Source: RMLS, October 2008.
* Total Market Time – the number of days from when a property is listed to when an offer is accepted on that same property. If a property is re-listed within 31 days, Total Market Time continues to accrue; however, it does not include the time it was off the market. The old Average Market Time measured the days a listing number was active–not taking into account re-listings.
The Weekend Starts Early in Clackamas County
Want to record your title and take possession of your new home on a Friday, in time for a weekend move-in? Not gonna happen if your home is located in Clackamas County, because no one will be at work to record your title.
(Cue crickets chirping)
After November 1, 2008, many Clackamas County offices are moving to a 4-day work week, with only public safety services like fire and police open on Friday. The Friday shutdown is a trial program, designed to reduce the county’s carbon footprint by minimizing employee commutes and energy costs at the county building. New hours are expected to extend from 7am to 6pm Monday through Thursday.
So, if you have a home in escrow, check your sale agreements and notify your lender to change any scheduled Friday closings. Title officers will now have to get used to a crush of panic-driven Thursday closings, instead.
Heads-up courtesy of Trudy Bushard at Eagle Home Mortgage.
Giving New Meaning To The Term ‘Housing Slide’
As if Portland homeowners weren’t worrying about slipping home values, some are seeing random, unprovoked housing disasters.
Early this morning, a 3,300 sq. ft. home in the Hillsdale neighborhood of SW Portland broke free from its foundation, and rumbled downhill into the homes of two neighbors on Terwilliger Blvd.
The aftermath looks like something out of ‘Twister’. Unbelievable. It even made CNN News this morning (courtesy of KGW News).
What it says to me is, if you’re in the market for a hillside home, a visit from a local structural engineer should be a part of your home inspection process … and perhaps, a study of surrounding homes, particularly those uphill.
And to think, it’s not even monsoon season yet.
UPDATE: Some video from OregonLive.com:
| House slide in Southwest Portland |
Discovered courtesy of Diane Tuman @ Zillow.com.
Portland MLS Changes Rules on Address Display
One of the last holdouts among major multiple listing services (MLS), the REALTOR® board that encompasses Portland (and several other Oregon communities and SW Washington) has changed its policy regarding the display of property addresses on selected Internet sites.
As of November 1, 2008, the RMLS (Regional Multiple Listing Service) will no longer prohibit the display of property address on broker websites that use the IDX (internet data exchange) policy. The IDX policy was designed by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in 2000 and authorizes:
MLS participants to display on their websites the listings of other participants, subject to certain requirements and limitations.
The NAR provides considerable leeway for individual boards to set their own policies on what information is shown, but the vast majority of metropolitan boards across the nation have been showing address information for some time.
This means that many of the local Realtor sites may soon begin to show the property address. I say ‘may’ because it isn’t mandatory, but I expect most IDX participants to adopt the practice. Agents may exclude individual listings (with owner’s authorization), and brokers can exclude all their listings on a blanket basis, but this should be rare.
In my opinion, the exclusion of the address field created an unnecessary barrier to consumer information—forcing casual home shoppers into creating assumed business relationships with agents, when all they wanted to know was the location of the property so they could do a drive-by, or look up the neighborhood on Google’s Street View.
The rule change will benefit pure search sites like Estately.com and Roost.com, who already receive IDX information from RMLS. Others that do show address information, such as Trulia.com and Zillow.com, are not part of the IDX program, relying instead on data feeds from aggregators or through direct inclusion by brokers.
How long it will take for addresses to show up is dependent on the individual website vendors that provide IDX services to their broker customers, but I expect it to be very shortly after the November 1 rules change.
Photo by darwinbell, used under Creative Commons license.
Why Is Anyone In This Picture Smiling?
I don’t think it’s an appropriate pose. Period.
Hat tip: Tom Royce @ The Real Estate Bloggers.
