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re:PDX is presented by Claire Widmark, broker affiliated with M Realty LLC in Portland, Oregon.
Phone: 971-275-3691
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Find Your Badass Portland Neighborhood
As a Realtor, it’s not uncommon to field questions about which neighborhoods have low crime, good schools, ‘like-minded’ neighbors (either politically or demographically), and other personal preferences.
Unfortunately, Fair Housing laws limit our ability to guide or ‘steer’ people into specific neighborhoods based on our opinion of a neighborhood’s racial complexion, family-friendliness, safety, and other social factors. Often, we just point them to the raw data, where available, and let them come to their own conclusion.
Over the years, sites like PortlandMaps, Walkscore, and others have made this process a lot easier, through geomapping and other visualizations. For example, I love M Realty’s Walkscore heatmap view for searching in highly walkable neighborhoods.
But what if someone wants to know where Portland’s badass neighborhoods are?
I have little to no hipster in me, so I wouldn’t even know where to start. But a couple local dudes apparently do and have created the city’s first bad-assness index.
The factors:
- Public transportation availablity. Good.
- Property values. Yes.
- Bike access. Sure.
- Beer availability. Still with you.
- Coffee locations. Makes sense.
- Food cart proximity. I suppose…
- Pinball availability…um.
- Strip clubs…no comment.
Pull together the data, geocode it, and turn it into a heatmap, and voila — Portland’s badass neighborhoods (PDF).
Areas of town get ratings from from ‘Hella Badass’ to “Flannelville” to ‘Vancouverish’ at the low end (sorry my Clark Country friends). The Boise neighbhorhood gets top prize, followed closely by Goose Hollow and Oldtown/Chinatown. Your mileage may vary, as they say.
Shout out to Rick Turoczy at the Silicon Florist for the find. From Dillon Mahmoudi on Vimeo.
Portland Real Estate Market Activity – March 2011
Early spring brought a little mixed news to interested home buyers and sellers reviewing March real estate statistics.
Sales volume is up over 1,600 units for the first time since June 2010. The average and median sale prices of a Portland metropolitan home perked up from their February low, gaining 6.8% and 0.6% respectively. The average price for a home in the Portland area cost around $260,000. The median price is down 10% from a year ago at $215,000.
The month also saw 677 closed transactions labeled as either short sales or bank-owned (foreclosed) homes — 42% of the total transactions.
April should prove to be an active sales month as March yielded over 2,000 pending sales. Active inventory is very low, at just 11,458 available units. In fact, you would have to go back to the bubble days of April 2007 (when houses sold themselves) to find such a low inventory. The list of today’s active properties would sell through in 7 months at the current pace of sales.
If 2011 is the year you are going to take the real estate plunge, visit my interactive map of all Portland homes for sale, where you can view active properties by neighborhood. If you have questions about the market or about a specific home, please contact me.
Market Summary
| March 2011 | Last Month - February 2011 |
Last Year - March 2010 |
|
| Median Sale Price | $215,000 | $213,700 | $238,900 |
| Average Sale Price | $261,100 | $244,500 | $280,300 |
| Closed Sales | 1,615 | 1,074 | 1,799 |
| Pending Sales | 2,012 | 1,592 | 2,402 |
| New Listings | 3,056 | 2,883 | 4,987 |
| Active Listings | 11,458 | 11,746 | 14,042 |
| Distress Sales | 42% | 46% | |
| Total Market Time * | 161 days | 177 days | 142 |
| Inventory (in months) | 7.1 | 10.9 | 7.8 |
Below is activity by market area. Please note that median and average sale prices are year-to-date. The appreciation numbers are a 12-month average compared to the previous 12-month average. Total market time is the number of days between the date it went on the market and when it received an acceptable offer.
Market Report by Area
| Area | YTD Avg. Sale Price |
YTD Median Sale Price |
12-Mo. Change | Total Mkt Time* |
| Lake Oswego / West Linn | $386,500 | $349,500 | -11.0% | 232 |
| West Portland & Downtown | $378,400 | $322,000 | -2.7% | 164 |
| NW Washington County | $325,200 | $308,900 | -2.5% | 150 |
| Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville | $278,700 | $253,900 | -5.5% | 188 |
| Northeast Portland | $261,900 | $217,000 | -0.4% | 130 |
| Milwaukie / Clackamas | $239,400 | $222,300 | -8.8% | 113 |
| Oregon City / Canby | $211,800 | $200,000 | -10.7% | 182 |
| Gresham / Troutdale | $207,000 | $174,900 | -5.0% | 147 |
| Southeast Portland | $205,400 | $170,000 | -2.6% | 120 |
| North Portland | $203,100 | $190,000 | -5.3% | 148 |
| Beaverton / Aloha | $201,800 | $182,000 | -3.3% | 147 |
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove | $199,500 | $181,700 | -11.1% | 156 |
| Yamhill County | $177,300 | $165,000 | -2.3% | 180 |
| Columbia County | $164,300 | $155,000 | -9.7% | 174 |
Market data courtesy of RMLS, March 2011.
Portland Real Estate Market Activity – February 2011
(Since it’s already April, I should get caught up on February statistics, you think?)
February 2011′s real estate performance featured low(er) median and average sale prices, low inventory absorption, and low inventory to boot. You would have to go back to Q1 2005 to compare median sale prices. Of the February sales, 45% were in the form of short sales or bank-owned foreclosures, which is a measure I’ll be featuring from now on.
The average market time for a home is now nearly 6 months and at the current pace of sales, it would take 11 months to absorb the inventory of 11,746 homes. March is shaping up to be a little stronger, with over 1,600 homes changing hands. Stats will be out in mid-April.
If you’re looking for silver linings, sales volume in 2011 is on the same pace as 2010 — but without the fuel of tax incentives. A little over 1,000 homes changed hands in the month. For home sellers with well-priced, well-maintained listings, take heart. Three homes I viewed last week went sale-pending within a few days. The (few) buyers that are in the market are acting quickly on the best properties.
Market Summary
| February 2011 | Last Month - January 2011 |
Last Year - February 2010 |
|
| Median Sale Price | $213,700 | $215,000 | $235,000 |
| Average Sale Price | $244,500 | $248,900 | $273,100 |
| Closed Sales | 1,074 | 1,035 | 1,015 |
| Pending Sales | 1,592 | 1,489 | 1,850 |
| New Listings | 2,883 | 3,128 | 3,902 |
| Active Listings | 11,746 | 11,697 | 13,101 |
| Total Market Time * | 177 days | 160 days | 150 |
| Inventory (in months) | 10.9 | 11.3 | 12.9 |
Below is activity by market area. Please note that median and average sale prices are year-to-date. The appreciation numbers are a 12-month average compared to the previous 12-month average. Total market time is the number of days between the date it went on the market and when it received an acceptable offer.
Market Report by Area
| Area | YTD Avg. Sale Price |
YTD Median Sale Price |
12-Mo. Change | Total Mkt Time* |
| Lake Oswego / West Linn | $379,300 | $330,000 | -10.5% | 220 |
| West Portland & Downtown | $363,500 | $316,500 | -3.3% | 234 |
| NW Washington County | $319,100 | $298,300 | -1.6% | 132 |
| Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville | $272,000 | $262,000 | -4.9% | 238 |
| Northeast Portland | $271,200 | $233,800 | -0.5% | 166 |
| Milwaukie / Clackamas | $237,600 | $227,700 | -9.3% | 163 |
| Oregon City / Canby | $214,500 | $209,900 | -10.0% | 208 |
| Beaverton / Aloha | $204,500 | $189,900 | -2.8% | 168 |
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove | $202,900 | $194,200 | -8.8% | 191 |
| North Portland | $198,300 | $175,000 | -3.8% | 112 |
| Southeast Portland | $197,000 | $167,000 | -1.9% | 133 |
| Yamhill County | $173,400 | $158,500 | -2.2% | 200 |
| Columbia County | $164,200 | $155,000 | -8.4% | 125 |
| Gresham / Troutdale | $190.700 | $175,000 | -4.0% | 155 |
Market data courtesy of RMLS, February 2011.
