If you want an assured ticket for Portland’s popular modern home tour (April 17), you might have to pony up early.

The 2010 edition of the Street of Eames will be the last. And tickets will disappear in a matter of minutes.

However, from an announcement this week from the organizers of the Street of Eames home tour:

Tour tickets go on sale Monday, Feb. 22. But, as we did last year, we are selling advance tickets (with a donation) now so you can be sure of getting in.

Effective through Feb. 21, you can purchase tickets at $250 per pair. This includes two $50 tickets and a tax-deductible donation of $150 to the Street of Eames Fund, which supports after-school programs for homeless elementary school students in Portland Public Schools.

We have sold out every tour every year so buy your advance tickets now and make a difference for our city’s neediest children.

The April 17th tour, the fifth and final Street of Eames, will feature eight fabulous houses!

For more information, go to streetofeames.org. And follow us on Twitter @StreetofEames for updates as well as tour-day traffic alerts.

To stay on the cutting edge of Portland’s urban farming scene, you’ll need to trade in your chicken coop for pygmy goats, according to the latest Willamette Week.

Here are 14 people (including one of my current clients, very cool) and trends to follow in 2010.

(Photo courtesy of Monterey Bay Equestrian Center.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Planning an exploratory visit to Portland? Then check out TravelPortland.com for events and things to do, places to see, etc.

Note: I am totally ripping this post off local author, Donald Miller, but his blog put me onto this video.

Portland real estate prices stay level, sales on modest climb for May

RMLS official tabulations for May 2009 will come out next week, but my early review shows that closed sales continue a small month-over-month increase (a seasonal effect), and median and average sale prices were essentially flat from the previous month. Closed sales will show to be up 10% over April, but down by ~30% from one year ago. Both median and average sale prices are around 13% off levels from a year ago. Come back early next week for a full report.

Oregon foreclosures nearly double in a year

A recent tabulation of foreclosure activity in Oregon shows a nearly 90% increase compared to May 2008. One out of every 525 Oregon homes received a foreclosure filing in May–the nation’s 12th highest rate.

Oregon to get a head start on recovery?

Really? Why? From research by Moody’s:

High-tech industry is one element. A slowdown in technology spending in 2008 and 2009 has created a pent-up demand for technology — businesses that know they need to upgrade and are waiting for the ability to spend.

“States that have a high concentration in tech-related industries are well positioned to take advantage of this trend, which is particularly true of Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and to a lesser extent Texas,” said economist Andrew Gledhill of Moody’s Economy.com.

I certainly hope the prediction is true, but I suspect digging out of a 12% unemployment hole will take longer than expected. (And wasn’t Moody’s one of those rating companies that suggested those mortgage-backed securities were AAA rated?)

Bike community letting it all hang out

Last, but not least, the Portland bike community celebrates it’s version of the World Naked Bike Ride on June 13 with a series of events. If you’re in the vicinity of NE 39th and Glisan around 2PM, you’re bound to get an eyeful during the Sunny Nekkid Ride (fair warning!). The big event is at midnight, and last year, 2,000 riders participated.

Photo by jd.inaz. Used under Creative Commons license.

Portland has attracted college-educated, single people between the ages of 25 and 39 at a higher rate than most other cities in the country. Between 1995 and 2000, the city added 268 people in that demographic group for every 1,000 of the same group living there in 1995, according to the Census Bureau. Only four other metropolitan areas had a higher ratio.

Small problem. No jobs.

Some new arrivals are burning through their savings as they hunt for jobs that no longer exist. Some are returning home. Others are settling for low-paying jobs they are overqualified for.

Full article here.

Here’s the article and a corresponding slideshow.

Photo credit: Leah Nash for The New York Times

Portland Monthly magazine’s annual real estate issue is out, offering tips on buying, renting, selling, remodeling, refinancing — in short, a treatise on how to adapt to a fundamentally volatile housing market.

I’ve highlighted this issue each year on re:PDX, and it continues to generate interest long after the magazine is off the newsstand, particularly with those interested in moving to the state.

Portland Monthly’s coverage also includes Neighborhoods by the Numbers, a breakdown of 95 urban neighborhoods and 25 suburban areas. You’ll find stats on real estate market dynamics, crime, schools, population, and other demographics.

On a personal note, the real estate market data this year was provided by the agency I’m affiliated with, MRealty.

Feature Article: Buy, Sell Rent, Keep?

Comparison Article: Neighborhoods by the Numbers

Get your copy today at local newsstands, or visit online. If you are interested in past issues, I have them on-hand. Just drop me a note.

Perhaps the remodeling industry will see some benefit during the housing downturn.

This weekend, the Home Builder’s Association of Metropolitan Portland sponsors the Tour of Remodeled Homes –a collection of projects 18 scattered across the metro area. Tickets for the event run $17.50 and can be used both Saturday and Sunday, March 14-15, 2009.

More information at the Tour of Remodeled Homes. Please come back and comment at re:PDX about the tour if you venture out. Thanks!

Recent articles and awards by the NYTimes, greenability authorities, and travel mags gush glowingly about the city. But if you want to see Portland show up on all those great Top 10 lists, you’ve got to take the bad with the good.

Of the top 50 metro areas, Business Week proclaims Portland to be the Most Miserable City in the U.S. Why? Here is their rationale:

• Depression rank: 1
• Suicide rank: 12
• Crime (property and violent) rank: 24
• Divorce rate rank: 4
• Cloudy days: 222
• Unemployment rate (December 2008): 7.8% (now closer to 10%)

(I would add Greg Oden’s knee injuries to the list.)

Kari Chisolm over at BlueOregon has the best retort so far. What say you?

Photo courtesy of Meredith Farmer, used under Creative Commons license.

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:

Connecticut and Rhode Island have the least amount of federally-owned land at 0.4%.