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re:PDX is written by Ron Ares, broker and market analyst affiliated with M Realty LLC in Portland, Oregon.
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Tour of Remodeled Homes This Weekend
The year has started with a very slow pace of home sales, meaning more than ever, people are staying put — both by choice and by necessity.
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!
Modern Home Enthusiasts, Don’t Despair
The Street of Eames modern home tour scheduled for April sold out in less than a day (once again), but you have an opportunity this weekend to view 11 other modern design homes in Portland.
For FREE, no less.
The 11xDesign tour features 11 contemporary design projects by a variety of architects. The tour is self-guided and runs from 10am to 5pm, Saturday February 21. Get details at the 11X Design site.
As usual, Brian Libby has this well covered over at Portland Architecture and on the Dwell Magazine blog.
Street of Eames Tix Go On Sale
Highly coveted tickets for the 2009 Street of Eames modern home tour go on sale Monday February 16 at 10am. If past years are any indication, you want to be ready with a twitchy mouse finger because tickets are usually gone in under an hour.
From the organizers’ email:
From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, ticket holders will tour a collection of seven mid-century and contemporary modern homes that would not otherwise be open to the public.
This annual self-guided tour raises money for after-school enrichment programs serving homeless elementary school students at two public schools in Portland. The event is run by volunteers with all proceeds going directly to the programs.
More information is available at the Street of Eames site. And Brian Libby provides an excellent preview at PortlandArchitecture.com.
Yar! Hand Over Yer Junque!
Cruising through Craigslist this weekend and ran across these scurvy dogs:
Here’s their Craigslist pitch:
Shake your booty. (All Over)
Shake it like it was LA!
Lose it sister. Get rid of it brother.
You don’t need that stuff. It’s no good.
And someday someone somewhere will find a way to link it to cancer.PREPARE YOURSELF (<– scare tactic)
By calling the Junk Pirates today!
1-888-47-BOOTY (that’s 1-888-472-6689)
Follow Fritz: www.myspace.com/junk_pirates
Now, from a branding perspective, I think this kills. Most cleanup crews have non-descript business names with no hook to remember them by or reason to refer them to anyone.
But you’d probably remember the Junk Pirates. At least I will. Heck, they even have a vanity 800 number.
Note: This is an unsolicited review. I have not used them or referred them to anyone.
Yet.
FHA Lifts 90-day Flip Rule
In a move that might help move some latent bank-owned inventory, the federal government will temporarily lift its 90-day waiting period for resale properties that use FHA-guaranteed mortgages.
Since 2003, properties financed with FHA programs could not be resold within the first 90 days of the loan term–a guard against predatory lending and flips with cursory rehabs. FHA is removing that anti-flip rule for a one-year period. Other conforming loan programs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) never did adopt similar rules.
The problem I see with this move is that many bank-owned (REO) properties aren’t in the physical condition that qualify for FHA mortgages. If defaulting borrowers couldn’t pay their mortgage, they likely couldn’t maintain the home, either. Consequently, many of the REO properties I’ve seen are distressed.
But FHA financing is back in vogue, and perhaps it will provide incentive for banks to make the necessary repairs to make their holdings financeable under FHA guidelines–growing the market for their growing portfolio of orphaned properties. Rehabbing foreclosed homes could also stabilize overall values of neighborhoods and adjoining properties by minimizing the deep discounts given to all-cash buyers.
Image by BombDog, used under Creative Commons license.
Life Expectancy of Housing Components
Perhaps it’s because my home is going on 20 years old and I’m in the throes of making costly updates (windows, furnace, roof, etc.), but lately I’ve been making particular notes about the age and condition of homes’ costly components when touring with clients.
When viewing a home listing, in addition to the cosmetic aspects of the home, I pay particular attention to items like the furnace, roof, and deck — costly replacement items that may need attention from the new owner in relatively short order.
If you’re in the market, you might want to educate yourself on these issues in advance. To help, The National Association of Homebuilders conducted a study in 2006 on the effective life of many housing components. I chose a handful of areas to display here, particularly considering our NW climate and environs:
Appliances:
- Gas ranges: 15 years
- Dryers and refrigerators: 13 years
- Compactors: 6 years
- Dishwashers: 9 years
- Microwave ovens: 9 years
Decks:
- 20 years
Faucets and Fixtures:
- Kitchen sinks (acrylic): 50 years
- Faucets: 15 years
- Bathroom shower enclosures: 50 years
- Shower doors: 20 years
- Showerheads & toilets: Lifetime
- Whirlpool tubs: 20 to 50 years
Flooring:
- All natural wood flooring, and marble, slate and granite: 100 years
- Vinyl floors: 50 years
- Linoleum: 25 years
- Carpet: 8 to 10 years
Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning:
- Furnaces: 15 to 20 years
- Heat pumps for 16 years
- Air conditioning: 10 to 15 years
- Tankless water heaters: 20 years
- Electric/gas water heater: 10 years
Roofing:
- Slate, copper and clay/concrete: 50 years:
- Asphalt-shingle roofs: 20 years
- Fiber cement shingles: 25 years
- Wood shakes: 30 years
Siding and Accessories:
- Brick, engineered wood, both natural and manufactured stone and fiber cement: Lifetime
- Copper gutters: 50 years
- Aluminum gutters: 20 years
- Copper downspouts: 100 years+
- Aluminum downspouts: 30 years
Windows and Skylights:
- Aluminum windows: 15 to 20 years
- Wood windows: 30 years
Note that these are functional lifetimes. Kitchens, bathrooms, appliances, paint, etc. have much shorter stylistic lifetimes. Obviously, these guidelines are highly dependent on local weather conditions, proper building and design, material quality and adequate maintenance. I can think of a few other exceptions too, like EIFS and LP siding.
Something to keep your eyes open to when touring homes 10+ years or older. You might want contractors to certify roofs, inspect furnaces, provide replacement costs, and give you additional advice during your home inspection timeframe.
The link is broken on the NAHB website, but I’ve got the full, detailed report here.
Exploring Place at Portland Spaces
After launching their inaugural, eye-catching print issue recently, Portland’s newest home magazine, Portland Spaces has also hit the online space with some real intent.
The Portland Spaces site includes some DIY features, a resource guide (aka advertisers), an interesting historical retrospective of the PDX single-family home, plus not one, but two active blogs:
The Design District and Burnside Blog
I am interested to see how much activity and content will go into the online Spaces in support of the print edition over time.
See more at http://www.portlandspaces.net/.
Week Links – October 12, 2007
It has been a while since I’ve done a Friday link post. Here are some updates on the local market as reported in other media outlets:
Portland neighborhoods rate as top retirement locales
Money Magazine highlights Goose Hollow and the Pearl District as top spots to retire in the U.S.
The Oregonian piles on the soft condo market
More reporting about lingering inventory and the city’s oversupply of condos.
More Thoughts About the Condo Market
Brian Libby at Portland Architecture comments on the changing condo market and incites thoughtful comments about the Portland housing market
U.S. foreclosure rate down slightly in September, Oregon is mid-pack
RealtyTrac releases results and Oregon is #28 nationally with one in every 1,590 homes in foreclosure. The national average is 1 in 554. The U.S. foreclosure rate was down slightly (6%) from August.
Staying in your house awhile?
Then you might have remodeling on your mind. The Oregon Remodelers Association is putting on its Remodelers Home Tour – October 13 -14. They’ll feature 12 projects on display in Portland and 7 in Salem.
[tags] Portland, Oregon, real estate, links, news, articles, housing, homes, foreclosures, condos, remodeling [/tags]
Photo by Darwin Bell, used under Creative Commons license.
Build It Green, Portland-Style
As one of the nation’s leading cities in conservation, Portland is also at the forefront of sustainable building practices, products and technologies. To accentuate that point, this Saturday, September 15, the city sponsors the sixth annual Build It Green! Tour of Homes and Information Fair.
From the Build It Green! site:
Now in its sixth year, the 2007 Build It Green! Tour of Homes features eighteen remodels and new homes, two high-rise residential condominiums and one cohousing development, showcasing a variety of ways homeowners are conserving energy and other natural resources while creating beautiful, unique and healthy homes.
An accompanying Information Fair, hosted by Environmental Building Supplies, is free and open to the public 4:30 – 7 p.m.
Homes of all kinds can be found on the tour: high-rise condos, period remodels, multi-family homes, eco-architecture (cob, straw, clay), ultra-modern rowhouses, infill projects and co-housing.
Details can be found at the city’s PortlandOnline.com website.
[tags] Portland, Oregon, homes, construction, development, conservation, green, building, sustainability, tour [/tags]
Portland Braces For a Run on Allen Wrenches
Editorial note: I wouldn’t normally burn a couple real estate blog entries on a retail store premiere…but one of the all-too-rare perks of blogging is occasionally getting an invite to speak, write, or in this case, an opportunity to attend a pre-grand-opening…opening.
My recent entry on the new IKEA store in Portland earned me a ‘press’ badge for their media day on Wednesday. (I so wanted to put Wolf Blitzer on my name tag….)
So my wife and I roamed the Swedish furniture and housewares retailer with reporters from Willamette Week, the Oregonian, Oregon Home, a few radio and TV stations, and a fellow blogger from Metroblogging Portland. After a brief lunch of Swedish gravalax, potato salad, meatballs, lingonberries and a quick speech from store managers, we were led on a tour through their labyrinthine store layout.
Even in the absence of this weekend’s upcoming crowds, the store’s staged rooms and displays were visually overwhelming. The upper floor contains all their room displays with items shown in context to help you with design ideas. The lower floor has all the individual merchandise and the warehouse stock. IKEA’s merchandising is impressive–they even show the entire room dioramas with an all-for-one price in case you like every single piece in their staged room.
I’m no IKEA furniture fanboy, but I was impressed with the organization and preparation for what will undoubtedly be a legendary retail onslaught this upcoming weekend Wednesday, July 25. Five days away from opening and the store was 99% ready for customers already. Employees appeared to be focused and driven to finish their merchandising preparation–yet each was exceedingly patient while we lolly-gagger ‘journalists’ ogled the merchandise and slowed their progress.
That said, heaven help anyone bound for the PDX airport this weekend next week, ‘cuz it’s going to be ugly. The routes in and out of Cascade Station are limited and there have been historic traffic jams, even tramplings, in previous IKEA openings.
IKEA officials are braced for the mayhem with lots of extra traffic police, etc. They are even encouraging the party atmosphere with planned festivities like a campout in the IKEA parking lot, starting as early as Monday night (July 23). The first 100 adults in line get a very nice leather chair. They are also handing out 2,500 mystery bags with various coupons and prizes to early-birds in line.
Even without the grand opening party (and despite its unpopular big box footprint), IKEA would have done very well in Portland anyway. They have a good record of sustainable production practices, a good corporate stewardship reputation…and good grief, the stuff is exceedingly affordable (I will stop just short of ‘cheap’). They will even give you a $10 home delivery credit for taking the MAX to the store this weekend.
What does this have to do with Portland real estate? Not much, but I was impressed by their kitchen cabinets, counters, faucets, and range hoods. We toured with the Willamette Week writers, and one told me he had done his entire kitchen for under $1,000 with IKEA cabinets and counters. The drawer units I tried had those slow-close rails and felt substantial to the touch. While their designs continue to be predominately modern and spare in nature, many major furniture item designs were moving more toward the mainstream, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more IKEA-designed kitchen remodels in Portland in the near future.
[tags] IKEA, Portland, Oregon, grand opening, retail, furniture [/tags]
