Portland Real Estate Statistics

Home Buying Improved Housing Forecast from Natl Assoc of Realtors National Association of Realtors is changing their 2019 Mortgage rate forecast to 4.5% (down from earlier 5.5%) and home price forecast up 2.9% (up from 2.2%.  Full story here  
Home Mortgage Tax Deductions for Homeowners: How the New Tax Law Affects Mortgage Interest Personally, I have used a tax professional since in my first job after college, earning $85/wk, I was audited 3 times. But here’s a guide from the National Association of Realtors that may help you know the issues when you meet with him/her.
Home Buying What are the Benefits of Owning Real Estate Besides Your House? Here’s my answer to that question just asked on Quora Owning your house is the biggest and best benefit. It means you can paint the bathroom whatever color you want, remodel the kitchen, plant what you want in the yard, and on and on…all for your personal comfort and enjoyment. If you have a mortgage, […]
Home Buying What’s a Faster Return on Investment: Renting or Flipping real estate? Here’s answer I wrote recently to that question on Quora:   I’d guess flipping shows the greatest short-term potential, but as with most investments return is related to risk, and there is certainly risk in flipping. For example, what if in the remodel process you discover something not in your original estimate? What if the […]
Home Buying Home owners #1 complaint – should have bought bigger home We continue to buy ever larger homes, now average 2700 SqFt (up 1,000 from 1973).  41% of renters wish they’d bought.  Full details here.
Home Buying Triple your down payment money – free ! I just learned of a new down payment match offer from Guild Mortgage, the largest local mortgage lender in the NW.  It’s really simple: you put up 1% of the purchase price of a home and Guild makes a grant of 2% so you qualify for a conventional 3% down payment mortgage.  Yes, you just tripled your money.  You […]
Home Buying Portland in Top Ten “Next Tech Havens” This may not be a surprise to a lot of Portlanders, but our city has been included in a list of the top ten “next tech havens“ So you ask, “What does that have to do with real estate?” With new jobs comes new population – people who don’t live here today.  And those people […]
Home Buying One More Reason Home Prices Continue their Rise The Oregon Association of Realtors reports: A 2016 study from Josh Lehner (Oregon Office of Economic Analysis) illustrates Oregon is currently underbuilt by 24,000 units. In other words, we need to build 24,000 units just to equalize the supply/demand curve. Until we reach a period of hypersupply, Oregonians will continue to feel the pinch of the real […]
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Home Selling Financially, Which Remodels are Best? Not necessarily the best for quick return (important if you're selling in the next year or so), but the best value in the long term.  HouseLogic's "8 Most Financially Savvy Home Improvements are here
Home Selling Even a “minor” kitchen remodel is Portland is $20,000, so…. the question is how to do it so the value holds up for the long run.   Here's HouseLogic's list of the seven "Kitchen Remodeling Decisions You'll never regret" The $20,000 figure is from the 2016 "Cost vs. Value" report* that shows costs in Portland for 27 popular remodels .  It's for a "minor" kitchen remodel, (a "major" […]
Home Buying Is this neighborhood noisy? If prospective buyers could spend a week in a house they're thinking about buying, it would give them a good feel for the neighborhood, including how noisy (or quiet).  Now there's a tool that can help with that. Enter the address at HowLoud and you'll get a SoundScore – a 50 to 100 rating (higher is quieter) […]
Home Buying Property Tax Schedules & Who Pays Who on Sale Oregon property taxes can by confusing.  Especially due dates and how they are prorated when you buy or sell.  Click Here for a simple chart from our friends at Ticor Title  
Home Buying Is Oregon’s Economy Improving? Yes, and Here’s Why At a Windermere meeting last week we heard Windermere's Chief Economist.   Here's the takeaway in plain English: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/real-estate-daily/2016/02/is-the-economy-going-to-be-better-this-year-brian.html
Home Buying How Fast are Oregon Homes selling? While the chart shows Oregon as less than 30 days, the reality is that any decent Portland home that's fairly priced will be gone in a week.  My last listing went live on MLS at 8:00 PM on a Saturday night.  We received 10 offers by Wednesday and accepted $56,000 over the list price.   […]
Home Buying To Buy a Median Price Home in Portland, You Must Earn How Much? According to HSH.com it takes $60,307 income to qualify to buy a median price ($271,900) home in Portland. If you don't make that much, don't give up on home ownership.  First that's a broad brush using national figures for interest rates and other things.  Working with a good local mortgage broker (ask me for a […]
Home Buying What are Portland’s Hottest Real Estate Neighborhoods? Courtesy of our friends at Chicago Title, here are Portland's 25 Hottest Neighborhoods: Number of Homes Sold, Days on Market, and Most Expensive.  In the "Property Search" tab on my web site you can search homes by Portland Neighborhod and now you can also search by drive time.  Enter your work address and desired drive […]
Home Buying $200/month More to Buy Same House in Portland Next Year? In proverbial "round numbers", mortgage payments on the average home in Portland next year will be about $200/month more than today if this forecast increase in mortgage rates is correct. (To check the forecasting accuracy of these sources, I looked up their January 2012 forecast for January 2013 – they were within 0.2 of today's […]
Home Buying Should You Buy or Rent a Home? Or Invest in Rental Homes?   This chart is the simplest answer to both questions.  The longer you rent, the higher the cost, and while you have paid for a place to live, you have nothing to show for it but rent receipts.  On the other side, buying a property to rent has all the advantages the renting does not.  […]
Home Buying Portland Metro Short Sales and Bank-Owned Continue to Decline, as does Total Inventory The 2013 numbers for short sales and bank owned homes (both new listings and sales) are in the chart below.  Total homes for sale continues to be quite low.  At year-end 2013 there were 5,159 total listings, down from year-end 2012's 5,632.  Year-end 2009 listings total 13,019, so we currently have less than half the […]
Home Buying Mortgage Rates Up? 3.75%? Until just a few years ago, 6.0% was a terrific rate.  Then we got spoiled with a few months of 30-year fixed rates in the low 3% range.    I get a weekly "rate sheet" from a Portland credit union. Today's shows a 30-year fixed FHA rate of 3.75% "with limited fees"  Because of fees […]