As a realtor, I get asked a lot about rental values in the Portland area. Unfortunately, my brokerage doesn’t allow us to handle rental properties. However, I came across a great web site that is very helpful in setting rental prices. Check out www.zilpy.com.

And if you decide that buying a home is the better option for you, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 503-421-2407 or Phyllis@PointClickandPack.com. I’d love to assist with your purchase!

Here’s the episode of Good Buy, Bad Buy that I was on. It aired twice yesterday. I’ll post on my blog the next time it’s scheduled.

Looking for a Larger Home Leads to a Tough Choice
Episode HGBBY-206

Tune In
July 12, 2009

12:30 PM e/p

Jose and Martha Reyes’ search for a larger home for their family has led them to two houses. One is in a residential area in southern California, and the other is in an area that’s mixed with residences and businesses. Then, in Portland, Oregon, Tim and Sarah O’Reilly hope to find a home with more space to accommodate Sarah’s mother moving in. They can’t decide between a home with an open layout or a more traditional style home. Realtors and home inspectors look at these homes and provide their expertise to these prospective buyers on which of the homes is the better buy for them.

Good news for all… The market appears to be slowly working its way towards a more balanced buyer/seller playing field. RMLS just released the May 2009 Market Action report and inventory levels have continued to decline for the fourth straight month. Inventory for May stands at 10.2 months. This means that if nothing new went on the market, it would take 10.2 months to sell off everything available. Just so you don’t have to go back and re-read all my previous market activity blogs, here’s an inventory level chart for 2009.

January 19.2

February 16.6

March 12

April 11

May 10.2

All areas of Metro Portland are still showing depreciation. And although nobody likes to see depreciating real estate values, I think we’re going to continue seeing this trend until we work through more of the short sale/foreclosure transactions. The numbers for May are showing us that houses are now selling a bit more rapidly but they’re closing at reduced prices. In other words, buyers are still in the driver’s seat.

If you’re a first time buyer, keep in mind that the $8,000 tax credit ends on November 30, 2009. You need to be sale pending on or before Nov 1st in order to close by this date! The definition of a first time buyer is anyone who hasn’t owned a home within the past 3 years.

As always, I’d love to assist you with all of your real estate needs. You can reach me at 503-421-2407 or Phyllis@PointClickandPack.com.

RMLS just released the April 2009 statistics and it looks like the market is starting to stabilize a bit! Inventory levels dropped again for the 3rd month in a row. We now have 11 months of inventory available. This is a still a high amount but a far, far improvement from our January 2009 inventory high of 19.2 months. And it tells me that the downward inventory trend seems to be continuing! Remember that in a healthy market, where buyer and seller motivators are more equal, inventory levels are typically in the 5-6 month range.

All counties in the Portland Metro area are still in depreciation and all areas except Mt Hood have experienced greater depreciation than last month. These stats seem to indicate that sellers are reducing their prices even more than before in order to make it to the closing table. We’re also seeing a greater number of bank owned properties closing and since these homes normally sell slightly below resale values, these homes might be partly responsible for the higher depreciation figures. Foreclosures might sometimes be a good deal for buyers but they bring down the value of the neighborhood, and in the end, that hurts even the bargain hunters. Since pending sales are continuing to rise, it will be interesting to see what happens with depreciation levels in May. Stay tuned…

What does all of this information mean for you? If you’re a seller, it means that buyer activity is picking up and your competition is leveling off. If you’re priced right or below market value, you should see at least an increased number of showings if not an offer soon.

If you’re thinking about putting your house on the market, now would be a good time. (You’ll remember that I advised new sellers to wait to list if possible during the past 4 months). We are just in the beginning of the “hot selling season” which lasts until October and most people like to buy prior to the start of the school year to get their kids settled in at a new school.

For buyers, the stabilizing market means you should act a bit more quickly if you want to capitalize on the deep discounts of bank owned properties and reduced prices of re-sales. Also, first-time home buyers need to CLOSE ON THEIR HOME PURCHASE PRIOR TO NOVEMBER 30th to qualify for the $8,000 tax credit from the stimulus package. The industry is expecting a record number of closings for the month of November because of this deadline and it would be best NOT to wait until the last minute if you want to guarantee your closing won’t get delayed due to lender or escrow heavy workloads!

I’d love to talk with you further about your particular real estate needs. Please don’t hesitate to call or send me an email!

We just received the March Market Action report from RMLS.  The inventory levels are trending downward which is good for stabilizing the market. March had a 12 month inventory vs 16.6 months in Feb.  A stable market is around 5 months of inventory.  We’re still far from that but at least we’re now heading in the right direction.  Closed sales are also up from Feb by nearly 40% and pending sales were up significantly too.  Could be that the stimulus package along with the traditional March – Oct “hot selling season” are working in combination to fix our housing mess!

Sellers, rejoice!

As always, I’d love to help you with all of your real estate needs.  You can reach me at 503-421-2407 or Phyllis@PointClickandPack.com.

There’s good news for 1st time home buyers!  As part of the new stimulus package, first-time home buyers can receive an $8,000 tax credit if they purchase a home between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009.  Unlike the $7,500 tax credit offered in 2008, the new $8,000 credit in 2009 does not need to be repaid.

To qualify for the credit, buyers must earn less than $150,000 in adjusted gross income for couples filing jointly and they must reside in the home as their primary residence for a minimum of three years.

The definition of a first time home buyer is anyone who has never owned a home before or anyone who has not owned a home within the last three years.

As always, I would love to assist you with your purchase in Portland.  Please let me know how I can help!  You can reach me at 503-421-2407 or Phyllis@PointClickandPack.com.

A group called Greenlight Greater Portland, comprised of private-sector leaders dedicated to a sustainable and economic growth, has formed to analyze and communicate both the current and future conditions through 2013 of Portland, OR.  They have issued a report that shows some promise for our real estate market despite the endless bad news nationally.  Some highlights of the report are:
 
* Projected population growth for the Portland metropolitan area is 8.0% by 2013. Moreover, the workforce is projected to grow by 6.9%. The increase alone from Salem heading north to Vancouver, WA is expected to exceed 2 million people. That’s 50,000 more families for the Portland metropolitan area.
 
* From 2000 – 2008, population grew by 33.8%. 
 
* Six of the most 25 innovative companies in the world are located here (Business Week).
 
* Disposable personal income is almost $4,000 above the national average (over 10%).
 
* The 2008 GRP (Gross Regional Product) of $1trill increased by 33% since 2003 – more than 6 times the rate of population growth – and is expected to grow another 27% by 2013. This is highly indicative of economic health.
 
* Without citing the numerous sources, we’ve been named: Best place to retire, most dog friendly, 5th top fittest city, best biking city, best place to have a baby, best place to raise a family, city with top rated schools, city with the highest artist’s population, and the greenest city.  We are also high on the list for minority owned companies and free-lance workers, and have received numerous accolades for brewers and wine producers, and we are the 4th hottest spot for hi-tech workers!
 
* We have an unusually diverse economic sector, contributing to our relative economic health, which defies national trends. 
 
* The projected 5-year job growth index puts only LA, Seattle and Austin Texas ahead of us even though we are 26th on the list of large cities.
 
* We added 88,000 jobs from 2002-2007, which puts the unemployment rate and news of company closings in perspective.
 
* Projected economic business sectors to watch (each has only 1 or two cities ahead of it): Professional Services, Financial services, Informational services, Construction and Natural Resource Services.
 
* Portland has been called an “unusually desirable place to live” because of our transportation system which has been studied and copied by municipalities across the world, and due to our proximity to natural resources with the Pacific Ocean to the west and skiing opportunities to the east.
 
* Commercial real estate lease and purchase rates are lower than at least 6 other large cities as are residential rents and purchase prices.
 
* Some other things to be grateful for are the Urban Growth Boundary, which keeps our real estate desirable by leaving farm and rural areas free of development, and the fact that to date, we’ve always been able to come out of recessions. During the Great Depression, 50% of households in the nation were delinquent. Currently the rate is about 6.4%. However, during the Depression banks restructured loans to keep from foreclosing, a trend that seems to be slowly increasing currently.
 
 
This data gave me some hope and I hope it does you too. 
See http://www.greenlightgreaterportland.com/ for more information.
As always, I am available to assist you with all of your real estate needs.  You can reach me at 503-421-2407 or phyllis@pointclickandpack.com 

More and more short sale listings are coming online than ever before in the Portland market. Here’s a brief summary of what short sales are and what steps are involved in the process of buying a short sale house.

First, a short sale means that a seller owes more on their mortgage than what the house will sell for on the open market. Thus, to be able to transfer clear title to another party, the mortgage company has to agree to accept less of an amount of the debt owed to them.

To begin this lengthy process, the homeowner or seller must submit extensive documentation to the mortgage company showing all of their assets, liabilities and bank records, as well as hardship paperwork documenting the reasons why the homeowner must sell the property and why the homeowner wouldn’t be able to pay the difference in market value and price to make good on their loan. After reviewing all of this paperwork, the mortgage company doesn’t have to approve of the short sale and may not approve if they thought the homeowner had sufficient means to pay the debt off in full or sell the house at a higher price to accommodate the debt pay-off. This initial approval process can take as few as 2-3 weeks or as long as several months.

In the meantime, buyers can submit offers on the house to the seller. Unlike the standard real estate transaction where the seller can only accept one offer at a time; in a short sale the seller can accept numerous offers. An offer is not deemed to be truly accepted, and therefore go into sale pending status, until the mortgage company accepts one of the offers and agrees to forgive the portion of the debt which wouldn’t be covered by the sale. Again, the approval process for offers can take as few as a couple of weeks to as long as many months depending upon how backed-up the mortgage company is in their short sale/foreclosure departments.

Buyers who are on a time crunch for purchasing and moving to a new home are usually not good candidates for waiting out the short sale process since nobody can predict how long the mortgage company will take to respond to offers.

Once an offer has been accepted by the mortgage company, the transaction typically proceeds at a normal pace and in the standard subsequent steps of any other real estate transaction.

If you have questions about the short sale process or are interested in purchasing a house listed as short sale, please call me today for more information, 503-421-2407. I look forward to assisting you with all of your real estate needs!