Portland Ranks #10 for Best Job Growth Nationwide

Portland ranks #10 out of large metro cities for best job growth in a study by Forbes.com. 

Despite bigger losses in overall employment than the other top large American cities, Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton rounds out the top 10 with only a small decline in job growth (2.2%) from 2007 to 2008. Its education and health-services sectors continued to grow, gaining 3.2% last year. Since 2006, Portland’s employment prospects have steadily improved; it jumped from a 30th-place rank among large cities to 11th last year.

View the full story on Forbes.com

Just Listed! – 2418 North Webster Street

I just listed this stunning light-filled 4 bedroom / 2.5 bathroom home which features exceptional detail and quality throughout. This Portland home is located in the quiet Overlook neighborhood, providing easy access to Downtown, parks, entertainment, public transportation, freeway access and Addias’ Northern America Headquarters Campus.

2418 North Webster Street, Portland, Oregon

This gently lived in and move-in ready home only offers the best of amenities.
Your search for that truly stunning home is over!

Intrigued? Would you like to take a peak inside?

Take a tour from your computer. ( just follow the on screen instructions )

Contact me if you would like additional information about this property or if I can assist you in any way with your real estate needs.

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Gain Seen in National Pending Home Sales, Housing Affordability Sets New Record

This feature article reflects the NATIONAL Real Estate Market.

Pending home sales have edged up, hinting at a possible pickup of sales activity in coming months, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in February, rose 2.1 percent to 82.1 from a reading of 80.4 in January, but is 1.4 percent below February 2008 when it was 83.3.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market is continuing to underperform. “Pending home sales have a way to go for there to be a meaningful increase, but recent increases in shopping activity are hopeful indicators that we’ll see additional sales gains,” he said. “More buyers are getting into the market to take advantage of stimulus incentives and much improved housing affordability conditions, but it will take a few months before we could see this turn up in measurable sales contract activity.” Read more…  

View the Video

Article courtesy of National Association of Realtors (NAR).

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March ‘09 – Residential Market Highlights

Portland metro area market activity continued to grow over last month, but fell short of reaching March 2008 levels.

When comparing March 2009 with February 2009, closed sales grew 38.2% (1,184 v. 857) and pending sales were up 28.3% (1,637 v. 1,276). New listings grew 6.2% (3,685 v. 3,471).

Pending sales typically rise from February to March, but this year it increased at a steeper rate (28.3% in 2009 – vs. 5.5% in 2008 and 8.3% in 2007).  Inventory also dropped to 12 months, its lowest point since October 2008. Active residential listings in March numbered 14,158 – down slightly from 14,188 in February.

This is notable, as active listings have typically grown over that same time frame (7% in 2008 and 6.6% in 2007). 

Sale Prices

The average sale price for March 2009 was down 11.8% compared to March 2008, while the median sale price dropped 14%.

Month-to-month, the average sale price and median sale price are both down when compared with February levels; the average sale price decreased a slight 0.5% ($297,000 v. $298,500) and the median sale price was down 4.9% ($246,400 v. $259,000).

Year-to-Date

Comparing January-March – 2009 with the same period in 2008, closed sales dropped 30.0%. Pending sales also fell 15.5%. New listings decreased 28.5%.

Data courtesy of RMLS.

Additional ‘Regional Comparison” data is available for other Portland Metro areas, please feel free to give me a call at 503.467.9997 or send an email.

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Wanting To Buy Before Selling Your Existing Home

How to go about buying a new home when you still need to sell your existing home:

A guide to understanding the different options available to you.

There are a few ways to go about it.  Each has their positives and negatives and come with a fair amount of stress.

1. Sell your home first. Negotiating a long close date and the ability to rent back from the purchasers for a few days. Then find and make an offer on your new home, subject to the sale and CLOSE of your existing home. Both transactions should close simultaneously or at least within a day of each other.

   DRAWBACKS: Finding a new home in a fairly short period of time. Can you find something you like quickly?  The fear here is that you’ll end up homeless or renting an apartment to bridge the gap between getting into your new home.

2. Make an offer to buy your new home subject to the sale of your existing home. Negotiate a quick close on the sale of your existing home and a long close on your new purchase. Add the provision for the ability to rent back from the purchasers for a few days. You may end up needing to offer the seller a “nice” price to entice them to take your contingent offer. You’ll need to price your home to sell quickly. Again, both transactions should close simultaneously or at least within a day of each other.

   DRAWBACKS: You could lose your “dream house” if your existing home doesn’t sell in a timely manner.

3. The combination: Put your house on the market, priced competitively, with the listing subject to you finding suitable replacement housing. Shop for your new home. If you find your new home before your home sells, make a contingent offer on your new home and consider reducing the price on your existing home. If your home sells first, accept the offer subject to finding suitable housing. Most buyers will want a deadline by which you plan to find replacement housing. Buyers may want to be reimbursed for any costs should you not find something and do not sell to them.

   DRAWBACKS: Lots of contingencies.  People who need to know what is going on at any given moment don’t do well with this option.

All offers to purchase will be made subject to a satisfactory home inspection at your expense, subject to a clear title and subject to you obtaining financing for your new home.

In all cases you will want to do the following to prepare:

• Secure your down payment funds. Be sure to have a solid paper trail of where your down payment came from. Lenders want to know the money is legit.

• Meet with a lender and get pre-approved. Be sure to discuss your whole financial picture so your lender has a chance to fit the best loan product. Consider looking into the possibility of bridge loans and buying without selling.

• Chose a Realtor with whom you plan to list your house. Get a realistic list/sales price so you know how much you’ll net from the sale of your home. Your lender will need this information as well.

If you have any questions about these options, feel free to give John a call @ 503.467.9997.

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Things To Do: VOLUNTEER

EARTH DAY SOLV LITTER PICK-UP @ CATHEDRAL PARK

With the many public parks of the North Portland Area, Cathedral Park may be one of the best.  With the St. Johns Bridge as your backdrop no other park offers such a scenic setting.  This park features; Picnic tables, fishing pier, sandy shores, jogging trials, a boat luanch (NoPo’s one and only), ample grass, dog friendly areas and the Cathdral Park Bandstand.

The Cathedral Park Neighborhood Associating is holding its Annual Earth Day Litter Pick-Up at Cathedral Park on Saturday, April 18th. Everyone is welcome to attend, as to help keep the park beautiful and prevent wildlife from being harmed by litter.

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Things To Do: SEE

Portland has some great things to do, here’s my suggestion for a day at the museum.

OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) is featutring an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci, titled Da Vinci : The Genius. 

Content below provided by OMSI.

Da Vinci: The Genius explores the art and science of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest minds the world has ever known. During his lifetime da Vinci was an inventor, painter, scientist, engineer, musician, architect, and more. Da Vinci: The Genius originated in Italy and is the most complete and comprehensive traveling exhibition on da Vinci ever created. More than 10 years in the making, the exhibit has been seen in Paris, Rome, Moscow, Melbourne, San Paulo, San Francisco and other major cities around the world.

OMSI’s presentation of Da Vinci: The Genius features the U.S. debut of the full presentation of the Secrets of Mona Lisa Gallery, created by French engineer and photographer, Pascal Cotte. Cotte invented a 240-million pixel camera to photograph the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, allowing for the most accurate re-creation of the masterpiece in its original color and unveiling 25 startling revelations, including how the Mona Lisa looked as originally painted.

For full details of Da Vinci: The Genius and Secrets of the Mona Lisa Gallery, please visit www.davincithegenius.com, the official website for this world-class exhibit.

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Casting Call… HGTV’s My First Place

HGTV’s show, “My First Place” is casting first-time homebuyers in the Greater Portland area. Candidates who are chosen for the show will also receive a unique surprise from HGTV.

If you would be interested in applying feel free to give me a call at 503.467.9997 or send me an email.

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Quarterly Market Statistics – Q1 2009

Listing statistics are in for the first quarter of 2009. While there are signs of properties selling in Portland, the charts below show an increasingly amount of properties being listed to the RMLS before existing ones can sell.  For further information, check out my post on Portland’s Absorption Rate.

The statistical data has been divided into two sections. The first section, ‘Portland Regions‘ contains each of Portland’s four regions broken down first by month, then by statistical category.  The second section, ‘Regional Comparison‘ contains statistical data in relationship to listing prices (minimum vs. maximum) as well as median and sold pricing.

Data complied at the end of business day March 31,2009.

If you would like information for your particular area not listed below, please let me know.

PORTLAND REGIONS

REGIONAL COMPARISON 

In the chart below, I totaled the property Listed and Sold data from the above charts and complied the information in a side-by-side comparison for Portland’s four different regions.  In the Ratio category, you will notice a low average number of Sold properties compared to the amount of Listed properties for the quarter. This ratio will likely to contunue to get worse as our real estate season is about to start.

In sections ‘Average Sold Price’ and ‘Median Price’, the highest and lowest ‘Sold Prices’ where removed to aide in accurately averaging out these prices.

Data courtesy of RMLS.

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