When the mortgage market collapsed fixed rate jumbo loans disappeared. Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) have been available but at very high rates. When looking at the Market Tracker graphs on PDXBuyers.com it doesn’t take long to see that the market typically financed by the jumbo loan market has been hit harder than the conforming market. … Continue reading Jumbo Loans Returning to Portland Real Estate
NPR’s This American Life program was titled “Return to the Giant Money Pool this weekend.” It is a 58 minute podcast that can be streamed for free through this week. Then it will be available in the archives. I got to listen to about a quarter of the show live yesterday and will go back… Continue reading This American Life Talks the Mortgage Meltdown
The research stems from the question, “how much should I offer a bank owned property?” The result from running some searches: In Beaverton and Tigard since 1/1/2009 bank owned single family properties priced between $200k-$400k have sold for an average of 97% of asking price (70 of them). In Portland, the same criteria yields 137… Continue reading Friday Portland Area Housing Market Facts
The chart above is from the June RMLS Market Action. It shows the historical affordability of the Portland housing market. The National Association of Home Builders publishes the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI).
The new Property Investment Profiles (PIP) and Market Tracker reports are available for September. These reports are emailed monthly. The Property Investment Profile report is property specific. We set them up to report on comparable properties. In the case of larger condo towers, we usually set them up to be building specific. This report is… Continue reading Property Investment Profile (PIP) and Market Tracker
A couple of weeks ago I took a look at whether RMLS Market Action could help us predict what the trailing Case Shiller report might look like? The answer was no, at least not as reported. It was pointed out that the methodologies are different. RMLS Market Action does not include Clark County. Case Shiller… Continue reading Case Shiller and RMLS Provide Different Views of Portland Real Estate
For the last three years, I have been driving what could probably be termed as the worst late-model real estate car: a Nissan 350z two seat coupe. Featuring poor visibility, no in-car navigation, and a punishing sports car ride. But, boy was it fun to drive. We usually managed to make do sharing our other… Continue reading Environmentally Friendly Real Estate and the Lexus RX 400h
I posted this over on Blue Oregon as part of a thread going on over there on home prices in Portland. Last week on CNNMoney.com: Housing boom 2.0
In January, I wrote that I thought the Lexus RX 400h might be the perfect real estate car. Yesterday, we traded in the old SUV for a second 400h. The old SUV averaged 15.4mpg on premium fuel. I’ve been getting an average of 25mpg in my 400h running on 87 octane gas which is recommended.… Continue reading Hybrid Real Estate
Litigation between the HOA and the builder appears to be becoming the rule, not the exception. In Forest Heights, most of the townhouse and condo developments are either in or past litigation with the developer of their units or have issues that the owners have been left to fend for on their own. For the… Continue reading HOA Litigation Against Builders