Susan's Online Guide to PortlandLet me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood |
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If you have questions or if you are interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact me online or call me at (503) 497-2984. Susan Marthens
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Real Estate Market
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Homes for Sale: Click on a green icon (zip code) to view photos and details about the homes for sale
U.S. home sales jump to 42 month highMay 22 — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ticked up last month to the highest level in three and a half years, helped by a jump in the number of houses for sale. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million, up from 4.94 million in March. Home sales have risen 9.7 percent in the past 12 months. Still, sales have changed little since November. The supply of available homes remains tight and many would-be buyers aren't able to get loans. The number of homes for sale jumped to 2.16 million, up nearly 12 percent from the previous month. But inventory is still almost 14 percent lower than a year earlier. Many Americans remain hesitant to put their homes on the market. The Realtors group notes sales typically pick up in spring. Read more... Portland-area mortgage delinquency falls below 5%
May 24 — The share of Portland-area homeowners behind on their mortgage payments has fallen below 5 percent for the first time since 2009. The Portland-area delinquency rate among mortgage holders fell to 4.96 percent in March, according to according to the real estate data firm CoreLogic Inc., down from 5.55 percent a year ago. The delinquency rate, which represents borrowers more than three months behind on payments, has fallen steadily since July, a sign the housing market and broader economy is stabilizing. The rate is now at its lowest point in the Portland area since September 2009. The area foreclosure rate also fell, to 2.47 percent from 2.65 percent a year. That figure has been more volatile and is influenced in part by changes in how lenders process foreclosures. Read more... |
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Homes, Health & Neighborhoods |
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The suburbanization of povertyMay 21 — There is no word more evocative in the urban vernacular than "suburb." For most of us, those two syllables conjure a very specific type of place, with a specific kind of people comfortably living there. "We think about suburbs in one way," says Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. "We have a very stereotypical view of suburbs as middle-class, affluent, Leave-It-To-Beaver type places. And yet, over the last decade, suburbs have increasingly become home to America's poor. Between 2000 and 2011, the population living in American cities below the poverty line increased by 29 percent. During that same time, across the country in the suburbs of metropolitan areas as diverse as Atlanta and Detroit and Salt Lake City, the ranks of the poor grew by 64 percent. Read more... Quantifying the cost of sprawl
America's biggest and fastest growing citiesMay 24 — According to new population numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas's cities are expanding -- fast. The state houses eight of America's 15 fastest-growing cities. San Marcos, Texas, had the largest percentage increase, at 4.91 percent. This map plots the top fast-growing large cities (any city or town with 50,000 people or more) between July 2011 and July 2012. The release also charts the biggest cities in the country. There's not much change between 2010 and 2012 -- the top-10 cities remained the same, in the same rank-order. The remaining 15 cities on the list were also the biggest in 2010, but changed order — like Austin, which jumped from the 14th-biggest to the 11th-biggest. Read more... |
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News |
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Region's growth is a study in contrasts
Oregon's teen birth birth rate drops to new lowMay 24 — Oregon’s teen birth rates are at a new low. A new government report indicates that the number of Oregon teens giving birth dropped by twenty-five percent over a four-year period. The report’s figures are based on birth certificates for 2007 through 2011. They come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those latest figures show that Oregon teens, ages 15 to 19, had 26 births per 1000 in 2011. Read more... Rain and cold smash 100-year-old records, but expect warmer and drier conditions Memorial Day weekendMay 24 —After a dry, summery start, May’s weather took a sharp turn last week and then an even more dramatic turn this week, dumping winter-like rains and well below average temperatures on Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. Wednesday’s whopping 1.19 inches of rain at Portland International Airport not only set a record for the date, it was the rainiest day of 2013 and the wettest day in the Portland metropolitan area since last November 19. That day, 1.86 inches fell, all part of a massive fall storm that damaged buildings on the Oregon Coast. Read more... Rose Festival 2013: CityFair offers urban flair
Beaverton couple brings board game museum to publicMay 24 — Just as in music and movies, the world of board games includes plenty of titles beyond the obvious, mid-20th century selections most everybody of a certain age remembers: Monopoly. Life. Clue. Sorry! Chutes and Ladders. Trouble. Operation. But what about “Mid Life Crisis?” Geared toward, as the box indicates, “2 to 6 players in their prime,” the game encourages players to accumulate and negotiate “debt, divorce and stress.” “Jurisprudence,” meanwhile, titillates players with the promise of an “exciting law game that teaches American Justice.” On the zanier end of the spectrum, cards from the 1979-vintage “Mad” magazine board game cajoles players into moving one chair to the right or surrendering your pile of money to the person next to you. Read more... TriMet's $485 million budget includes money for new buses, exhausted drivers -- but no fare hikesMay 23 — Trimet board of directors unanimously approved a new $485 million operating budget on Wednesday, dedicating funds to, among other things, buying new buses, hiring drivers to comply with new work rules and relocating portable restrooms. budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 also offers a bright light for riders still smarting from last year's historic fare increases and service cuts: A ticket to ride is expected to stay the same, while TriMet will partially restore schedules that were slashed on 18 bus lines. of the biggest controversies surrounding the budget adopted last year didn't surface until two months ago, when The Oregonian discovered that General Manager Neil McFarlane had quietly handed out raises to management and other non-union employees from a contingency fund. Read more... Kaiser Permanente says its new Hillsboro hospital is a model for future facilities, touts LEED Gold certification
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Welcome to my Web site about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It's my way of helping you become acquainted with the neighborhoods and communities of the Portland metro area and to inform you about the Portland area housing market. Your comments and suggestions about my Web site are always welcome.
May 22 —
May 24 — Portland
May 23 — Kaiser Permanente is months away from opening 