Moving To Portland - Susan's Online Guide to Portland Oregon - The City of Roses

Subscribe to the Moving to Portland Newsletters

SP Weather

Cloudy

53°F

Wednesday

Showers

45°F / 52°F

Susan's Online Guide to Portland Let me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood
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. 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 Principal Real Estate Broker/CRS GRI __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Real Estate Market

Homes for Sale: Click on a green icon (zip code) to view photos and details about the homes for sale Moving to Portland monthly newsletter now available to download May 18 — Portland is abuzz with real estate activity this spring. New listings continued to rise—at 3,623, the number of new listings for the month was the greatest in any one month since August 2010. This also was a 20.7% increase over March’s 3,002 new listings. You can read the detailed report from the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) by clicking on this link - April RMLS report. Or you can read the summary version of the Portland metro area April home prices along with other articles of interest about the Portland metro area by clicking on this link - Moving to Portland April Newsletter. This month's featured article is about health care in the Portland area. To subscribe to the newsletter click here. Lake Oswego School District ranks third on national list of best districts with affordable homes May 20 — The Lake Oswego School District is the third best school district in the country with the most affordable homes, according to a recent report by ZipRealty. The real estate brokerage company ranked school districts by coming up with a 1 to 10 score for schools -- based on 2010 test scores and student-to-teacher ratio -- and using the median price per square foot for a home in the district. Lake Oswego’s 9.6 school score combined with a median price per square foot of $167 netted it the third-place spot. The majority of the districts in the top ten are suburban ones outside major cities. Read more...
Homes & Health
Some of my best friends are germs May 19 — I can tell you the exact date that I began to think of myself in the first-person plural — as a superorganism, that is, rather than a plain old individual human being. It happened on March 7. That’s when I opened my e-mail to find a huge, processor-choking file of charts and raw data from a laboratory located at the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder. As part of a new citizen-science initiative called the American Gut project, the lab sequenced my microbiome — that is, the genes not of “me,” exactly, but of the several hundred microbial species with whom I share this body. These bacteria, which number around 100 trillion, are living (and dying) right now on the surface of my skin, on my tongue and deep in the coils of my intestines, where the largest contingent of them will be found, a pound or two of microbes together forming a vast, largely uncharted interior wilderness that scientists are just beginning to map. Read more... The strange beauty of density taken to the extreme May 20 — The Hong Kong-based photographer Michael Wolf first began to photograph the city's residential high-rises, like the one pictured above, in their entirety – or, at least, with some sense of sky and horizon and scale in the frame. Then he printed them out and began to rearrange them. "At some point, I just began folding the prints, folding way the sky, folding away the sides, until I basically had an image that looked like a supermarket bar code," Wolf says. "I somehow had the feeling this was the right way of doing it, this was the gut decision." This was the best way to capture life amid extreme density, in a compact city of 7 million people jammed full of 80-story apartments and infinitely replicated facades. Wolf's own 300 square-foot studio looks out on such patterns of stacked homes, with maybe 10,000 other units in view. Collectively, they form a kind of geometric art that appears in Wolf's tightly cropped photos as simultaneously stunning and claustrophobic. The images have recently been reprinted in the book Architecture of Density. Each photo produces the disorienting sense that these buildings could stretch into the sky forever. Read more... Eat my dust May 19 — For the allergy sufferer, there is truth to that adage linking April with cruelty. May isn’t much kinder. For several weeks now, the rooms of my apartment have whirred with the sound of a half-dozen portable air purifiers I have been testing, each supposedly stripping the allergens, pollutants and odors from my indoor air. My cat, whose ungodly smelling litter box was another motivating factor, seemed to sense a change in the atmosphere. I have been closely monitoring my usual symptoms, the watery eyes and nose, to see if — as the manufacturer of one model trumpets, in language at once wildly boastful and vague — a home air purifier “completely revolutionizes the clarity of the air you breathe, so you feel better.” Read more...
News
10,000 runners descend on Portland for a rockin' half-marathon May 20 — Skies cloudy but dry, temperatures in the comfortably mild mid 50s, Portland on Sunday morning felt just right for a long run such as the Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon. Except to Scott MacLay. "I was really hoping for it to be a little bit cooler," the Beaverton 41-year-old said, shortly after crossing the finish line at Southwest Naito Parkway and Yamhill Street. MacLay's minority opinion was understandable. He'd just run 13.1 miles while dressed in white undershirt and dress shirt, and black pants, suit jacket, tie, hat and sunglasses. Last year, MacLay ran among 14,000 others in the inaugural year of the Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon, one of 30 similar events around the world produced by the San Diego company Competitor Group. Disappointed that there weren't more costumes, he says, he decided to "come back and get more in the spirit of it. And what says rock 'n' roll more than the Blues Brothers?" About his time of one hour, 42 minutes and 11 seconds, he quipped, "I think I may have qualified for the fastest Elwood Blues in my age group." Read more... Scientists excited about new lab at bottom of Pacific Ocean May 20 — Scientists are eager for access to information from a quarter-billion dollar lab at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that they hope will teach them about climate change, earthquakes and even the origins of life on Earth and other planets. The $239 million National Science Foundation project will install video cameras, seismic monitors and other gauges along a volcano in deep waters off the Pacific Northwest coast, giving researchers the ability to monitor activity 2 miles below the ocean surface. The project could potentially warn of earthquakes that would threaten the Seattle area, according to scientists. "It really will make a huge difference," said University of Washington oceanography professor John Delaney, who is leading the effort. Read more... Flying high on the North Coast May 20 — Wind, sea and sky – could there be a better combination for summer? Well, add one kite and the mix jumps to an, ahem, higher level! Or at least that’s what our local kite makers, kite sellers and kite enthusiasts think. Among the other wonders of the North Coast, we’ve also got a little bit of kite heaven. There are people and places to go to get both the information and the supplies you need, whether you’re an old-hand at kite flying or newly-minted. One of the first places kite aficionados should consider visiting this summer is the World Kite Museum in Long Beach, Wash. Executive Director Chelsea Libby emphasizes that “we have a new family-friend mission: We want to tell the story of kites and their effect on world culture, art and scientific innovation through hands-on learning exhibits for all ages.” Read more... Young entrepreneurs unite! May 20 — Kian Haddad may have the next big million-dollar business idea. The Southridge High School junior will get the chance to explore and develop his business acumen if he is accepted as one of the first 24 students in Beaverton’s new Young Entrepreneur Academy. “When I heard about this opportunity, I jumped on it,” the 17-year-old said. “I plan to turn in my application within the next couple weeks.” The Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce recently opened the application process for Oregon’s first Young Entrepreneur Academy, which is called YEA! In the next year, more than 70 local businesses are expected to sign on to partner with the chamber, Beaverton School District and Portland Community College in a variety of ways to establish this after-school program at Beaverton High School in November. “YEA! is designed to inspire middle and high school students in Beaverton to become successful contributors to the local community and economy, by bringing their innovative business ideas to life,” said Lorraine Clarno, president and CEO of the chamber. The program was developed at the University of Rochester in 2004, and chamber leaders are excited to introduce YEA! to the Beaverton community, she added. Read more... Breaking the chains of history May 20 — When Greg Nokes of West Linn found out that one of his Oregon ancestors was a slave owner he was surprised to say the least. His relative, Robert Shipley, took his slave, Ruben Shipley, with him, moving from Missouri to Oregon with the promise of releasing Ruben after he helped settle a farm back in 1853. First, Nokes was not pleased to learn about that component of his family’s history. Second, he was interested to learn there were slaves in Oregon, what was known as a state closed to slavery. Intrigued, Nokes started researching and writing. The result is his latest book, “Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory,” which launches May 19. Read more... Watchful eyes in the night: Waste Management drivers trained to spot security, safety issues May 20 — Seth Fuger was hours into his Monday morning recycling pickup route in outer Southeast Portland when he noticed a silhouette in the road ahead. As he drew close enough to recognize details in the predawn light, Fuger's heart sank. An elderly man, shoeless and wearing only light pajamas on a chilly February morning, was waving at passing cars with the vacant look of dementia on his face. "I got out of the truck and asked if I could help him," Fuger says. "The first thing he said was, 'I'm lost.'" Fuger, 31, a former missionary who served in an Italian convalescent home and watched his grandfather battle Alzheimer's, knew immediately age-related mental decay was to blame. The 89-year-old had wandered from his home in a nearby neighborhood, Alzheimer's quickly erasing the reason for his errand and the direction back home. Read more... At Wilson Ranches Retreat outside Fossil, guests connect with a working Oregon ranch May 19 — Sometimes, the cow punches the cowpuncher back. Wheeler County rancher Phil Wilson was reminded of that recently when one of his heifers gave her best impression of a bucking bronc and left him with a walnut-sized shiner above his left eye. Life on a working cattle ranch is on display every day at Wilson Ranches Retreat, a bed and breakfast operation that draws visitors from around the world to experience life on a Western cattle ranch. The Wilsons run 400 pairs of cows and calves, served by 25 bulls and herded by 19 horses and three generations of Wilsons. Their spread covers 22,000 acres of deeded and leased land in the juniper-studded grasslands of Oregon's least populated county. It's a little like paradise on Earth -- as long as the weather is good, you don't have to test the cows for pregnancy like Phil was doing when he got kicked or pay the bills. Starting the B&B back in the late '90s was Phil's idea, not so much to pay the bills but to empty the house where he lived. His wife thought he was crazy. Read more...