Homes for Sale: Click on a green icon (zip code) to view photos and details about the homes for sale
Why is everyone talking 'housing bubble'?
June 19 — Home prices are rising at unsustainable double-digit rates both in Portland and across the country. Well-priced, well-located homes sell in hours, inventories are as tight as they’ve ever been and home builders are racing to break ground on new developments. Like it or not, bubble talk is filling the airways. But is it too early? Are home prices unsustainably high? Is the market headed to another crash? It depends on who is talking. In one of the more humorous takes on the housing market, SugarDaddies.com surveyed 100,000 "financially successful sugar daddies" about the economy. A whopping 85 percent of those who answered believe the residential real estate market has entered bubble territory. Read more...
The 'right' rate of return for energy efficiency
June 18 — In the housing industry, it has become common practice to use a rate of return to evaluate the cost and benefits of energy efficiency. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), for example, has a policy that classifies a change in building codes as cost effective if it returns at least 10 percent in energy savings the first year. Another, perhaps more common, approach uses a rate of return to discount future energy savings to their present value equivalent. In this context, the rate of return is supposed to capture a home buyer’s time value of money (how a buyer makes trade-offs when evaluating costs and benefits that will be realized at different times). Often, the current rate on a fixed-rate mortgage is used for this purpose. Read more...
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China sets new rules aimed at curbing air pollution
June 18 — China’s cabinet has adopted 10 measures to improve air quality in the latest move aimed at responding to the dense smog that has repeatedly enveloped Beijing and other major Chinese cities in recent years. Many of the measures had previously been enacted by some cities, or were the subject of national experiments that had not yet received the imprimatur of the cabinet, which is known as the State Council. The measures, adopted Friday, were announced Saturday in state-controlled news media. The newest and least-expected of them is a mandate that heavy polluters like coal-fired power plants and metal smelters must release detailed environmental information to the general public. Ma Jun, the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, one of the best-known independent environmental advocacy groups in Beijing, said that 5,000 of the country’s biggest factories account for three-fifths of its industrial pollution, but that the public knows few details about their emissions. Read more...
An Oasis in the Heights
 This spacious home has a large, flat side yard, backs to greenspace — the 178 acre Marquam Nature Park with access to trail system. Includes gracious living room, wainscoting in dining room, box beams, covered porch and covered patio, as well as four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and inviting kitchen. Den/office plus attic storage. Three floors of stylish and comfortable living. $,1,080,000. MLS 13144587. Read more...
'Passive house' aggressively saves energy (photos)
June 19 — A new North Plains house is providing a laboratory for builders and architects who have created what they say is top-notch, even revolutionary, comfort at a minimal cost. The Pumpkin Ridge Passive House is so tightly insulated, utilizes windows and other features along its skin and collects energy from such a wide array of sources that it doesn't even have a furnace. It requires 90 percent less energy to heat than conventional homes despite being nuzzled into a shaded and forested section of the Oregon Coast Range's foothills. One other thing: The Passive House has no solar panels. It repurposes energy from appliances and laundry facilities through its elongated floor plan. Read more...
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 Oregon City's 130-foot elevator will become a big screen for video artist
June 19 — Oregon City’s 58-year-old Space-Age-style elevator will become the screen next year for a nightly video that features scenes of the city, past and present. Tiffany Carbonneau, an assistant art professor at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., specializes in projected light displays. Her work has been shown on buildings in places as distant as South Africa and Poland. Now she will turn the elevator into one of the largest artworks in the Portland area. “There’s nothing typical about this project. Every step of this process is new territory,” said Lloyd Purdy, Main Street Oregon City director and the project manager. The yearlong display is scheduled to start in early 2014. The project — known as Illuminate Oregon City — will cost around $240,000 and is partially funded with a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Oregon City received one of 80 NEA “Our Town” matching grants awarded nationwide last year. Carbonneau was chosen after a local arts coalition put out an international call for submissions. More than 40 submissions were reviewed and Carbonneau was one of three finalists. Read more...
Oregon unemployment: The needle stays about the same
June 19 — Oregon’s unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged between April and May. The state’s employment department reported that the seasonally adjusted rate of 7.8 percent fell a shade from the 7.9 percent level posted in April. The state did add 3,800 jobs in May, with big-time gains in construction (1,600 jobs) and the trade, transportation and utilities sectors (900 jobs) being partially offset by a drop in manufacturing, which lost 800 jobs. The state did revise its April estimates to show a gain of 2,700 jobs, down from the 3,700-job gain that Oregon economists initially reported. Read more...
Time to brake for fowl intersections
June 19 — Clackamas County drivers face hazards beyond cell phones, teenage joyriders and drunken drivers — ducks and geese are increasingly causing crashes and backups. On Sunday, May 26, Milwaukie police responded to three different calls concerning traffic hazards because of birds attempting to cross roads. Milwaukie Officer Ulli Neitch, a member of the Oregon Humane Society’s Technical Animal Rescue Team, responded to a call that weekend of a goose that had been hit by a car and was still in the road. “His injuries were too severe to survive,” she said. “He was transported to a vet for humane euthanasia.” Read more...
Summer guide 2013
 June 19 — Portland reminds us of an adult summer camp—and not just because of the low wages, rugged fashion or widely varied grooming habits. Deserted on winter weekdays, this town really comes alive as the skies brighten. Neighbors who went missing just after Christmas suddenly appear at the cafe by your house, and every spare patch of grass seems to be put into the service of blanket-sitters or Frisbee-tossers. For this year’s Summer Guide, we approached Portland like one big collection of cabins, trails and fire pits. So we went fly-fishing for the first time, took up slacklining, learned to windsurf, completed a beginner-level mountaineering expedition and butchered a rabbit. We approached each of these outings like a kid trying something new at camp—excited, if a little nervous. We also put together a list of some of our favorite locally made camping productsand assembled the ultimate summer-events calendar, with one can’t-miss activity for every day between now and the start of MusicfestNW. We hope some of these ideas are useful. You can, of course, take it easy, just hanging out at the commissary downing slushies until the bell rings at the mess hall. But, as a helpful counselor probably told you a few years back, you should make more of your time here. Read more...
One-third of Oregon school districts fail to comply with state anti-bullying laws
June 19 — One-third of Oregon school districts fail to comply with state anti-bullying laws, including three Portland-area districts, according to a new report issued by the Oregon Safe Schools & Communities Coalition. The organization's second annual State of Safe Schools Act report says that 70 Oregon school districts changed their anti-bullying policies in 2012 to better protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. But the report says three local school districts—Lake Oswego, David Douglas and Riverdale—have policies on harassment, intimidation, bullying and cyberbullying that "need updating and/or modification to achieve substantial compliance with current Oregon statutes." Lake Oswego School District spokeswoman Nancy Duin says her district's low ranking in the report is simply a matter of semantics. Read more...
Regional transit plan boosts local bikeways
June 19 — Focused infrastructure improvements could serve to substantially increase the number of people riding bicycles in Washington County, thereby helping to reduce traffic congestion and increasing public health. That’s according to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), an advocacy group that recommends enhancing bike access over Highway 26, increasing bike safety along the Tualatin Valley Highway and linking neighborhoods in the county with bike-friendly greenway-style streets. Those specific proposals are among 16 recommendations contained in the “Blueprint for World-Class Bicycling,” a regional plan released by the BTA last week intended to increase biking throughout the metropolitan area. Washington County officials agree with the recommendations from BTA, an organization that has promoted the increased use of bicycles for about 23 years. Read more...
Ten Toe Express, a popular series of guided walks, provides tours of Portland neighborhoods
 June 18 — The 35 hikers followed the 6,000-step loop around Portland Heights, past looming heritage trees and large, opulent homes to vast views of the Fremont Bridge and the snow-covered peaks of Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens etched against a blue sky. The recent expedition in Southwest Portland was a Ten Toe Express walk, one of a series of guided walks in targeted neighborhoods around the city provided by the Portland Bureau of Transportation's Active Transportation Division. This year, to coincide with the opening of the eastside streetcar, the 16 walks focus on close-in Southwest and Southeast Portland. All the walks begin at streetcar or light rail stops. Ten of the walks explore the Southwest neighborhoods of King's Hill, Portland Heights, Lair Hill and South Waterfront. Now in it's 10th year, the program is drawing more people than it ever has, although Cassidy says the bureau has not compiled trending data from year to year. Rich Cassidy, senior planner at the Portland Bureau of Transportation and manager of the Ten Toe Express program, led the evening Portland Heights walk. The aim of the tour is to show people unusual connections between the Goose Hollow neighborhood and Portland Heights and to demonstrate that walking is a viable transportation option that comes with lots of health benefits. Read more...
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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.
