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Susan's Online Guide to Portland
Let me Help
You Find a Home and a Neighborhood
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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.
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
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Real Estate Market Trends
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Case-Schiller: U.S. home prices rose one percent
in June August 31 − A crucial index on home prices in the United
States rose in June, the last month that benefited from a tax credit for
home buyers. The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller 20-city home price index,
a widely watched indicator, on Tuesday reported a 1 percent rise in June
from May, the third consecutive monthly increase. ationally, the index rose
4.4 percent in the second quarter of 2010, after having fallen 2.8 percent
in the first quarter. Home prices in the nationwide index are 3.6 percent
above their year-earlier levels in the three-month period. espite the improved
numbers, David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard &
Poor’s, offered a cautionary note. While the numbers are upbeat, other
more recent data on home sales and mortgages point to fewer gains ahead,”
Mr. Blitzer said.
Read more...
Follow the Portland metro area housing market and subscribe
to Susan's free monthly
newsletter....
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Community News
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Broadway
Bridge packs on the pounds September 3 − The Broadway Bridge
will do what millions of Americans can only dream of - add 240,000 pounds
without changing its weight. When two of the four lanes of the Broadway
Bridge reopen to traffic Saturday, drivers will travel along a bridge that
has been following a rather complex weight-loss plan: For every pound the
bridge added in the form of steel streetcar tracks, it had to lose a pound
of existing materials. The tracks had to be added to the bridge as part
of the city’s $148 million Portland Streetcar Loop Project. But the Broadway
Bridge is a bascule bridge, which uses counterweight and balance to lift
the spans. The added weight of the steel tracks could throw off the balance,
preventing the spans on the bridge from lifting high enough for boats to
pass underneath. So engineers had to calculate how to maintain the delicate
balance of weight required for the bridge to operate.
Read more...
Vandals target Happy Valley family with racist graffiti,
threaten to burn down their house September 3 − Neighbors
expressed bewilderment as much as shock Thursday after a Vietnamese American
family suffered racial harassment and threats as they began moving into
their new home. Jami Onchi, 32, who lives down the street, said ethnic diversity
was one reason she and her husband moved to the neighborhood. "My husband
is Japanese, and we have half-Japanese children," Onchi said. "I can only
say this is extremely strange." On Monday, vandals spray-painted racial
slurs on Sang Huynh and his family's new home and left a note threatening
to burn it down. The FBI and Clackamas County authorities are investigating
the incident as a hate crime. "It's just terrible because we just moved
here, and it's my dream area," said Phong Tran, Sang Huynh's wife. "How
were we supposed to know this would happen?"
Read more...
Echo,
a small town in northeast Oregon, tries for fifth America in Bloom award
September 3 − Beaten down by hoofs and wagon wheels more than 150 years
ago, the Oregon Trail near the town
of Echo disappears beneath native ryegrass and sagebrush. Fields of
potatoes and wheat take up where the cardboard-colored land leaves off.
Everything is quiet. Except Diane Berry, who talks fast to keep up with
the library of history filed in her head. The day is mild enough for capris
and an embroidered jean jacket, though at times a mist develops and two
east-of-the-Mississippi visitors cover their heads with hat and hood. The
pair listen carefully, taking notes and photos. As judges for the America
in Bloom program, Dwight Lund and Melanie Menachem-Riggs have much to consider
as they rate the northeast Oregon town near Hermiston in eight categories.
This year, Echo vies against two other towns of less than 2,000 for recognition
in the national competition that encourages community beautification, primarily
with the use of plants.
Read more...
Man to 9-1-1: 'I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot
chocolate' September 3 − A homeless man who sneaked into a Beaverton
hot tub then called 9-1-1 to ask for towels, hot chocolate and a hug will
spend more than three weeks behind bars. Mark Eskelsen had been soaking
in a private tub in the 15000 block of Southwest Village Lane for several
hours Sunday morning when he called emergency dispatchers and asked for
help. First identifying himself as "the sheriff of Washington County," Eskelsen
complained to the dispatcher that he had been sitting in the tub for about
10 hours, his towels were wet, his voice was hoarse from yelling and his
fingers looked like prunes. "I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate
with marshmallows in it," Eskelsen later said. Neighbors had already called
9-1-1, concerned about the man bellowing from the fenced pool.
Read more...
Congregation
embraces change, warms to shelter September 2 − Linda Loeffler
still doesn’t remember one word of what she said, or why she changed her
mind. But she did change her mind, and she did speak up, and partly as a
result, there will be one more place for homeless Portland families to stay
overnight this fall and winter. Poets would have us believe that, sometimes,
a life can be distilled into one defining moment. Three weeks ago, parishioners
at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in outer Northeast Portland found that
may be true about the life of a congregation as well. Eastminster, the focus
of a Tribune story last winter on Portland churches, was a thriving congregation
of 450 in 1972. Today, it has 38 members whose average age is 79. Pastor
Brian Heron arrived in 2006 to help the church deal with its uncertain future,
including the possibilities of shutting down or merging with a younger church
in need of the space Eastminster has in abundance.
Read more...
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Home & Health
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Measure
49 housing boom is a bust September 2 − It may help that
Jim Beecher is in his 80s, raised crops for years and thereby gained the
patience and perspective that age and farming instill. Building a house
on one lot and placing a triple-wide manufactured home on another required
an estimated 50 trips to the Yamhill
County planning department over the past year, multiple surveys and
inspections, wrangling over well and septic systems and spending thousands
for permits and fees. But Beecher is one of the lucky ones. In the three
years since voters overwhelmingly approved Measure 49, which was supposed
to give rural landowners the right to build a few homes, only a handful
of people have built anything. Beecher's four-bedroom home, rising amid
the oak trees off Cunningham Lane, is a rarity. "I feel like it was an act
of God, frankly," Beecher says.
Read more...
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Living Green
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Oregon
farmer renounces dairy license to support raw milk September
2 − Customers wanted raw milk and cheese from Mookie Moss’s goat farm. So
last week, the farmer turned activist — or maybe it's activist turned farmer
— took to a stage on his 64-acre farm near Jacksonville and announced to
a crowd that he was renouncing his grade-A dairy license and selling off
his herd of 43 dairy goats in shares. The move toward herd-sharing at Siskiyou
Crest Goat Dairy marks the first time in Oregon that a certified dairy has
shirked the oversight of state food safety programs. It’s an emerging concept
in dairy farming nationally, however, in which farmers avoid restrictions
on the sale of raw dairy products — enforced by the
Oregon Department of
Agriculture in this state — by allowing consumers to own a portion of
their herd. Because raw dairy products are only legally available to people
who own their own goats or cows in Oregon and other states, allowing customers
to own a portion of the herd enables farmers like Moss to supply them with
raw milk and cheese. One share at the Siskiyou Crest Goat Dairy now sells
for $20 a month, and entitles a shareholder to half a gallon of milk or
a four ounce block of cheese weekly.
Read more...
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Sports and Outdoors
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Duck call helps fight breast cancer September
2 − Anne Cross May just wanted to name a duck call after her 4-year-old
granddaughter, Vivian Rose. So she and husband Jim May, co-owners of
Kum Duck Calls in Rickreall, created
a pink version of their new line of beginner calls and named it "Wild Rose."
It was designed for women, of course, and (naturally) simulates the call
of a hen mallard. But for cancer survivors and patients, pink has become
a very, very good color indeed. "I am writing to tell you about how one
of your pink calls is being used to raise funds to fight cancer," wrote
Joe Reinhardt of Reno, Nev. "Our local retriever club holds an annual AKC
hunt test and we have a raffle/auction during the event. We were given a
call and I decided to auction it off to support cancer research.
Read more...
Rafting
season about to get going on Washington's Tieton River west of Yamika
September 2 − During the first week of September, after the Labor Day holiday,
the Tieton River west of Yakima transforms from lazy water to Class III
rapids due to the annual fall water release. This makes it a destination
for many of the Pacific Northwest's licensed whitewater guides, as well
as for private kayakers and paddlers. Throughout September, the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation releases irrigation water from the Rimrock Reservoir to assist
salmon during spawning. The Tieton has an average drop of 55 feet per mile,
compared to most rivers that drop at 20 to 30 feet per mile, so all that
water rushing down creates plenty of whitewater adventure. "This is one
of Washington state's most unique and undiscovered adventure opportunities,"
said John Cooper, president and CEO of the Yakima Valley Visitors and Convention
Bureau, in a statement. "As an added bonus, the water being released from
Rimrock has been warmed throughout the hot summer months, making it the
warmest whitewater rafting experience in Washington state."
Read more...
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Portland Blogs and Web Sites
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Bright Neighbor
A social networking Web site that helps Portland communities thrive.
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Burnsider
Stories and pictures from the Burnside Bridge, Portland, Oregon.
The e bloggers live near the bridge and walk across it as part of their
commute every day.
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Documented
Life Planet Earth as seen from Portland Oregon.
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Community & Parents
for Public Schools in Portland They seek to redefine parent
and community involvement in Portland Public Schools.
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Discovering
Portland Two women flee California for Oregon to ask if Portland
is the city they've dreamed of.
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Ever Day is a Miracle A blog about families, kids, politics
and current events, travel, books, and living in Portland.
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Good Stuff
Northwest Kab is a writer and designer who loves living
in Oregon with its combination of urban style and down-home friendliness.
lots of recipes on Kab's blog.
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Home Ownership A blog about the "Neighborhood Housing Program"
sponsored by the Portland Development Commission.
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The Oregonian Neighborhoods Covers Portland metro area neighborhoods
and communities.
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Pat's Blog
Whatever ticks Pat off or tickles his fancy: politics, news and society,
music, movies, books, cooking, autism, and anything else bright and
shiny in the world of ideas. And Pat does it with humor.
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Portland Blogs
A list of bloggers who call Portland home.
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Portland Dog
Blog For people who exercise their dog at Portland parks.
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Portland
Housing Blog Real estate and economic discussions.
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Portland Metblogs
Written from the perspective of people who live, work, and play in Portland
every day.
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SheSue Experience
Shelley blogs about events, restaurants, attractions, outdoor activities,
curiosities and more.
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Trimet
Confidential A bus driver's story of life behind the wheel.
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Upper
Left Coast Thoughts on politics, faith, sports and other random
topics from a red state sympathizer in indigo-blue Portland, Oregon.
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Walking
in Portland This blogger walks around Portland with his wife
and dogs taking photos and making notes about living in Portland.
Web Sites
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Bookslut
Who among us has not wished for a literary concierge? Someone to tell
us, “Read this, skip that”? Fortunately, there’s Bookslut to help us
from wading through the drivel.
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Kids in Portland
This site provides a resource for parents to come together and find
out all of the attractions, restaurants, activities, ideas, issues,
art, music, for kids in the area.
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Oregon Fly
Fishing Fishing reports, conservation news, fishing advice,
and hot fly patterns.
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Oregon Newspapers
Links to over 100 newspapers in Oregon. This includes community weekly
papers − check out the stories in smaller
towns like Astoria and Pendleton.
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PDX.FM In Portland,
the city with quirks, pdx.fm fits in perfectly.
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Portland
Architecture If you're interested in buildings, this is the
site to visit. RSS feed and newsletter.
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Portland Upside
A volunteer-driven publication that is dedicated to finding and printing
the positive stories of the Portland, Oregon, metro area.
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Radio23 Cascade
Community Radio is changing the way we listen to music.
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Republic of
Cascadia If we Oregonians, Washingtonians and Northern Californians
were in charge, what would we do? We'd leave the United States to its
own self-created woes and build Ecotopia, our independent utopian society.
Maybe British Columbia would join us.
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(866) 368-7878
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Susan Marthens
Principal Real Estate Broker
CRS, GRI
(503) 497-2984
Fax (503) 220-1131
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6443 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway
Suite 100, Portland, Oregon 97221
(503) 297-1033
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