November Newsletter

October by the Numbers

• Portland Area Months of Inventory: 2.0
• Portland Area Avg. Sales Price: $393,900
• YTD Average Sales Price increased: 11.5%
• Portland Area Closings increased: 8.3%
• Portland Area New listings decreased: 20.3%
• Average market time: 41 days

$400,000 homes creep across Portland, squeezing out most buyers?

“In 2008 we had a growth problem, because growth was down. Now the problem is it’s almost too strong.”

Michael Andersen, an affordable housing advocate with Portland for Everyone, posted maps representing five years of rocketing housing prices that make once-affordable dwellings out of reach to most people.

In the 2012 map, a scattering of red dots indicate homes for sale priced at $400,000 and above. Maps for 2013 to 2016 show the steady increase in homes that are unaffordable to 63 percent of Portland residents, according to Andersen’s research of the latest Census.

Andersen posted his information on Open:Housing, which invites solutions to high-cost housing. Along with the maps, he offered an example of an average-size house in his neighborhood, Southeast Portland’s Montavilla.

The 1,700-square-foot house, built in 1949 on a 4,791-square-foot lot at 156 SE 75th Ave., sold last year for $247,500, which breaks down to  monthly mortgage payments of $1,200. After a remodel, it’s priced at $549,000 and the monthly payment more than doubles.

Click the link below for more detailed information:
Source: Oregon Live

Rental News

Portland’s $258.4 million housing bond wins
Portland voters approved a $258.4 million bond that will help build or preserve hundreds of affordable apartments for the city’s poorest residents.

Measure 26-179 jumped to a 62 percent to 38 percent lead Tuesday night in partial returns.

The approval comes as the city continues to struggle to find solutions to an ongoing homelessness crisis and a red-hot rental market made worse by a lack of available housing.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who introduced the bond and oversees the city’s housing bureau, said he was “very gratified” by the overwhelming support. It shows residents understand the gravity of the housing crisis, he said.

“I really think that Portlanders really stepped up in a big way,” he said.

Before the vote, supporters had said they were confident about the bond’s chances and predicted a nightmare scenario for the city’s poorest residents if the bond failed.

Portland City Council members declared a housing emergency a little more than a year ago. Despite 2,000 affordable housing units under construction or in development, Portland still faces a shortfall of 24,000 units.

Backed by a broad coalition of local business leaders, city officials and the nonprofit sector, the bond calls for building or preserving 1,300 apartments for the city’s most vulnerable residents.

Click the link below for more detailed information:
Source: Oregon Live