Herb's Portland Oregon Real Estate Blog your RE/MAX Agent

Its True its True its True. The Sky is falling. The real estate market in Portland is going in reverse. All of the terrible media reports are now confirmed. This is the worst thing ever. What we thought would never happen is now happening. The Market as we knew it is kaput.

What is it you ask? Well it's the stats of course. Thats right the RMLS cumulative Market Stats.

The stats for the November Real Estate Market in Greater Portland Oregon for the Last 12 months show the median price for a Portland Oregon Home only rose by  7%. Compare that to the previous years gain of 14% over it's 12 month period.

There I've said it. Now are you happy? Good! Then let's get back to work.

The Stats also showed that in the last couple of months from September though November there was a slight improvement potentially indicating the bottom end is in sight.

Now is a good time to check out those properties that have been sitting on the market with no action. Unless that is you prefer to wait till the market kicks into full swing as it has in the past several years. Do you really want to be on that end of the stick again?

Nothing goes up for ever and nothing goes down for ever. When you recognize an opportunity you should act on it.

Are you busy out making that money? Trying to find that home by running around on the weekend through the neighborhoods? Stop and learn what all the Internet savvy Buyers have found out.

Now you can stay on top of it with WWW.househuntportland.com  Where_your_next_home_finds_you! 

The above presented by your RE/MAX Agent in Portland Oregon . To view more information about Downtown Portland Oregon and to see why Tens of Thousands of People are pouring into our area Check out Herb's_Portland_area_information_and_MLS_search_Web_Site  DO IT TODAY! You won't be disapointed!

Do you live in a city that embraces local artists? Portland Oregon is just such a place. This detail of a wall mural in the Alberta Arts District of Portland is just one of many shining examples. The display fosters a sense of community and also helps to curtail graffiti taggers.

The Alberta Arts Districthas become very popular over the last several years. In the mid 1990's I worked with several Contractors who bought homes in the area to rehab and resale. Returning those old turn of the century homes to a new state of grandeur has been quite emotionally rewarding. And now that people are poring into the area it is really a joy to see.

Don't lose out on your opportunity. Come to My_Real_Estate_MLS_Web_Site_for_Buyer's  and Let Your Next Home Find You.

Christmas in Las Vegas. Who better to put on the glitz and glorry than Las Vegas. Last week I had an opportunity to vist this fabulous city as I attended my daughters wedding. Now I have been to Las Vegas many times before but this is the first time that I had ever been during December. It can get right down and breezy in this Desert community I tell you. Rain is also something that I saw quite a bit of.

Anyway I was not at my best and was suffering from a head cold but did manage to get these pictures at the Bellagio and at Ceasars Palace. I hope you enjoy them. Wishing you all the very best. Happy Hollidays. Lets all make 2008 our best year ever.

The one thing that remains constant in the field of Real Estate as well as in many other fields of endeavor is our desire and struggle to re-invent the wheel. Year after year we all analyze, scrutinize and tweak, sometimes shaking the very foundations of our core beliefs. Some of the modifications are good some not so much. Yet each and every attempted tweak leaves its impression.

Throughout this struggle of change one thing remains fairly constant. That is the cost of doing business. Year after year technology helps us to do things in a more efficient manner. It helps us to grow, to reach out to more people in a shorter amount of time. The costs of these technologies comes with a price and once you begin to climb up  Technologys_Upward_Slippery_Slope there is no going back.

Out of all of the attempts to change the system the one thing that confuses me the most is that of cost cutting. The practice of offering services for reduced prices. If you think about it logically it does not make sense.

Why is it that in times of stress real estate agents first and primary plan is to cut the costs for their services. A real estate career should be measured and planned for in years and or decades. By planning long term you realize there are flush years and flat years. All of which are balanced out by your income stream.

There is no way to provide balance in your plan if at the first hint of trouble you choose to lower your income requirements. If anything you should be ramping up your services. To do so requires income.

In a hot market when everything is selling there is little required to draw attention to your clients property. In tougher times ( like now ), you will be using more and more of that income to market those homes. You do the math.

If anything is true, commissions should be going the other direction. If more and more $$$ are required to market a home then it just makes sense to charge more. The more money you have available to spend on marketing the more successful that campaign will be. Successful sales mean more sellers.

You do the Math. It is like one of my contractor friends says " A Two by Four costs what a Two by Four costs." The concept that we are all getting fat and sassy is a myth. Years and years of cost cutting and increased demands by the consumers has whittled away the large margin of profits.

So I say to you. If you want to have happier clients then you know what you need to do. For the bottom line for all Seller's is results.

Automated_MLS_Search_for_Portland_Oregon  Provided by Herb Hamilton of RE/MAX Preferred Inc. Realtors.

In a recent article of the  The_Oregonian_newspaper  and on the front page in large headlines " Portland Home prices stable while most cities slide."

Of course the news is not all positive and the doom and gloom spin masters cannot help themselves as indicated in their sub Head line of " The Metro area is among five in the nation in which housing values escape decline, but 2008 could be different" Nothing like negative speculation to continue the hope of doom and gloom.

Yet this was meant to be a positive article about Portland residential real estate appreciation rates. Below are twenty cities used in their survey from top to bottom:

The Top 5 cities :

• Charlotte                      4.7%
• Seattle                         4.7%
• Portland                       2.2%               
• Atlanta                         0.4%
• Dallas                           0.2%

The remaining 15 cities are as follows :

• Denver                         -0.9%
• Chicago                        -2.5%
• Boston                         -3.2%
• New York                      -3.6%
• Cleveland                     -4.0%
• Minneapolis                  -4.5%
• San Francisco                -4.6%
• Washington                  -6.6%
• Los Angeles                  -7.0%
• Phoneix                        -8.8%
• Las Vegas                     -9.0%
• Detroit                          -9.6%
• San Diego                     -9.6%
• Miami                           -10.0%
• Tampa                         -11.1%

The source of  the comparisons for the    article_written_in_The_Oregonian  were provided by Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index monthly reports for the month of September 2007 compared to the same month in 2006.

The article goes on to say that " The index is one of the most reliable ways to track home prices, and is widely followed by wall street."

Now this may be true and certainly we do need some sort of bench mark to measure performance. But shouldn't the area accurately reflect the City for which it is being reported on? Or at least if you are going to report on an area called Portland and you use seven surrounding counties including two in a different state as the basis for your reporting numbers, then the name should reflect so.

According to the Oregonian article, the Portland region the index covers is single-family home sales in Oregon's Clackamas,  Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties. It also covers Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington State in the Portland region as well.

Seven Counties is a huge region geographically speaking, specifically when the bulk of the City of Portland resides mostly in Multnomah county.It is understandable that the index could use Clackamas and Washington Counties and arguably Clark County in Washington state which includes the city of Vancouver as contributing factors in there analysis as they are often times considered to be bedroom communities for Portland Oregon. However the Portland metro area is fairly well defined geographically with the majority of it residing in Multnomah County.

In an attempt to report a more factual representation of appreciation rates in Portland Oregon, I have made the following comparisons using the local MLS reporting system RMLS.  Here are the local numbers that we use as Realtors working in and around the greater Portland Oregon Metro area for each of the areas reported to be used within the index's surrey.

• County Name                           Appreciation

• Clackamas                                2.6%
• Columbia                                  11.2%
• Washington                               6.2%
• Yamhill                                      8.7%
• Clark                                         1.0%
• Skamania                                  0.4%

Multnomah County which comprises most of Portland can be reflected in the Metro Portland numbers which is 7.3%

The compiled RMLS stats are for residential home sales from November of 2005 through November of 2006 as they compared to the same reporting period of November of 2006 through November of 2007.

An interesting fact is that when all of the above numbers are taken into account the appreciation rate shows to be 5.34% instead of the index's figure of only 2.2%.

Of course the RMLS numbers do not reflect numbers for FSBO's ( for sale by owner properties) which may account for the lower number. Seems like another reason why to List your home with a Broker to me.

All in all the reported numbers of 2.2% in the Oregonian article which hope to report a positive spin on the Portland area market are much lower than the 7.3% for Listed residential properties in the City of Portland.

To find your dream home please go to www.househuntportland.com  where your next home will find you. To read more about Portland Oregon or to do a traditional home search please visit www.portlandrealproperty.com