Southeast Portland Real Estate Market Snapshot

The real estate market in Southeast Portland has become more and more competitive over the last few months. Inventory (homes for sale) has continued it's seasonal drop over the winter, but the number of buyers has stayed the same. So there are more people looking at and making offers of the same few properties. In Inner SE PDX homes there are enough buyers, as of February 2012, to buy up all the houses currently on the market in 6 months. A 5-6 month absorption rate is considered a neutral market, 4 or less months is a sellers market. If we continue on the same trend we have recently seen the market will only become more competitive. Eventually this leads to multiple offers on homes, prices increasing, and the housing market stabilizing. 

Newest Homes for Sale in North Portland

North Portland is becoming an ever more popular place to buy homes. The newest listings of homes for sale in NoPo are below. To view the property details, click on the listing. To see a home in person, call me at 503-367-1877. [listingsearch excludeShortSale=1 type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1003" orderby="id" order="DESC" ptype="DETACHD"]

Newer Built Properties for Sale in NE and SE Portland

Inner Northeast and Southeast Portland are known for older homes, but in the last 10-12 years there has been a lot of new construction. Below are homes for sale that were built in 2000 or more recently. Many are under construction. These homes are mostly built to fit into the existing neighborhoods, so they have traditional styling on the exterior, but modern features and layouts inside. To view the properties click on the listings, and to see them in person call me at 503-367-1877.

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Below are All Homes for Sale in Northeast and Southeast Portland.

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Spring Winery Tours 45 Minutes from Portland

The Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association has a great event/deal for April. Buy into the Passport Tour for $20 and you receive a stamp book that gets you 50-100% off tastings at over 25 participating wine tasting rooms, along with special offers from area restaurants, shops, inns and B&Bs. Visit the wineries, many of which will be specially open for the the event, receive a stamp at each location and create a memorable keepsake with your passport. Passport holders then will be able to enter their name into a drawing for a chance to win the GRAND PRIZE: A Wine Country Weekend for 2 Couples! Sounds like a great way to explore Yamhill County's world renowned wineries, see some amazing landscapes, and taste some great wines.

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Listing an Eastmoreland Home

Telling the story of a home in pictures and text is the key to marketing effectively. At M we are focusing on beautiful materials: Print and Online. We are also focusing on CONTENT. Content is key, and all the materials would be wasted if once someone started reading there was just fluff or made no sense. Here is a sample of the story of 6900 SE 28th Ave, ML# 12058544.

"This gracious colonial is situated on a large beautifully landscaped private lot in Eastmoreland. The details throughout the home are extraordinary and correct for the vintage and style.The home is great for entertaining year around. French doors open from the formal living room to a large covered patio and level yard. The backyard and main patio can be accessed from the great room off of the kitchen. The master bedroom is exquisite with gorgeous built-ins, window seat, fireplace and private patio. It boasts generous closet space. The home is perfect for the person who appreciates classic architecture and craftsmanship. This is a rare gem and an opportunity to live in one of Portland’s finest neighborhoods. This home is located near Reed College, Berkeley Park, Eastmoreland Market, Eastmoreland Golf Course and the Springwater Corridor."

You can probably picture parts of this home in your mind, but looking at the actually photos is more fun:

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If you'd like mor info on how I can tell the story of your home in order to sell it quickly and for the best price, call me at 503-367-1877.

Northeast Portland Real Estate Snapshot

The story of the real estate market in Northeast Portland for the last year has been that there are buyers, but not many houses for them to pick from. The absorption rate topped out in June of 2011 at 18%, which means that almost one in five listings sold that month. That's a really good number. The number hovered around 14-15% for most of the rest of the year.

Featured Listing 3905 NE Grand Ave ML# 12337824

My new listing in the Sabin Neighborhood went through the full M Marketing Campaign, starting with professional staging and consultation. My favorite staging company Spade and Archer came through the home and recommended colors, new flooring, lighting, and a kitchen rehab. The seller followed their advice, and the professional photos and video were done within the last few days. Take a look at all the photos, the story of the house, and community information at the website: 3905 NE Grand Ave.

The home is listed for $290,000, it has 4 bedrooms, 2.1 baths, including a master suite on the main floor. Total square footage is 1770. The schools are Sabin and Grant. The home is on the corner of NE Grand and NE Failing, just 2 blocks north of Fremont Ave. Call me today for a showing!

Portland Running Events

Portlands has a ton of competitive and charitable runs throughout the year, but March

kicks off the warmer weather and lots of runs. Join in the Portland pass time:

Fort Vancouver Run: March 4th

Muddy March Madness: March 11th

Shamrock Run: March 18th

Sellwood Scamper: March 24th

Gorge Waterfalls 50k: March 25th

Luxury Southwest Portland Homes

Southwest Portland is a fantastic residential area that is known for quick commutes to downtown, quaint neighborhoods, and easy access to suburbs such as Lake Oswego. Luxury properties are either penthouse condos in the Southwest Waterfront and Homestead, or large estates throughout the area.  The market for homes for sale in SW Portland is very competitive, there are not that many luxury homes for sale at any given time. [nggallery id=19]

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North Portland Real Estate Snapshot

Running the actual numbers is important, even if you aren't a statistics geek. I like to see the results and analyze how the actual market is affected, so I'll give you the results:

The North Portland real estate market has seen a decline in inventory (houses for sale) over the last year. The greater Portland Metro Area has seen a decline in listing inventory for the last year as well. The houses that are in good condition, marketed well, and priced right are selling. Buyers who want to live in the houses they are purchasing (not investors) are having a tough time finding the right house and making an offer on it before it sells. The absorption rate in North Portland has bounced up and down over the last year, but on average we are seeing a rate of 12.7%. So every month about 13% of the houses for sale are selling. At the bottom of the market we were only seeing around 3-5%.

Stage Your Home, Even If You Have Good Taste

Staging a vacant or not so cute house is obvious, but your house is lovely. Special. Decorated Perfectly. To your taste, as it should be since you live there. But you are moving, and someone else has to find it lovely, special and decorated perfectly. For their taste, whatever that may be. Staging makes a home appealing to the widest variety of buyers. If done well, it highlights the best parts of the home, shows the best use for every space, and makes it the place where every buyer wants to stay. Permanently.

Don't think of it with a whoa is me my agent doesn't like my house. It is the same as hiring a professional to design a new product for the market.

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This staging has been done by Spade and Archer Design Agency. I know that whatever the style or price range of a listing, they can capitalize on the features of the house and feel of the neighborhood to make a home pop.

February Events

February can be a long month in Oregon, but here are a bunch of activities to get you out of the house. Some will even  keep you out of the weather! Support local theatre, local farmers, and the Community Cycling Center.

• February 24: Free Admission to Portland Art Museum | 5-8PM, Fourth Friday of Every Month
• Chinese New Year at the Lan Su Chinese Garden- Lantern Viewing February 5-6th.
• Winter Farmers Market at Shemanski Park: Saturdays, January 7 through February 25, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., SW Park Ave & SW Salmon St. 

• Worst Day of the Year Ride: February 12th, 9am.
• Portland Center Stage: The North Plan, Shakespeare's Amazing Cymbeline, Red.  

Behind the Scenes of a Listing Video Shoot

Real estate videos can be very cliche- and usually not video at all but a slideshow of the still photos. My goal as a listing agent is to make the highest quality and most effective marketing to sell homes, and this includes high end video. It takes several people to make a great listing video that tells the story of a home. We like to make at least two videos: the highlights and the full tour. The highlights video focuses in on the major selling points of a property, such as a gourmet kitchen, great master suite, or killer back yard. The full tour walks the viewer through the entire property from the front door, not missing a room or feature, all the way to back yard. This is a few of us from M at a video shoot, we took several hours to make the videos, and you can see us all staying out of the way of the camera on the roof top deck.

This is the first property we did this extensive video shoot for with in house production. I think we have improved since we shot this, but even with this first attempt we still had about 1000 video views on YouTube, as well as sold the house in 6 days.

Southeast Portland Real Estate Snapshot

Southeast Portland has the most houses and usually has the most listings in Portland. Over the last year I have seen a reduction in the number of properties listed for sale across the Metro area, and this has been very dramatic in SE Portland. Over the last few years there have been around 1300 to 1600 houses for sale at any time, but in November 2011 there were on 800 actively listed properties for sale. The good news is that the number of sales over the last year has increased, so a larger percentage of the homes listed are being sold every month. This is called the absorption rate. On the graph above you can see that the blue bars- the number of properties for sale- trended down over the last year. The purple- sales- did a slight upswing through the summer. Normally the number of listings does a dramatic bell curve, peaking in the summer. This year the inventory of properties available to buy did not rise during the year, and I saw this affect my clients greatly. Qualified buyers have been looking for the right house all summer and fall, and they quality properties sell immediately. I think that there is a backlog of buyers, and once people start putting houses on the market in the spring, people will be surprised at how quickly homes that are in good condition and priced right sell.

The numbers are broken down in the chart below:

Luxury Southeast Portland Homes

Southeast Portland has a bohemian, urban feel. The neighborhoods are focused on high walk scores, and the 2o minute neighborhood idea. Many of the homes in the area are smaller bungalows and English styles houses. The luxury homes in Southeast Portland that are for sale are often on Mt Tabor, in Laurelhurst, and in Sellwood, but there are fabulous homes listed for over $500,000 all over the area. Here are the ones that are currently for sale. Click on the listings to view details and to request showings. [listingsearch shortSale=1 type="layers" layerid="15" hqid="1004" orderby="id" order="ASC" lp="500" ptype="DETACHD"]

Northeast Portland Real Estate Market Snapshot

What has been happening in the real estate market in Northeast Portland? I have used propitiatory software to take a look at how many houses have been for sale, how many of them have sold, and how long they spent on the market. I use this information to tell my clients how many buyers there are in there are for their home.

Below is a breakdown by month of 2011 so far, and the month from the previous 3 years that had the most houses on the market. Every month, March through October of this year, has had a high absorption rate than any time in 2008. Even though there are fewer houses on the market, there are almost as many selling, and as a percentage, the rate of houses sold is higher than it was three years ago. Not everyone is selling their house right now, so if you need or want to sell, there isn't a lot of competition. If it is marketed correctly, in the best condition possible, and priced right, your house will sell. Here are the numbers to prove it.

Marking Listings the M Way

I'm super excited to share how M Realty has been marketing listings. I was on the development team that worked for several months to amp up how listings are marketed to buyers. The part I'm most excited about is that we are really telling the story of a home, and using the best print and online materials to express this story to buyers. Check out the property website to see the Story, the Gallery, and how we communicated the home to buyers. The listing that we first implemented this new strategy on went pending in just 6 days, and I know that is is due to the sheer number of people who experienced the home. The house is a quality property, and the quality was expressed in the marketing materials.

The most exciting thing about the marketing for this listing is that we really show all the main benefits of living in this home. The gourmet kitchen, the great room. the rooftop deck, the neighborhood, these are all things that most buyers are interested in, and by showing how they will be used by the future owner, they begin to be emotionally attached to the home and imagine themselves living in it.

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This marketing plan will be applied to all of my listings, if you or someone you know has a property that needs this level of marketing to sell a home, please contact me for a presentation of the full marketing materials.

December 2011 Events

What To Do in Portland for December 2011

The Nutcracker- Keller Auditorium, Portland Center for the Performing Arts- Running December 10th-24th

The Wanderlust Circus -White Album Christmas- Running December 8th-10th at the Alberta Theater

Christmas Ship Parade- Willamette River- Running December 8th- 20th

Christmas Around the World at Pittock Mansion- Running November 21st through January 2nd

Zoolights Festival- Oregon Zoo- November 25th- January 1st

Custom Built Reedway Home

Just Listed: 5130 SE 34th Ave

ML# 11141310

Offered for: $410,000

Schedule a Showing

Features:

Custom 1960 Ranch, with Full Basement

3000+ Square Feet, Including Finished and Unfinished Basement, and Two Car Garage

Formal Living and Dinning Rooms

Informal Family Room Off Kitchen

Hardwood Throughout Main Floor

Gas Furnace, Decommissioned Oil Tank, Tank-less Hot Water Heater, Heat Pump

Three Fireplaces

Large Yard with Fruit Trees, Berry Bushes, and Garden

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Front Yard Gardening in Rose City Park

Front yard gardening is popular all over Portland, you have to plant where the sun shines in Oregon. Vegetables gardens are usually thought of as being a SE Portland staple, but with cedar planting boxes, they have made inroads in NE Portland. Here are some of the nicest looking ones, and most functional, that I saw this week in Rose City Parks. To view homes for sale in this neighborhood, see the real estate page for Rose City Park.

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