Portland Blog - This Week in Portland January 9-16, 2010 - Portland Events & More

Hello, Portlanders! I hope you've started this year off with high hopes for another great year. I read all of the messages posted on the forum about people moving to Portland or wanting to move here, and it reminds me how moving to a new place can be filled with anticipation and hopes for positive change in our lives. People move to new cities for lots of reasons, but moving to Portland certainly seems a big goal for many this year, in spite of our rather poor economy making it hard to find jobs. I appreciate the high quality of life that Portland offers in many ways.

I also think it is a friendly city, but I know not everyone shares my perspective. I was having a conversation with someone yesterday on this very topic. His opinion was that while Portland seemed generally friendly, the people are less likely to engage with strangers and other people than other cities, such as in the South. I gave the example that I had eaten lunch alone in a cafe this week, and was comfortable doing so. He said that in the South, if someone had seen me eating alone at a table, they would have approached me and engaged me in a conversation, and that Portlanders would rarely reach out to strangers and engage them. He felt that Portlanders were more stand-offish than some other cities. Is it that Portland lacks good old-fashioned manners, or that we simply respect each other's privacy? I don't know. I think we just let people be who they are. I mean, I don't know of many cities where you can ride the train without your pants on and people don't bat an eye just look the other way. I mean yeah, I don't know if that's always a good thing, but you certainly can celebrate your individuality in Portland. (p.s. Consider yourself warned...tomorrow is "No Pants" event on MAX). I'll never forget the time I was an accidental bystander at a naked bike ride in Portland. Gross, people. (It still made me laugh, though.)

I guess I choose to see our city as as welcoming, "come as you are", kind of town. I do know I have seldom felt unwelcome in Portland, and I still think of it as a very relaxed, warm, and friendly city. What do you think? We have a handful of people asking questions about moving to Portland on our forum each week, feel free to weigh in and offer your own opinions (good or bad) about moving here.

Featured Portland Events

Want to see your event on the Portland Events Calendar? Just add it!

Portland Art Museum Sundays for Families, Everyday Objects - Jan 10, Every Sunday in January, visitors of all ages can create artwork inspired by everyday objects, as in the works of Robert Rauschenberg. Family Tours: 12:30 p.m. Art-Making: 1 - 3 p.m. Story Time: 2:30 - 3 p.m. Free for members or with Museum admission. Museum admission for children age 17 and younger is free.

Vivoce Free Concert - Jan 10, St. Paul Lutheran Church - Vivoce, a 15 member all women's a cappella outreach group of Portland Revels.

NW Film Center Reel Music 27 - Welcome to our 27th edition of Reel Music. We've been on the lookout all year for new works—and timely classics—for this annual celebration of sound and image, music and culture. Whether your passion is classical, opera, jazz, blues, rock, or reggae, we hope you find this mixture of old and new, familiar and strange to be full of inspiration and discovery. As always, our special thanks go to Music Millennium, Willamette Week, and MacTarnahan's Brewing Company for helping to make it all happen. Enjoy. Various showings, visit website: http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/23/215/

World Forestry Center Fundraiser at Lincoln Restaurant - January 13 -
Fundraiser at Lincoln Restaurant Do you like to eat? Do you like to eat great food? How would you like to do both AND help out the World Forestry Center? On January 13, Lincoln Restaurant will be offering 10% of their evening's food proceeds to the World Forestry Center. So grab a friend and head on over for a great meal and great cause. Happy hour is 5:30 - 7pm Dinner is 5:30 - 9pm. Reservations are encouraged. 503-288-6200 3808 N. Williams

Free Admission - Portland Classical Chinese Garden - Free Admission through January 11.

Fighter Girl - The Musical - Coming Soon! Fighter Girl The Musical Original Story and Music by Catherine Garvin and Arlie Conner. Fertile Ground Festival 2010. Portland Center of Performing Arts-Brunish Hall, January 22-24, 2010, Tickets On Sale NOW! www.pcpa.com www.ticketmaster.com
www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Portland Photo of the Week

The Portland photo of the week winner is Trina, for this lovely shot of a boat dock Downtown on the Willamette. Congrats Trina, and thanks for sharing your photos with us. You can view more of Trina's excellent photography on our site, or read her profile page and check out her daily photo blog.


Come add your photos to our photo gallery for a chance to win cool prizes! Wanna win your own prize? Come upload your photos, we pick a new winner every single week!

Sellwood Moreland Portland Real Estate Market Report

by Ross Seligman, EcoBroker

The Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood is located in Southeast Portland. It is bordered by the Willamette River, Brooklyn, and Eastmoreland neighborhoods. Learn more here: http://www.portlandneighborhood.com/sellwood-moreland.html

In my monthly Portland real estate report, I always talk about how each individual neighborhood is a micro-market. If you are looking to buy or sell in a particular neighborhood, the most crucial information that you need to know is what is going on in that neighborhood. In this situation, the overall Portland market report is less important and the national real estate report is just about useless. This posting is a real estate report for the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood of all homes in all price ranges. Feel free to request particular neighborhoods in which you are interested in buying or selling and I am be happy to do a report, just contact me on this forum or at: http://www.propertiesofportland.com.

If you are looking for homes in Sellwood-Moreland, visit this link where you can search for homes by particular neighborhood:
http://www.propertiesofportland.com/index.cfm/page/51539/parent/426...

The first thing you will notice about individual neighborhoods as compared to the overall Portland reports are that the numbers can be wildly different month to month. Basically, the bigger the pool of data you are working with, the smoother the stats become. As we focus on smaller areas, many different things can happen month to month.

On to the report:

Here is the overall chart of inventory, sold, and pending for the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood from 9/08 to 11/09:

Being a very popular neighborhood, Sellwood-Moreland has had steady sales throughout 2008 and 2009 and sales are way up from last year. In November 2009, Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood had 30 closed sales, 18 Pending Sales, and 109 on the market.

More stats for you from your friendly neighborhood real estate statistics nerd:

One year change from November 2008 to November 2009:

Inventory (how many homes on the market for sale): Down 5.2%
Homes sold: UP 76.5%
Homes pending sale: Down 35.7%

Chart for average price per square footage:

In the past 15 months, the average price per square footage in the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood has been between $150 and $180/sq. ft. In November 2009, the average price per square foot in the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood was $169.

One year change from November 2008 to November 2009:

Change in Price Per Square Foot:
November 2008: 175
November 2009: 169
Percentage Change: Down 3.1%

Days on market and sold/list price %:

This chart is showing us two things. First, how many days on the market that a home is spending, on average, before being sold. In November 2009, the average time on market for a home in the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood was 82 days.

The second thing that this chart is showing you is what percentage of the listing price the owners actually are getting when the house is sold. This is a great indication of the pressure on prices. In November 2009, sellers in Sellwood-Moreland received, on average, 97% of their asking price.

More stats for you:

Change from November 08 to November 09:

Time on Market: Increased 41.4%
Sold/List price % difference: Decreased 1%

Average price for sale vs. average price of sold:

This chart shows us what the average listing was and what the average sale was. In November 2009, the average price of a house on the market in Sellwood-Moreland was $387,000. The average sale was $382,000.

More stats over one year:

Average active price: Down 7.6%
Average sold price: Up 3.8%.

Months of Inventory:

Months of inventory gives a time line of how long it would take for all of the current listings to sell. Anything above 4 months is considered a buyers market. This figure is a good indicator of supply and demand. November 2009 reflected a balanced market in Sellwood-Moreland, leaning slightly toward the seller with 3.6 months of inventory.

By the way, This does NOT mean that it will take 3.6 months for your home to sell. That figure was, on average in November, 82 days, remember? It is a figure that means that, if not another home were to come on the market in Sellwood-Moreland from this point forward, in 3.6 months there would not be another home to sell. They would all be sold.

Visit my website where you can contact me and search all Portland Metro Area listings from the RMLS: http://www.propertiesofportland.com

Blog & Forum Chat

Help your neighbor and offer some insight on these Portland discussion forum threads!

What's a good neighborhood for a single professional in her twenties? Hi everyone! I'm a young professional who's excited about moving to Portland for her new job. I'm not sure what the best neighborhood for… Started by Katie B

Planning a visit to Portland, to make decisions on our move...need ... Hi there, we are planning to move to Portland in June/July and still have many decisions to make. So, we are planning a visit in the next m… Started by Richard Nunez

Want to move to Portland - need help finding a suitable suburb! Hi everyone, My wife, 2 kids, and I are thinking of moving to Portland in the next year. I'm headed out there in May for an exploratory tri… Started by Doug D

T Minus 3 days to take off! Three days until we leave for Portland! YAY! Can anyone tell me about 2121 Belmont, Hawthorn 44 or the 20 On Hawthrone condos? I've been re… Started by Steffanie Huffstatler

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