Susan’s Guide to PortlandLet us Help You Find a Home and a NeighborhoodWelcome to our website about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It’s our 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 the website are always welcome. If you have questions or if you’re interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact us online or call us at (503) 497-2984 or (503) 816-8436. Susan MarthensPrincipal Real Estate Broker/CRS GRI |
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Real Estate News |
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Windermere’s $250,000 kitchen
Strong September for Portland-area home sales even as market cools14 October 2014 —The real estate market cooled across the Portland area in September in the beginning of a seasonal lull, but the month was strong compared with a year ago. The Regional Multiple Listing Service reported 2,378 homes sold across the Portland area during the month, an increase of 10.2 percent compared with a year earlier but down from 2,586 in August. Another 2,551 homes went under a sale contract — an increase of 15 percent from a year ago — in deals that will close in coming months. For pending sales, it was the strongest September since 2006. The market remains competitive, with demand for homes high and the supply for sale low. It would take about 3.1 months to sell all 7,438 homes listed for sale. Less than six months of supply is considered a seller’s market, and the Portland area hasn’t topped five months since March 2012. Read more… Oregon foreclosure auction rate spikes17 October 2014 — Oregon’s real estate market has shown some strength this year, with increased sales and rising home prices. Yet the state is still working through a pile of foreclosures. Scheduled foreclosure auctions were up 85 percent in Oregon during the third quarter of this year compared to the same time period last year. According to the latest foreclosure numbers from RealtyTrac, Oregon was one of 22 states where foreclosure auctions spiked this quarter. Its 85 percent jump, along with North Carolina’s 85 percent, topped the list of those states. Others included New Jersey, Oklahoma and New York. Read more… |
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News |
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Projects create ‘marsh magic’ at Fernhill Wetlands
Oregon won’t get into Yale (or Harvard) with these grades17 October 2014 — Oregon earns mostly Bs and Cs from green industry leaders for its commitment to tackling climate change. The state that casts itself as a sustainability leader hasn’t passed a clean fuels bill and is far behind California, British Columbia and Washington state in establishing a way to curb carbon emissions through taxes and fees. “You don’t want to be the outlier,” said Eve Callahan, spokeswoman for Umpqua Bank and a speaker for the 2014 GoGreen Conference for business leaders. She joined a panel of Portland business executives who opened the day-long conference with a call to Oregon’s private sector to join 237 businesses to sign the Oregon Climate Declaration. Read more… How much is energy efficiency worth in the Northwest?17 October 2014 — If energy efficiency were a power plant, it would be the second-largest source of electricity in the Northwest after the federal hydropower system. In its annual report on the state of conservation, the Northwest Power & Conservation Council says the cumulative impact of energy efficiency efforts since the passage of the 1980 Northwest Power Act translates into 5,600 megawatts. For customers of Northwest utilities, that’s a savings of $3.5 billion per year. The alliance said 2013 efforts produced 268 average megawatts across the region, equal to the annual demand of 180,500 Northwest homes. The region exceeded the council’s goal for the year by eight average megawatts, continuing a winning streak that dates to 2005. Read more… OES research shows teens are adept at multitasking
Oregon scores a “C” on women’s health report card17 October 2014 — Oregon is ranked #26 in the country and received a final grade of C in the 2014 Women’s Health Report Card released today by Oregon Action and The Main Street Alliance of Oregon. The report card provides an important measure of the state’s record on women’s health as politicians court women voters ahead of the November elections and continue to debate how to combat persistent racial disparities in health. “All women deserve access to quality, affordable health care and family planning services,” Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, said after reading an advanced copy of the report. Read more… Portland has a dream16 October 2014 — This isn’t what Eugene Lang had in mind. Lang is the wealthy industrialist who stood up before a third-grade class at his East Harlem elementary school alma mater 31 years ago prepared to make a speech about the value of working hard and how everybody could get ahead in America. Stepping to the podium, Lang changed his speech. He told the students that he would guarantee college tuition for every one of them who graduated high school. Lang’s surprise announcement was blockbuster news at the time. Maybe not intentionally, Lang appeared to be saying to the families of those children whose lives had lacked hope and opportunity — put up or shut up. Lang gave those kids hope and, it appeared, opportunity. He also created a foundation — I Have A Dream — that today has chapters in 13 states, where money is raised, classes are adopted, and students are told they will have money for their college educations. Read more… GMO labeling in Oregon: Measure 92 turns state into ‘battleground for food culture’
How the brewmaster from Portland’s Breakside makes America’s best IPA16 October 2014 — This guy has Portland covered – in beer. Ben Edmunds is the brewmaster at Breakside Brewery, which operates a brewpub in North Portland and – miles to the south – a production brewery and taproom in Milwaukie. The company has enjoyed phenomenal 700 percent barley-and-hops fueled growth in a time when some doubted the City could support more breweries. Earlier this month, Breakside won two medals at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver: a bronze in the American-style strong pale ale category for its Wanderlust IPA among 134 entries, and a gold for its flagship Breakside IPA for American-style India pale ale category among 279 entries (way more than any category). Read more… City’s growth plan hits the busy streets16 October 2014 — Eighty-Second Avenue — known more for used-car lots and prostitutes than bicyclists and brewpubs — is not exactly a poster child for Portland’s vaunted land-use planning and quality of life. But Portland is now plotting where to house a quarter-million additional residents in the next 20 years, and city planners say 82nd Avenue must do its part. As planners redo the city’s comprehensive land-use plan for the first time in 35 years, they’re trying to channel the bulk of the growth into the central city and established business districts, neighborhood centers and commercial strips, including nearly 5,000 more apartments on 82nd Avenue. By doing that, planners hope to preserve the city’s residential neighborhoods much as they are, without jolting changes. Read more… |
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Homes That Just Went on The Market in the City of Portland |
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2764 Se Francis St, Portland, OR 97202
Price: $469,900
Status: Active
MLS #: 14001052
Beds: 4
Baths: 2 full, 1 half
Living Area SqFt: 1,827
Property Type: DETACHD
Listing Office Name: Oregon First
View Property Details
5981 Nw Alfalfa Dr, Portland, OR 97229
Price: $449,000
Status: Active
MLS #: 14002392
Beds: 4
Baths: 2 full, 1 half
Living Area SqFt: 2,240
Property Type: DETACHD
Listing Office Name: Meadows Group Inc., Realtors
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841 Sw Gaines St 407, Portland, OR 97239
Price: $418,000
Status: Active
MLS #: 14070012
Beds: 1
Baths: 1 full, 1 half
Living Area SqFt: 1,201
Property Type: CONDO
Listing Office Name: The Agency, Inc
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8965 N Clarendon Ave, Portland, OR 97203
Price: $414,900
Status: Active
MLS #: 14608454
Beds: 4
Baths: 2 full, 1 half
Living Area SqFt: 2,050
Property Type: DETACHD
Listing Office Name: Oregon First
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7528 Sw Kelly Ave, Portland, OR 97219
Open House
Price: $399,900
Status: Active
MLS #: 14383305
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Living Area SqFt: 1,450
Property Type: DETACHD
Listing Office Name: Change Realty, LLC
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1470 Nw 136th Ave, Portland, OR 97229
Open House
Price: $399,900
Status: Active
MLS #: 14330584
Beds: 3
Baths: 3
Living Area SqFt: 1,848
Property Type: DETACHD
Listing Office Name: Keller Williams Realty Profes.
View Property Details
Listing content is copyright 2014 RMLS, Portland, Oregon.
The above information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Data courtesy of the RMLS, Portland, Oregon. Last Updated October 17, 2014 11:37 pm. Information
_____________________________________________ New Listings in Northwest Portland ♦ New Listings in Southwest Portland ♦ New Listings in Southeast Portland |
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16 October 2014 — As any good Realtor knows, kitchens are always key. So it’s no real surprise that local real estate firm Windermere Stellar will pony up $250,000 for a new kitchen in Gresham. The kitchen will be part of the Friends of the Children’s new 8,500-square-foot facility being built in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood. FOTC is a nationwide organization that pairs vulnerable children with professional mentors from kindergarten through high school graduation. Windermere Stellar’s fund-raising campaign will involve various activities at the firm’s local branches, all of which raise funds for the Windermere Foundation. Brokers with the firm also contribute a percentage of their commissions to the foundation. Windermere’s commitment comes on the heels of the launch of FOTC’s capital campaign to raise $5 million for the program facility. To be built on land secured in partnership with the city of Gresham, the new building will feature Windermere’s teaching kitchen, a garden, comfortable spaces for one-on-one time, a media center and multipurpose rooms for group activities. The space will also be available for parent and family programs as well as other community groups. 
17 October 2014 — In just two years, Clean Water Services turned a two-acre asphalt parking lot into a lush wetland that doubles as a wastewater-treatment facility. The magical marsh was on display last Saturday, when about 100 people attended the annual Birds & Brew festival at Fernhill Wetlands on Forest Grove’s southern edge. “We had huge, huge tours,” said Sheri Wantland, public involvement coordinator for CWS. “Lots of young kids, teenagers.” But the two-acre “Lower Treatment Wetlands” is just the first act, a model for what CWS officials hope to do with the more highly visible South Wetlands — 90 acres that were once home to three sewage lagoons, thousands of birds and hundreds of bird-watchers every year. That all stopped last May, when CWS drained the lagoons and began reshaping them. The earth-moving finished last Friday, just ahead of this week’s rains, which are the first step toward refilling the now heavily contoured basin. Workers will install heavy pipes and other hydraulic structures over the next few weeks. 
17 October 2014 — Telling youths who are juggling multiple electronic devices to “focus on the task at hand” may not always be good advice, according to research presented by two Oregon Episcopal School students Oct. 11 at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition. Sarayu Caulfield and Alexandra Ulmer, seniors at Oregon Episcopal School in Southwest Portland, presented their study “Capacity Limits of Working Memory: The Impact of Media Multitasking on Cognitive Control in the Adolescent Mind” at the conference in San Diego. Contrary to popular belief that multitasking leads to poor performance, the young researchers found the opposite is true for adolescents who spend a lot of time switching between media devices and tasks. “Maybe practice really does make perfect,” Ulmer said. “In our current multimedia environment, there are people who are multitasking at an exceedingly high rate, and the reality is that they may have become really good at it,” Caulfield added. To study how media multitasking affects adolescents’ ability to process information, the young researchers recruited 196 girls and 207 boys ages 10-19. 
16 October 2014 — Forces for and against mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods sold in Oregon agree on almost nothing. Proponents say labeling is akin to a Freedom of Information Act when it comes to food choices. How, they ask, can the relatively inexpensive labeling of important food choices be bad for consumers and society? Opponents see the issue in starkly different terms. Not only will the measure burden farmers, manufacturers and consumers with far higher costs, they say, but it will stigmatize all Oregon agricultural products by creating a standard no other state must meet. If there is one slender thread on which both sides concur, it’s that the Nov. 4 fate of 
The content relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the IDX program of the RMLS of Portland, Oregon. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Windemere Stellar are marked with the RMLS logo, and detailed information about these properties includes the names of the listing brokers.i
Contact Susan
Principal Real Estate Broker, CRS, GRI
Direct (503) 497-2984 | Office (503) 297-1033
6443 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, Suite 100
Portland, Oregon 97221
Copyright © 2014 Susan Marthens. All Rights Reserved.
