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Shelli's & Susan's Guide to Portland
Let us Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood
Welcome 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 Susan at (503) 497-2984 or Shelli at (503) 497-5061.
Susan Marthens — Principal Real Estate Broker/CRS GRI
Shelli Gowdy — Real Estate Broker
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Homes
Small house summit: Learn what cities allow, how to design, build
22 October 2015 — Is Portland the epicenter of tiny houses? The number of permits to build small accessory dwellings on residential lots has spiked. More than 2,400 people registered for a May tour to go inside basements and garages converted in apartments and backyard cottages. And in April, hundreds oftiny house fans gathered at a conference here. In November, there's a weekend of small house fact-finding events designed to inform people thinking about building a house to live in or adding another one for family, office or studio workspace or renting it out for additional income. The Build Small Live Large Summit 2015on Friday, Nov. 6, at Portland State University's Smith Center, promises to provide practical information from experienced small house designers, builders and property owners as well as thoughts from policy makers and tips from lenders on how to finance a house that's less than 600 square feet. Read more…
More areas join the $500,000 club in Portland's 25 most-expensive neighborhood list
23 October 2015 — As the final leg of our quarterly Hottest Neighborhoods report, we obtained data from the Regional Multiple Listing Service identifying the 25 Portland-area ZIP codes that claimed the highest average home sale price in the third quarter. On Monday we examined the areas of the Portland region that saw the most home sales. Yesterday we looked at where homes sold the fastest, measured by fewest days on the market. Read more…
Portland's 25 hottest neighborhoods in the busiest summer in years
23 October 2015 — Nearly 10,000 homes were sold in the Portland region between July and September. Let that sink in for a moment. To put that whopping number in perspective, the same period last summer — also a hectic third quarter — witnessed just shy of 8,000 sales. The giant jump in volume came along with rapidly rising prices and faster sales, both areas we'll dive into later this week to round out our quarterly look at the residential real estate market, the Hottest Neighborhoods report. Read more…
News
Oregon adopts rules for recreational marijuana
23 October 2015 — Marijuana stores will be prohibited from selling both recreational and medical marijuana and pot cannot be used on site under preliminary regulations approved Thursday by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. The more than 70 pages of rules will govern Oregon’s retail marijuana system once it’s fully operational next year. While marijuana stores began selling to adults 21 and older earlier this month, they are operating under temporary authority from the medical marijuana program. By 2017, companies producing or selling marijuana to the general population will have to abide by the OLCC’s regulations for health, safety and security. The adoption of rules is a critical step in creating the legal structure for retail marijuana. They must be in place for the state to begin accepting applications in January for licenses to operate marijuana businesses. Read more…
Baseball coming to Gresham in the summer of 2016
23 October 2015 — Gresham is the latest city in the Portland area to get a baseball team. Team and city officials announced Thursday that a wooden-bat, amateur baseball franchise will start playing next summer at Mount Hood Community College. It’ll be the third team in the Metro area — along with the Single-A league Hillsboro Hops, and the Portland Pickles, which is part of a new league starting in 2016. Team owner Jerry Walker said the Gresham team won’t compete for fans with the other clubs in the region. This is Gresham’s team — that’s going to be marketed to the city of Gresham, which is a huge community with over 100,000 people,” Walker said. “We don’t feel like we’re competing with any other team. We’re going to be focused on Gresham, Troutdale and all that area east of (Interstate) 205.” Read more…
North Clackamas School District bond could raze Milwaukie High School
23 October 2015 — If North Clackamas School District voters pass another capital bond next year, the funds would be spent on building new schools east of Interstate 205, while major renovations would largely take place west of I-205. That much became clear at a district-hosted forum earlier this month to gather input on various bond proposals, ranging between $300 million and $486 million. Elementary schools in Milwaukie, View Acres, Riverside, Lewelling, Whitcomb and Sunnyside are in need of “major modernization,” according to officials, while the new elementary school would have to be built in the rapidly expanding Happy Valley area. Portland State University’s population estimates predict that Duncan Elementary in Happy Valley, for example, will be 122 students overenrolled by 2022, but local officials think PSU is making conservative estimates of Happy Valley growth. Read more…
Oregon ranks #4, Portland ranks #8 for energy efficiency
23 October 2015 — Oregon ranks #4 in the United states in new comprehensive review of the energy efficiency, while Portland ranks #8 for American cities. The analysis conducted by the American Council of Energy-Efficiency Economy reviewed a sweeping array of factors in each of the 50 states. Oregon was topped by only three other states. Massachusetts ranked #1, California ranked #2 and Vermont ranked #3. The poorest ranking states were Colorado #50 and North Dakota #51 (Washington DC was included in the ranking). "The top 10 states for energy efficiency are Massachusetts, California, Vermont, Rhode Island, Oregon, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington, and New York, with Minnesota and Illinois tied for 10th place. Massachusetts retains the top spot for the fifth consecutive year based on a strong commitment to energy efficiency under its Green Communities Act," according to ACEEE Read more…
How will El Niño affect the Northwest's winter weather?
23 October 2015 — How will the strongest El Niño in nearly two decades affect Oregon's and Washington's winter weather? Will powerful storms expected to slam into California spill over into Oregon as they did during the last strong El Niño during the winter of 1997-98? Or will it be a repeat of last year's winter, which scientists say was affected by the beginning stages of El Niño, leading to dismal snowpacks and increased drought across both Oregon and Washington? Those questions will be foremost on the minds of both forecasters and an expected overflow crowd at the Winter Weather Forecast Conference Saturday at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The 23rd annual event -- free and open to the public -- is hosted by the Oregon chapter of the American Meteorological Society and this year features the forecasts of two meteorologists along with additional speakers. Read more…
Granny flat builders getting creamed by Multnomah Count on their taxes
22 October 2015 — When Portland homeowners open up property tax bills in the mail this week, most will notice 2015-16 taxes are going up about 3 percent or a tad more. In contrast, Randal Groves’ taxes are shooting up almost 500 percent. “It was a gut punch,” said Groves, whose annual property tax bill jumped from $1,225 to $7,286. Groves and his wife are being dinged by Multnomah County after they took advantage of a city fee waiver to build a “granny flat” or accessory dwelling unit on the lot of their fixer-upper in Northeast Portland’s Sabin neighborhood. They spent about $135,000 on the 800-square-foot cottage and moved into it in March, hoping to simplify their lifestyle. The city’s encouragement of ADUs led to a construction boom — about one a day this year. But the county assessment division is now reappraising those peoples’ main homes as if they were new construction, which can mean substantially higher property taxes on top of new taxes for the ADUs. Read more…
Turn left on red? The devil's in the details
22 October 2015 — I know I've read in The Oregonian/OregonLive over the years that when the left turn signal is red I can turn as long as opposing traffic is clear. My wife says I cannot. Can you confirm this? You've cited a supremely reputable source, but you've missed a key point. Oregon does allow drivers to make a left turn on red, but only when turning onto a one-way street. And of course, only as long as opposing traffic is clear and you've come to a complete stop. Yes, it feels wrong. Yes, you'll probably get funny looks. And what's worse, readers have reported in the past that they've been pulled over by police for this perfectly legal but unnatural maneuver. Read more…
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