Susan's Online Guide to PortlandLet me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood |
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Welcome to my Web site about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It's my 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 my Web site are always welcome. If you have questions or if you are interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact me online or call me at (503) 497-2984. Susan Marthens
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Real Estate Market |
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Housing less dilapidated, but still a fixer-upperMay 21 − Housing has more curb appeal these days. Housing starts increased 2.6% in April, to an annual rate of 717,000, a higher-than expected level. Permits fell 7%, but the drop was from a three-and-a-half-year high posted in March. All in all, the report supports the idea that housing is no longer the dilapidated wreck it was in past years. The housing report also contained revisions going back to 2010. While the changes for the past two full years were minor, starts in the first quarter were revised up significantly. Homes under construction were also refigured higher, suggesting residential construction contributed more to real gross domestic product growth in the first quarter than the 0.4 percentage point estimated last month. (The second look at GDP will be reported May 31.) Read more... Ten housing market set for double-digit price gainsMay 19 − Ten hard-hit housing markets will record double-digit price increases through 2013, according to a report Wednesday. And with mortgage rates low, many house hunters have already started to pounce on bargains, said David Stiff, chief economist at Fiserv, a financial analytics company that prepared the forecast. "Some markets may have overshot to the downside, and people are jumping in to try to catch the bottom," Stiff said. Nationwide, home prices will start rebounding late this year and gain an average of 4% a year over the next five years, Fiserv projects. Read more... |
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Homes & Health |
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Pearl living at its best
First thing first: Insulating wall cavitiesMay 22 — A large portion of my work as a project manager at Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation (WECC) is teaching weatherization workers the dynamics of energy movement in buildings, how to measure it, treat houses effectively, and, in the process, develop a deep understanding of their profession. I want to impart knowledge and enthusiasm to the next wave of weatherizers and energy auditors. This is my role in a larger movement to foster the emerging retrofit industry and help empower people who live in homes and apartments to reduce needless waste of our precious resources. In this article I want to share some of my knowledge about insulating walls. Read more... Caballo Blanco’s last run May 21 — Micah True went off alone on a Tuesday morning to run through the rugged trails of the Gila Wilderness, and now it was already Saturday and he had not been seen again. The search for him, once hopeful, was turning desperate. Weather stoked the fear. The missing man was wearing only shorts, a T-shirt and running shoes. It was late March. Daytimes were warm, but the cold scythed through the spruce forest in the depth of night, the temperatures cutting into the 20s. For three days, rescue teams had fanned out for 50 yards on each side of the marked trails. Riders on horseback ventured through the gnarly brush, pushing past the felled branches of pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine. An airplane and a helicopter circled in the sky, their pilots squinting above the ridges, woodlands, river canyons and meadows. For three days, rescue teams had fanned out for 50 yards on each side of the marked trails. Riders on horseback ventured through the gnarly brush, pushing past the felled branches of pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine. An airplane and a helicopter circled in the sky, their pilots squinting above the ridges, woodlands, river canyons and meadows. Read more...
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News |
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News from the Pacific Northwest Portal
Burgers and birders: An unlikely high desert partnership
Spring Chinook fishing returns to John Day River after 36 yearsMay 22 — Starting Wednesday, anglers will be able to fish for spring chinook salmon in the John Day River for the first time in 36 years. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Monday that a 20-mile stretch of the river near Kimberly will open for spring chinook beginning Wednesday and running through Sunday, June 3. The opening of the season marks a milestone in the rebound of wild spring chinook populations in the John Day. The river will be open from the Longview Ranch's Johnson Creek Division bridge upstream to the mouth of Rattlesnake Creek. The daily bag limit is two adult chinook salmon and five jack salmon. Read more... Portland-area startups evolve, grow as they build their brandMay 22 — Startups begin with a good idea. But entrepreneurs must quickly adapt as their business takes shape. The Oregonian checked in with a handful of Portland-area startups featured in the past six months to see how they've evolved and what the future holds. Months before test-driving its beta bike-tracking device, BikeTrak is navigating a branding bump. Turns out, the name BikeTrak can't be trademarked, chief executive Kris Akins said. Plus, she and co-founder Monty Goodson felt the GPS tracker itself needed a name. Enter BikeCop; same idea, new name -- crucial step before the Portland brand launches its first GPS bike tracker in August, Akins said. Although the company's official name remains BikeTrak, she said, "We're starting to call ourselves BikeCop." The startup found a Minnesota design firm that will pull together its prototype and technology into a product ready for market. Read more...Cappella Romana May 22 — In a world of hip hop and top forty pop, Cappella Romana packs houses with a repertoire from past centuries. Their a cappella harmonies reverberate through the cathedral rafters like a chorus of angels. Founded in Portland 20 years ago, Cappella romana enjoys a worldwide following. Its performances “like jeweled light flooding the space” (Los Angeles Times), Cappella Romana is a vocal chamber ensemble dedicated to combining passion with scholarship in its exploration of the musical traditions of the Christian East and West, with emphasis on early and contemporary music. Cappella Romana’s name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe, as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople ("New Rome") and its Slavic commonwealth. Each program in some way reflects the musical, cultural and spiritual heritage of this ecumenical vision. Flexible in size according to the demands of the repertory, Cappella Romana is one of the Pacific Northwest’s few professional chamber vocal ensembles. It has a special commitment to mastering the Slavic and Byzantine repertories in their original languages, thereby making accessible to the general public two great musical traditions that are little known in the West. Read more...
Fewer helicopter flights to uncover pot gardens worry eastern Oregon sheriffsMay 22 — Almost invisible under an umbrella of river cottonwoods, ponderosa pines and firs, a huge northeastern Oregon marijuana garden caught the eye of a vigilant Oregon Army National Guard helicopter observer late last summer. A successful raid followed, two suspects were arrested and 10,300 plants valued at $25 million were destroyed. But operations such as that one in Wallowa County, involving National Guard helicopters, sheriff's deputies, Oregon State Police and other law enforcement agencies, soon may be a fading memory. A proposed 66 percent cut in the National Guard Counterdrug Program by the Obama administration could sharply reduce the number of helicopter flights aimed at finding illicit pot gardens next year. "Unfortunately, the budget proposed by the administration would effectively surrender our national forests in Oregon and along the West Coast to these drug traffickers," U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley wrote in a recent letter to fellow Democrat Daniel Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Read more...Oregon economic forecast shows slow growth, little change to state budgetMay 22 — Oregon's economy continues to grow, but too slowly to make much difference in the state budget, lawmakers learned a few minutes ago. The latest quarterly revenue forecast shows the state budget growing by $115 million from three months ago. But that money is largely the result of some one-time legal settlements and is already spoken for. Nonetheless, the forecast left state budget planners feeling more confident that they won't have to go in and make more cuts over the final year of the 2011-13 budget. "Nobody is happy with the growth rate," said Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, co-chairman of the House Revenue Committee. "But it does look like we're going to squeak through." The state has about $200 million in reserves. The most recent forecast, when the one-time sources are subtracted out, is about $22 million under what was expected. That means projections by state economists are largely coming true. Read more...California condors hit a milestone -- a population of 405 -- after nearly going extinct May 21 — Good news for California condors: Their population just topped 400 -- 405 to be precise -- the most since the effort to save the species began 30 years ago as it teetered on extinction's edge. An April 30 count found 226 of the enormous vultures flying free over California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico, and 179 living in zoos and four breeding centers, including the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, an Oregon Zoo-run operation in rural Clackamas County. That said, the species faces steep challenges, and the Oregon Zoo program, which has hatched 35 chicks altogether, has had a tough spring. Among eight eggs laid, three chicks have survived with one more due to hatch around June 9. One egg was infertile. One contained an air bubble that destroyed vesseling, so the embryo died. Two other late-stage chicks died despite efforts by zoo staff to help them hatch; the veterinarian sent tissue samples to a lab to try to determine what went wrong. "We know their yolk sacs looked odd. They were enlarged," said Kelli Walker, senior condor keeper. "But nothing on the necropsy was obvious." Read more...
Water, sewer rate votes setMay 21 — The City Council is scheduled to consider increasing water and sewer rates on Wednesday. Mayor Sam Adams has proposed increasing water bills by 8.1 percent and sewer bills by 5.39 percent for the average single-family residence. These increases are less than those originally proposed by the Water Bureau and the Bureau of Environmental Services, which operates the sewer system. The scheduled vote comes amid growing controversy over some of the spending by the bureaus. Among other things, a lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court charges that the council has illegally spent tens of millions of dollars from the water and sewer funds on projects not directly related to the core missions of the two bureaus. Read more... |
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Imagine browsing at Powell's Books, catching a play at Portland Center Stage, people watching, and walking in this vibrant corner of Portland! This and more are possible while living in this light-filled two bedroom/two bathroom unit at The Pinnacle, situated in a quiet corner of the Pearl. You will be steps away from parks, shops, cafes, restaurants, galleries, and the Street Car. You can read the paper, have morning coffee, or afternoon treats while enjoying your northeast view of the river and Mount St. Helens. Unit includes deeded parking space and deeded storage space. Walk to three parks: 
May 22 — In the remote valleys of southeast Oregon both birds and cattle flourish. This is where mountain streams feed an oasis of lakes and marshes in the high desert. Cattle ranchers and wildlife advocates have been fighting over that valuable grassland for decades. Now, they’ve struck a delicate truce that keeps both birds and burgers in mind. Roger Sleeper is a man of few words, but he can do impressive bird imitations. Sleeper is a former biologist and bird expert who now volunteers here at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. “That woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. That’s snipe," Sleeper says. "They’re flying around and diving.” This place looks like something right out of National Geographic. Cranes slowly bob through the shallow waters. Mallards skim across marshes, grasslands and sagebrush. I can’t even count the number of different birds here. On one side of the narrow road we’re parked on is lush wetland. On the other side: barbwire and pastureland full of black Angus steers and round hay bales. Some bird lovers believe that cattle shouldn’t be allowed to roam on wildlife areas. Ranchers say you’ll never find more birds than where the cattle have grazed and renewed the landscape.
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 © 2011 Susan Marthens. All Rights Reserved.