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How's the Portland RE market doing?

EastSiderEastSider
edited April 2007 in Seattle Real Estate
Inventory in Portland has gone up 72% compared to same time last year -- check out HousingTracker.net - Portland, OR

Anyone know if sellers are getting desperate over there OR a 72% increase isn't good enough for a slowdown?

Comments

  • EastSiderEastSider
    BTW, inventory in the Seattle area is only up 44% :-(
  • Puget SounderPuget Sounder
    You can get a bungalow in Portland for $150-$200k less than the equivalent in Ballard -- and that's now. PDX might be pretty tempting if prices drop 10-20%.
  • vancouverdrvancouverdr
    I don't see much in the way of panic setting into the Portland metro area yet, but feel it's coming. A lot of shoddy inventory is being added. Actually, some fairly nice condo inventory is also being constructed in the downtown, e.g. the "Pearl District," but there will be a lot of it and I'm watching and waiting.

    I think Vancouver, across the Columbia River, is a better choice now and for the near future. It's a suburb; I live there and am only 4 miles from the Portland airport. I have the benefit of the WA income tax rate. A real estate agent friend of mine told me that he noticed some downturn there as far back as fall '05, but it has progressed slowly. I drove around with him to check some properties out about 7 months ago, and prices had clearly come a little off their highs. Since then, they have continued a slow-motion descent, although nicer, more expensive properties have fared better than entry-level (so average statistics might not show that very well). My friend, who is quite an honest agent, recommended waiting to buy, as least until after the summer selling season flop. A lot of new construction continues to go on in Vancouver, Camas, Washougal, and Ridgefield.
  • bilirubenbiliruben
    My sister was threatening to buy in Portland a few months ago, so I started banging around trying to find some hard data. I couldn't find much.

    There is one blog:
    Portland Real Estate Blog, which has a smidgen of bubble coverage, but not much.

    I couldn't even find any MLS data. If anyone can show me where to find MLS archives for Portland, that would be cool.

    Vancouver: There is no there there.
  • StevePDXStevePDX
    PDX inventory is actually up 87%! WSJ.com - Where Housing is Headed
    Predictions for the coming year show a small price decline in the next year: http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/09/real_es ... /index.htm
    Case/Shiller shows a smaller increase this year with a decline in prices possibly underway: http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pd ... eprice.pdf
  • wreckingbullwreckingbull
    Yikes!

    Inventory up 87%, flat prices, and a glass jaw economy. Could be some pretty good bargains down there in 1-2 years.
  • synthetiksynthetik
    Yeah, but you'd be living in Portland!
  • vancouverdrvancouverdr
    Partly OT: is it just me, or is the right side of the "page" cut off for others in the forums? That does not happen on the main blog. Makes the forums hard to read.

    By the way, I'm a little amused that some here view Portland to be much less desirable than Seattle as a place to live. To each his/her own, but I actually feel the reverse is true (not by much, since they are more similar than different). Take traffic and cost of living, for instance. It's sometimes said that Portland is like Seattle ten years ago (sure, that's debatable), and some here have claimed that Seattle was more pleasant a while back. Just my humble opinion... I could be wrong!
  • synthetiksynthetik
    Portland is nice, but if you want to live in a WORLD CLASS CITY, then you have to live in Seattle. We're special and we're world class.
  • Puget SounderPuget Sounder
    vancouverdr wrote:
    Partly OT: is it just me, or is the right side of the "page" cut off for others in the forums? That does not happen on the main blog. Makes the forums hard to read.

    By the way, I'm a little amused that some here view Portland to be much less desirable than Seattle as a place to live. To each his/her own, but I actually feel the reverse is true (not by much, since they are more similar than different). Take traffic and cost of living, for instance. It's sometimes said that Portland is like Seattle ten years ago (sure, that's debatable), and some here have claimed that Seattle was more pleasant a while back. Just my humble opinion... I could be wrong!

    Personally, I think Portland's much prettier. I have relatives down there who keep trying to sell me on moving down to PDX. If I could make at least 80% of what I make here currently, I would come out ahead.

    I live in Seattle because the job search after college (3 years ago) was a lot easier to do locally than long-distance down in Portland...UW business school alumnus.
  • EastSiderEastSider
    That brings up a question. What's the difference in median salaries between Seattle & PDX?
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