I participated in an episode of "My House Is Worth What" earlier this summer. You can see the fruits of my labor this Sunday, January 20th at noon or Saturday, January 26th at 7pm. It was a lot of fun to do and I hope you all can catch it, or Tivo it! For local listings here is the program guide for HGTV.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/program_guide/
The Westside Express Service, or WES as it will be called by commuters, is a $117.3 million 14.7-mile commuter rail that will run between the cities of Beaverton and Wilsonville.
This project has been in the works for 11 years and as we finally wound down to go time Haggen Food & Pharmacy started to speak out about improving the design of the station that would sit next to them. They had, had concerns about traffic, parking and pedestrian safety and rallied the neighborhood for support.
While it is still thought that the deadline of a Sept. 12, 2008 grand opening can still be met, it still might get pushed back because the mayor of each of the cities will attending a national conference.
http://tigardtimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=119992441787360700
Does the popularity of reality home improvement and real estate shows affect our job as a realtor? Many people are addicted to the reality shows on HGTV, a do-it-yourself home improvement network. Shows like "House Hunters", "My House is Worth What" (BOTH OF WHICH WE HAVE BEEN FEATURED ON check local listings for air dates and times) and "Designed to Sell"are getting viewers feeling like they know all about the real estate business before they even discuss their housing needs with you.
This phenomenon has had an affect on consumers expectations and concept of their own competency on the subject. This puts agents in the position of defending or refuting the clients preconceived notions. But different agents take different approaches to these t.v. shows.
Editing can create a air of simplicity. With the exception of a few shows, it tends to look rather easy. In a half hour show you can find the house of your dreams, make your home the best in your neighborhood or sell your listing for more than it's worth. Some of the work and pain can be lost in translation.
Shows like "Trading Spaces" on TLC make it seem like decorating is cheap and easy. There always seems to be a great find in another room in the house that makes the perfect decoration. Making your own furniture seems to be a reasonable idea while redecorating to save money and time. Just find a carpenter friend who wants to help you out for a whole weekend for free.
Some take the approach of bonding over episodes both agent and client have seen. What you have to do is validate what the client already thinks, you cannot let the show look like it knows more than you. Don't tell them how wrong they are for believing these shows. If you need your client to see another viewpoint, give examples of how their situation differs from the one on t.v., making them the exception.
Realtors can also choose to use these reality realty shows to their advantage. Shows like "Designed to Sell" get people realizing that the condition of your house truly matters to buyers. You know the type, the sellers who think people should just look past all their clutter to see the potential. Then when they become the buyer they are nit picking the place apart. "Designed to Sell" can help people step away from the situation and get examples of what people really think when touring a home.
This type of programming can be helpful and harmful but it's the approach you choose to take that will define how it affects you.
Realtor Magazine - January 2008 - Page 22
The sale of new homes took a nose dive in November from October, down to the lowest level in 12 years! It is just another example of how different the housing market is from a few years ago, when the housing boom was crazy. Economists did expect the drop in sales but they were predicting a drop closer to 1.8 percent, not the 9 percent that we did see.
Of course we are in the West, the only area of the country where sales still rose. It was only by 4 percent but in the South sales fell 6.4 percent, 19.3 percent in the Northeast and 27.6 percent in the Midwest. This only makes sense since the West was the last to see the housing boom of 2001-2005 so we did not have as far to fall. We are also in the fortunate position of having people still continuing to move here.
Naturally, with the housing slump, foreclosures are at record highs and still going up. Another thing that is not going our way but not nearly as bad as the rest of the country. With the home prices currently dropping, some recent buyers balances are actually higher than their new current value. People also were agreeing to variable rates that lead to impossible payments when rates didn't stay low. So those who planned on refinancing when payments started to rise cannot find relief since their house is no longer worth enough and loan requirements have been tightened.
While completely necessary to buckle down on loan applications, this should have been done long ago to PREVENT these problems. Now the number of homes on the market is ridiculous and certainly not helped by the extremely strict credit restrictions. These symptoms can certainly be seen here in Oregon but comparatively, we are living the high life.
All you Pacific Northwest real estate agents still may want to go into this year cautiously, but you can also stay positive knowing it could be worse.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy_35
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST ON THE HOMEPAGE OF OUR WEBSITE www.TonyandLibby.com
The City Council on Dec. 18 declared its intention to form a local improvement district in the Tigard Triangle to upgrade streets and infrastructure. There was a meeting of the minds and it was decided that an LID would be best for facilitating traffic decisions for the future.
The Tigard Triangle is the Pacific Highway, Highway 217 and 72nd Ave where a 2002 Tigard Transportation System Plan figured out will host the majority of future traffic problems. The LID area will be outlined by Dartmouth Street to Baylor Avenue from 68th Avenue to 69th/70th avenues.
Included in this improvement plan will be sidewalks, ramps, curbs, signing and striping to support a proposed traffic signal at the intersection of 68th and Dartmouth Street. There will also be some streets that could be upgraded to full city street standards, including sewer, storm drainage, curbs, gutters, sidewalks and street trees, and placing utilities underground.
Total for all this should be between $2.3 million and $2.5 million. The resolution also lays out the proposed method of assessing property owners in the district, which is tentative and may be altered by the city at the time of final assessment.
http://tigardtimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=119878971122341700
On T.V. there is a never ending supply of news stories about the horror that is the real estate market. Except that the P.S. of all these stories seems to be the areas and cities that seem to be weathering the storm. Portland is one of these cities. In fact, the slow down here has just brought us back down to what would considered a "normal" year.
To give you an idea of the ups and downs, in January of 2000 there was 10 months of inventory (number of months it would take to sell all homes currently listed) available in Portland. 2005 saw 2.2 months of inventory while October 2006 was 4.6. Back to present day, October of this year was back up to 8.4 months of inventory, quite the roller coaster.
Ken Gertz of Gertz Construction said he's always measured the housing market by whether his service providers are calling asking for work. When the framers, electricians and concrete specialists are begging for a gig, things are slow. That just is not the case right now.
There are many factors keeping us afloat. Our urban growth boundary limits our sprawl into adjacent rural areas. That helps prevent housing gluts like they have in Boise and Las Vegas. It also helps keep value in the homes that are already within the urban and suburban areas. This keeps the supply and demand from getting lopsided. There is also a continuing stream of people moving here from out of state, interest rates are remaining low and job growth remains strong.
All those builders who bought up land like crazy thinking they were getting in on the housing craze are now stuck. In todays market the key is to make your listing interesting, compelling and strategic. Builders now need to focus on what is selling houses right now. I personally think the move from quality versus quantity is a good one.
The main point is that housing in Portland is still a good investment.
The Oregonian - Southwest Weekly - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - Cover story
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST ON THE HOMEPAGE OF OUR WEBSITE www.TonyandLibby.comNovember Residential Highlights
For the second month in a row there was a slight decrease in inventory in the
However, the number of transactions also continues to drop. When comparing November 2007 to November 2006 closed sales decreased 19.9% and the number of accepted offers fell 27.8%. Despite it all, sale prices appear to remain strong. Average sale price increased 6.9% comparing November 2007 with November 2006 and median sale price increased 2.5%. Average
2006 2007
Year-to-Date Trends
Comparing the period of January 2007 through November 2007 to the same time a year ago, we see a slightly different trend than we’ve seen the last couple of months with an overall 8.3% increase of new listings. However, the dip in transactions appears to remain constant, although not quite as intense as the previous two months. The number of closed sales fell 11.8% and pending sales declined 14.8%
Appreciation
Using the average sale prices for the twelve months that ended with November 2007 compared to the twelve months ending in November 2006, the average sale price appreciated 6.5% ($340,900 v. $320,100). Using the same formula, the median sale price also appreciated 7.0% ($288,900 v. $270,000).
Real Estate Blogs Directory
- Directory of real estate blogs and blogs of industries affiliated with and
serving the real estate industry.
