I attended an oil tank locate that came up inconclusive today done by Alpha Environmental.  There are supply lines in the basement which “proves” that once upon a time there was a tank but it could have been above ground in the basement our outside or buried.  Portlandmaps shows a permit for an underground tank in this case (under historic permits tab).  There is a concrete driveway up the side of the house that the furnace is on and the back yard is also impervious near the house.

The first step is a metal detector sweep around the property:

The next step was to hook this machine up to the actual supply line in the basement.  There may be rebar touching the line as the machine pings all around the basement!  Normally the trace of the pipe’s directionality would be clear.

Though inconclusive, the buyer is now possesses all the available information regarding the tank.

“The US Bancorp Tower is the second tallest skyscraper in Portland, Oregon. It stands at 536 feet (163 m) with 42 floors. The building has nearly 1.1 million square feet (69,000 m²) of office space inside, making it the largest office building in Oregon in terms of volume, and the second tallest building in Oregon, with only the Wells Fargo Center exceeding its height.”  (Wikipedia)

The highest point in Portland is rough 1000 feet above the Willamette River!

The proposed tower has 1050 condo units.  According to RMLS, there are a total of 278 active condo units in the 97209 zip code which encompasses the Pearl District.

“EVACUATION SYSTEM:

It is a building-wide solution for safe evacuation of tenants and quick transporting of rescue personnel to elevated floors.

The system is an array of five collapsible cabins permanently stored on the roof in a folded position. Upon deployment, the cabins array is lowered to the ground, it then unfolds, enabling emergency responders to board the cabin.

It travels upwards until it stops opposite five elevated floors simultaneously, enabling 150 occupants to enter through specially configured exit windows.  The array is then lowered to the ground and tenants exit as it refolds.”

Guess it beats taking the stairs.

January:

March:

The photos aren’t taken from the exact same angle but are both looking down the street into the cul-de-sac.  Portlandmaps.com shows two open permits online.  There are no active listings in RMLS.

Eighteen homes are featured in this year’s show and they are located all over the metro area.  The $17.50 ticket (one size fits all, including children) is valid for both days (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Image purchased from iStock.com

The signs will coexist for five years and then the 39th signs will be removed.  I have not driven the whole 7.2 mile length of the street but did not see new signs around SE Division.

For real estate, the change has been made.  There are 178 active listings on 39th Ave right now and just two on Cesar E. Chavez BLVD.  Property entry into RMLS starts with the tax ID number and the address is auto-populated.  When I tried, it used Cesar E. Chavez BLVD.  I can manually change the street (but why would I?).  A Cesar E. Chavez listing is going to show that it is a new listing (or manually changed) for a time being, much like an MLS number starting with 100 was entered in 2010 and a 90 was entered in 2009.  The difference being that the street can be changed without creating a new listing.

We have history to look at too.  Rosa Parks BLVD was Portland BLVD.  The last house sold on Portland BLVD closed on 5/8/2008.  The official change was made on 12/14/2006.  It isn’t a huge deal for real estate.   I don’t think property values are affected by the change.  When a Realtor is asked, “I saw a house on 39th,” if they can’t find it, they are going to have to search Cesar E Chavez and vice versa but that’s not tough.  Old legacies die hard.  Portland Brewing became Pyramid in 2006 but we still “meet at Portland Brewing.”

It’s also important to note that different studies use different methodologies.  Keeping in mind that Case Shiller reports lag three months, that report has shown the market as being fairly flat recently.

2121 Belmont was built to be sold as luxury condos at the peak of Portland’s real estate market. Nearly nonexistent sales dictated a conversion to apartments but the income from the rentals is not enough to service the debt. The bank has issued a notice of default to the owners of the 123 unit building.

The John Ross is at 74% occupancy but that still leaves 84 unsold units (some are pending).  There is talk of an upcoming auction, similar to the  Atwater Place auction, but that is not confirmed.  The John Ross lowered prices almost immediately after the Atwater auction and brisk sales were reported but a handful of sales per month will draw the project out for a long time.  Accredited Marketing Partners had accepted bids for 40 of the 41 units on offer at the Atwater in 80 minutes when they ran the auction.

There are 37 John Ross units listed for sale in RMLS.  Picking one randomly:

• Original asking price $1,074,800 on 3/1/06
• Reduced to $1,069,000 on 2/6/07
• Reduced to $899,000 on 7/24/08
• Reduced to $819,000 on 1/22/09
• Reduced to $749,000 on 7/10/09
• Reduced to $579,000 on 10/2/09 which is the current asking price (1PM 2/27/10)

Scott Aster writes in PSU’s Quarterly & Urban Development Journal 2010 First Quarter report, “Housing Market Analysis“, that housing units in Portland are currently selling for 91.68% of original asking price. The John Ross building falls well short of today’s market.

I’ve just started scanning through then entire report but can see the Scott Aster’s “Housing Market Analysis” and Cliff Hockley’s“Condominium Financing: FHA Rule Change Controversy” deserve a closer look and discussion.

S&P Indices publishes supplemental tiered price data for 17 of the metro areas it covers. Tier breakpoints – price levels that divide recent sale prices in each market into thirds – are calculated for the period covered by the latest, most up-to-date index points. A closer look at these data shows, as was the case with aggregate home prices, that MSAs did not behave the same across and within tiers.

In Portland, Low Tier houses had the highest increase since 2000 and has remained higher than the other tiers.  In both San Francisco and Atlanta, the Low Tier had the highest (or close to) peak but now lag behind the Mid and High Tiers and the Aggregate.

I expect we’ll see continued seasonal increased activity and a push to come inside of the $8000 First Time Home Buyer Credit and $6500 Buyer Credit’s April 30th deadline with the assumption that it will not be extended (again).  If the Credit is not extended, we won’t have a clearer picture of whether the market can support itself until the end of summer.