Ultimate Open House

New homes today are larger, far more energy efficient and have more amenities than ever before. The average new single-family home built in 2006 was 2,469 square feet, 45 percent larger than a typical home built in 1976.

The percentage of new homes with 2.5 or more baths in 2006 was 59 percent, compared to just 22 percent in 1976. Thirty-nine percent of new homes built today have at least four bedrooms, compared to just 23 percent for those built in 1976. Today, nearly 90 percent of all new homes have central air conditioning – vs. less than 50 percent in 1976.

More than 80 percent of modern homes have at least a two-car garage, up from 59 percent in 1976. And today’s homes are built for the wireless age, with high-speed data access, modular wiring systems and multiple telephone lines.

From The Oregonian by Connie Potter

After years of writing a check to a landlord each month, Adrienne Livingston decided to invest in herself instead. Last fall she bought a new two-bedroom condominium a couple of blocks from Clackamas Town Center.

“I didn’t want to pay another person’s mortgage anymore,” she said.

It’s a decision that a growing number of single women are making. One-fourth of all first-time homebuyers were single women, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2007 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Single women make up more than one-third of the growth in real estate ownership since 1994.

Even today’s volatile economy and uncertain housing market aren’t deterring women from having a goal of home ownership, said Michelle Puggarana, program manager for the Portland Housing Center, a nonprofit organization that helps first-time home buyers.

Single women come to the closing table with a variety of life experiences. Some have never been married; some are divorced or widowed. Some live alone, some live with children, friends or partners. But they share some common preferences in housing. According to the NAR, single women buyers tend to:

• Prefer two bedrooms or more
• Choose resales over new construction
• Buy in city rather than suburban areas
• Be unwilling to compromise on location or quality of neighborhood
• Prefer condos or townhomes with well-run homeowners’ associations
• Desire security and/or gated access
• Want proximity to stores, shopping and fitness centers

Read more….

In this neighborhood, a larger number of people have these characteristics than in surrounding neighborhoods:

Education: Bachelor’s degrees, Did not complete college
Employment: Work in business and financial occupations, Work in computer or mathematical occupations, Work in management-level occupations, Work in office and administrative support occupations, Work in sales and related occupations
People & Culture: Born in the Midwest, Retirees, Wealthy retirees.

The main types of people are…

Rat Racers - Dual-income suburban families. These married couples with children lead very busy lives, with most bringing in two paychecks per household. Education level varies from high school to college.
Affluent DINKs - High-income, kid-free couples living in the suburbs. Middle-age Dual Income No Kids couple bringing in two attractive incomes. Most are highly educated and are employed in management professions. A high proportion are homeowners.
Self-sufficient Seniors - Suburban seniors who live alone. More than 40% either live alone or live with non-relatives. Some are homeowners. Education level varies from high school or lower to college.

From the Daily Journal of Commerce 

Mayhem in the credit, stock and housing markets may look like bad news, but it actually presents some great opportunities for young adults.

The turmoil is bringing prices down to levels that might afford them an economic toehold and, perhaps, a house. By buying low, young people may decide to start a decades-long investing habit. They can take their medicine early and flourish later.

However, serious challenges await the generation that will be asked to repay the loans that the federal government is taking out now. College seniors are graduating into a recession that economists predict will last for a year or longer, and jobs are hard to come by. Benefits like health insurance and 401(k) plans are even scarcer.

If there is one word that best describes how twentysomethings can navigate these waters it is “invest.” Invest, invest, invest. Put money into retirement accounts and the stock market. Build a down payment and get into the housing market. Invest in yourself by continuing to add skills and knowledge. It’s hard to invest all over the place at once, especially if you’re earning a lousy salary, but it will all bear fruit.

It is good to take a long-term view. Everything you do now may seem small, but it will change where you are when you turn 30, 40 and 50.

Here are some specific ways that young adults can make the most of the current mess.

• Invest automatically. If your company has a 401(k) plan, participate to the fullest amount you are permitted. If it doesn’t, create your own automatic retirement savings plan by opening a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and authorizing a set amount to be deducted from your checking account every month. You won’t miss the money, and down the road you’ll be happy you have it.

• Put that money in the stock market. Recoveries always come after a fall, and they often move quickly. The market crashes of 2008 allow you the opportunity to buy in at low prices. You don’t have to learn to pick stocks; simply find a low-fee, broadly-based index fund from a no-load mutual fund company such as Fidelity Investments or Vanguard Investments and you’ll participate in that recovery.

• Create a savings account and stash something in it each time you get paid. Consider this your down payment/grad school/new car/wedding account. Keep it in the same bank as your checking account so you can easily transfer money into it.

• Start building your career, even if you don’t have a good job. Start networking in your field by joining a professional association and going to meetings. Take extra classes or learn skills on your own that will give you an edge over other job candidates. Apprentice yourself to a mentor.

• Build a solid credit profile. If you don’t have a credit card, get one. If you have one, make sure to make payments on time every month. Use the card only for items you can afford to pay in full at the end of the month, or for true emergencies. Check annualcreditreport.com to see your credit profile.

• Buy your own health insurance, if you don’t get it at work. Even a broken leg can wipe you out if you’re living hand to mouth. You’ll get better care when you do need it. And health insurance is typically cheap for young people. Shop at ehealthinsurance.com.

• Get real estate savvy. This may not be the best time to buy a house, but it is a good time, and that’s likely to last for a while. Start scouting neighborhoods and then use mortgage calculators to determine what you can afford.

• Get money savvy. If you start in your 20s, you’ll still be behind Warren Buffett, who was investing in his teens. But you could become a financial whiz by the time you’re 35, with plenty of time left to put that expertise to use. Start slow and learn a little bit more all the time.

• Defer gratification. You may feel like you’ve already delayed ‘real life’ and grown-up things long enough. But a few more years of living with student-caliber furniture, an older car, fewer restaurant meals and Netflix instead of movie theaters will pay off down the road.

• Get help. Even tightening your belt may not leave you enough cash to invest in a house, a career and a retirement all at the same time. But presented with those worthy causes, your parents or grandparents may be able and willing to help a bit.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 5.5 percent in September compared to August. More importantly, sales volume was 1.4 percent higher than the 5.11 million-unit pace in Sept. 2007, the first year-over-year gain posted in existing home sales since November 2005.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun: “The sales turnaround which began in California several months ago is broadening now to Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Rhode Island. The South was hampered by much lower home sales in Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.”

Calculated Risk points out that September 2007 sales were impacted by the credit crisis that started in August 2007. The current wave of the credit crisis will probably impact sales reported in October and November.

Also see Orgonian Article from from today Incentives bring gains in new home sales

From Forbes 

Money goes further some places in the United States than it does in others.

Housing, in particular, has remained most affordable in the South and the Midwest. That’s because of less stringent building, an abundance of land and growing populations in the South, says Daniel McCue, a research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

To determine the cities that offer the best quality of life for the least amount of money, Forbes magazine calculated the ratios between a city’s median home price and its median household income. It also factored in projected job growth. And it compared median income to Moody’s Economy.com’s cost of living index.

Here are the 10 cities that it found to offer the best value.

Cities Where Residents Get the Most for Their Money

1. Austin, Texas
2. San Antonio, Texas
3. Indianapolis, Ind.
4. Houston, Texas
5. Charlotte, N.C.
6. Columbus, Ohio
7. Dallas
8. Minneapolis/St. Paul
9. Denver
10. Portland, Ore.

In Oregon City, a larger number of people have these characteristics than in surrounding neighborhoods:

Education: Bachelor’s degrees, Did not complete college, Master’s degrees
Employment: Self-employed (incorporated businesses), Work in construction and extraction occupations, Work in management-level occupations, Work in office and administrative support occupations, Work in sales and related occupations
People & Culture: Born in this state
Transportation: Drive to work alone

The Main types of people are…

Movers and Shakers - Mobile suburban couples without kids. More than 50% of these younger married couples have moved in the past five years. They earn comfortable incomes and work in management or professional careers. Some have completed college.
New Suburbanites - Mobile suburban singles. A high proportion of these pre-middle-age to middle-age singles have moved to the suburbs in the past 4 years. Some have a college education and work in professional or management careers.
Upwardly Mobile - Suburban couples living in mobile homes. A higher than average percentage of these married couples with no children live in mobile homes or non-conventional homes (boats, RVs, etc.). Education level varies from high school to college.

From the Oregonian by Connie Potter 

Builders use brick for all kinds of reasons, from its strength and durability to the value it adds.

But to Jerry Reeves, the bottom line is: Brick is beautiful.

Reeves, owner of J.C. Reeves Development & Construction, combines brick and cedar siding on virtually everything his company builds. It’s his signature look.

One of his newest developments, on Sitka Court in Tualatin, features six luxury homes, all with brick and cedar exteriors, used in differing combinations for unique looks. The homes range from about 3,500 square feet to more than 4,500 square feet, with prices of $790,000 to $995,000. A gated entrance is anchored by a brick wall that borders the project.

There’s a perceived value in brick that buyers appreciate, said Reeves. And there are benefits beyond beauty. Brick is durable and won’t warp, rot or burn. It never needs painting. Because of its dense mass, it can help moderate temperature extremes and even lower heating and cooling bills.

Reeves, who started his company in 1980, also appreciates the feng shui qualities that brick and stone and other natural products bring. Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of arranging home or work environments to promote health, happiness, and prosperity. Natural products have an energy that man-made products don’t, he said.

Buyers of his homes are drawn to the classic look of brick and the fact that natural products are proven, said Reeves. There are no questions about whether the product will wear well over time or whether it will be adversely affected by the elements.

“That’s a huge benefit to them,” he said.

Although brick adds beauty and interest to the architecture of a home, it also adds to the cost. It takes more time to build a brick house, said Reeves, and engineering costs are higher because of the extra weight. On the plus side, many insurance companies offer lower fire insurance rates for brick houses.

While people use various adjectives to describe brick homes — classy, timeless, high-quality, to name a few — Reeves said many buyers don’t know exactly what it is they like about brick. They just know that they like it.

“When they come up to a home and see brick and stone, it has a higher perceived value,” he said, “and they feel better about their home.”

From the Portland Tribune by Peter Korn 

You can call it the New Seasons Effect, or the Whole Foods Effect, but developers and city planners have talked about it for years. In short, nothing says you’ve arrived as a neighborhood quite so emphatically as a New Seasons specialty grocery store down the block.

And now there’s evidence showing how much that upscale grocery means to Portland-area property values – an extra 20 percent or so for homes within a block and a half, according to a study by local economic consulting firm Johnson Gardner.

Everything else being equal – same home, same neighborhood – if a specialty grocery store sits within a block and a half of your house, your property values should be 20 percent higher than if you don’t have the store nearby.

And specialty groceries aren’t even No. 1 on the list of shops that will elevate the value of nearby homes. That distinction belongs to small neighborhood movie theaters, according to the Johnson Gardner report.

All things being equal, a small movie theater can raise property values somewhere between 14 and 30 percent, according to the study. Wine bars and garden shops also provide a boon to homeowners. Bookstores, fitness centers and bike shops do the same, to a lesser extent.

Read the rest of the story at the portlandtribune.com.

Read more about the Johnson Gardner urban living study.

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