Who on earth would pay 250 grand for a place like that? I mean, the hardwood floors are cool and all, but aside from that, there's not much going for it.

If I could get it for 50 grand, then I'd gut it (except for the hardwood) and make it into something decent. For one thing, I'd make sure the bedroom had a door!

(Go back to bed, kid, your mom and I are just wrestling)...

Max, this is southwest Portland, not southwest Pennsylvania. That actually looks like a nice little house in a good neighborhood. $250K is a great price. I bet your post will sell this house, professor.

Do you think these deflated property values will be reflected in our property tax assessments? At least fairly?

It will be an interesting and busy November thru December at all the county assessor offices during the periods of challenging assessed values. Of course achieving decreases at these boards isn't as easy as the automatic property tax increases or the frequent increases of reassessments of individual neighborhoods. Then if you happen to get a building permit for even a deck watch property taxes go way up, especially if the assessors see anything not on their assessment sheets.

Jim, are you by any chance a real estate agent?

This is my second favorite blog:
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/

If you bought a median house in California about a year ago you would now be down $151,000. The scary part is it would still be vastly over valued in historic terms, and you might be living in Temecula.

The burbs and condos are already slipping here. For some reason inner PDX is still doing fine, despite having its soul ripped out by evil, satanic, baby-eating developers.

According to the Portland Real Estate Outsider, the address is 3014 SW Iowa Street.

Jack, we have an extensive remodel for sale across from us on 32nd Ave that started out at $975,000 and has been reduced to sell at $849,000. It is probably still $100,000 over priced!

I have to go with Max on this one. Three floors and all those stairs - only 1700 square feet with the entire top floor a master suite? Well, at least you'll be exhausted once you climb to the top floor to go to bed. Obviously no yard. Too bad they didn't list the tax hit you'll take when you buy it. Might be ok for a DINK couple.

I gotta agree with Max for the most part. At $80K higher, that house was priced at LEAST $80K too high, even in a good Portland market.

Its 1700 sf on THREE levels. That place has undergone a poorly done remodel. Its just one of those tiny little half-bungalows with a box thrown on top of it to serve as a third floor master 'suite'. And check out that kitchen. Looks like they took out big chunk of an already small kitchen to make room for the stairwell.

And if you go to RMLS and pan through the sixteen photos there, it appears that the deck off of the master suite is attached to the bathroom. what the?

$255k for a TWO bedroom house is STILL $100k too high. Ridiculous.

No, I'm not a real estate broker, DP.

I enjoy old Portland homes, and on the surface, this looks a lot nicer than most. Who knows, though, maybe the foundation is cracked, the basement is moldy, or the walls are carpenter ant sawdust. If it's in average shape, it looks like a good deal to me. Naysayers, you'll see, it will sell at that price.

"If you bought a median house in California about a year ago you would now be down $151,000. The scary part is it would still be vastly over valued in historic terms, and you might be living in Temecula."

This is the real story. I know some people that live in the "Inland Empire" (Riverside / Ontario / San Bernadino) area of Southern California, and if you think that the Portland real estate market is in trouble, you need to take a look around.

There are whole subdivisions in Ontario that are street after street of laid foundations, and no walls on top. The developer just stopped because there's no interest. The concrete is sitting there, ready to hold a house that won't get built for years to come.

Entire streets of them.

Due to all the surplus housing stock, there are prime houses on the fairway of the Indian Hills Golf Course that have lost $150k right off the top.

Portland has it pretty good when houses in inner SE are seeing ± 2% change per year, and call that bad.

Sherwood: If you bought a median house in California about a year ago you would now be down $151,000. The scary part is it would still be vastly over valued in historic terms ...
JK: This is actually VERY GOOD NEWS for Portland because when a house is worth less than the mortgage, the owner has to come up with cash to pay the difference between what the house sells for and what is owed on the mortgage. This will lock Californians into their homes and stop their coming to Oregon.

It is conceivable that we will actually NOT get even close to the projected one-million new people coming to Portland.

Thanks
JK

You're right, JK, it's very good because Portland's phenomenal housing market run-up was driven by all those Californians moving up here flush with cash from the sale of their homes down there. Now that the easy Cali money is drying up, Portland housing will hopefully return to affordable levels. This is good for everybody (unless you bought a house in Portland in the last 2 years or so.)

Is that 'stove' in the front room even legal?

Shows how accurate Zillow is they have the house valued at 365,000.

Zillow is based on sales, so until houses start selling at the lower value 'real' value Zillow won't adjust. Give it time...

1,700 ft, with probably 500 of that a below-grade converted garage, and a tiny kitchen in need of a $80K remodel.

The "master" bedroom might not even qualify as a bedroom, since it doesn't have a closet. Or a door.

And those don't look like hardwoods. Look like fir to me.

Cute yard and nice view, though.

The house two doors down just dropped by 40k: http://tinyurl.com/6g42pl

Jim,

I have to say ............drum roll please.......... I agree with you. That felt weird.

It doesn't take all of the pressure off. That MTV video showed that a lot of people move here because it's a great place to live (I did) without a job or cash. These folks get a lot of bad press, but I'd rather have people showing up because they love the place as opposed to looking for cheaper housing.

As usual, JK is flat wrong. A realtor I know says he's selling a fair amount of houses and condos lately, but only to Californians who are taking what little cash they have from the sale of their old property and finding a better value in Portland.

JK: This is actually VERY GOOD NEWS for Portland because when a house is worth less than the mortgage, the owner has to come up with cash to pay the difference between what the house sells for and what is owed on the mortgage. This will lock Californians into their homes and stop their coming to Oregon.

Ah, but you're wrong. You've overlooked this little technique now becoming popular in Las Vegas and Phoenix called buying and bailing. California has some fast learners; they can't be far behind.

Deficiency judgments are not allowed in California (and Arizona) and are rarely enforced elsewhere. So, those no money down loans were simply de-facto options. Those options are no longer "in the money" so there is no rational reason to stay in the house/loan.