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Excited About Buying A Home This Year? Here’s What to Watch
As we kick off the new year, many families have made resolutions to enter the housing market in 2019. Whether you are thinking of finally ditching your landlord and buying your first home or selling your starter house to move into your forever home, there are two pieces of the real estate puzzle you need …
Windermere Realty Trust Ranks as the #1 Most Generous Large Corporate Philanthropist in Oregon & S.W. Washington
Windermere Realty Trust matched many of the criteria I sought when I changed real estate brokerages almost 18 months ago. Among those criteria was community support, for which the Portland Business Journal has just announced Windermere Realty Trust as the Most Generous Corporate Philanthropist among large corporations in Oregon & SW Washington. Together with this firm’s professionalism and collegiality, the company’s community support is second to none. I am proud to be affiliated with Windermere Realty Trust!
Windermere Realty Trust tops the list of large corporate philanthropists in Oregon
The Community Transition School Needs Our Help
The Community Transitional School is trying desperately to collect enough school supplies for its community as the school year is about to begin. The Community Transitional School serves “the hidden homeless,” the students who live with their homeless and transient families through Multnomah County. The school is always striving to achieve its mission: To provide at-risk children with a stable educational environment that promotes their academic and personal growth.
If you are able to gather supplies, please deliver your donations to the barrel labeled “Positive Charge! for Community Transition School” at my office – Windermere Realty Trust, 6443 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy., Suite 100 M-F from 8-5:30 (closed on Labor Day), or contact me at Jon@JonCohenRealty.com or 503-720-9393 to arrange for pickup.
The Community Transitional School has an urgent need for the following items:
School Supplies
Large pencil boxes
Crayola or Prang watercolors (8 or 16 colors)
90 pound water color paper
Inexpensive paper plates
Playdough (in containers, not in kits)
Snacks for Pre-K and K classrooms)
Standard size backpacks
2-pocket folders in single colors
Plain copy paper (8 ½ x 11)
Paper Mate flair felt-tip pens (all colors)
Trapper Keeper zipper binders for middle schoolers
Post It Notes
Lined and unlined self-stick chart paper
Blue painter’s tape
Construction paper – single color packets (8 ½ x 11)
Misc. Supplies
Chinet plates
Clorox
Clorox wipes
Paper towels
Soft Scrub
Tissues
Student Tri-Met tickets for after-school Leadership Program
Office Supplies
Peel & Seal #10 envelopes
Small, disposable, single-use cold packs
Large Band-Aids for large scrapes
Postage stamps
Lables/Name Tags (Peel & Stick)
Scotch Tape refill rolls for standard dispensers
Hygiene Products
Lice shampoo and spray
Deodorant
Q-tips
Toothpaste (family size)
Hair ties and similar accessories
Other items
Athletic/tennis shoes – kids size 11 – boys and girls
As always, your kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated.
CONNECT WITH YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD & CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND TIMBERS
Neighborhood News is the best way to stay connected to what’s happening in the local real estate market. This free monthly email newsletter provides current housing activity and trends in your neighborhood or the neighborhood where you’re looking to buy.
Sign up for Neighborhood News right now and you’ll have a chance to connect with the Portland Timbers – you’ll be entered into a drawing for two tickets to the next Portland Timbers home game on July 7, 2018.
Signing up is easy. Just go to the Neighborhood News page at www.JonCohenRealty.com – or click the photo above – and sign yourself up. You can also send me an email at Jon@JonCohenRealty.com with the zip code of any neighborhood where you might like to live or buy investment property. You will receive your first Neighborhood News right away and receive monthly updates with fresh data every 30 days.
This is just one of the ways I can help you meet your real estate needs. I am always happy to connect with you to talk about your real estate goals and how I can help you achieve them. I look forward to connecting with you soon.
PORTLAND REAL ESTATE MARKET UPDATE
The Portland real estate market is poised to accelerate into the spring selling season. January and February brought a slight uptick in residential inventory from the end of December, 2017. Our inventory dropped back down to 1.6 months by the end of March, up from the same time last year. The median sale price for a Portland-area home was $395,000 in March, 2018. This is 6.8% higher than a year ago. Houses are also moving just a little faster, with the median number of days on the market dropping to 55 – 5% lower than a year ago.
I expect to see more houses listed for sale in the coming months, typical for the spring month. I also expect the number of active buyers will increase, maintaining pressure on inventory levels and prices generally. For more information about your current neighborhood market, the market in the neighborhood where you’d like to move, or any of your real estate needs, please do not hesitate to contact me at Jon@JonCohenRealty.com or 503-497-2980, and look for your neighborhood information on my website – JonCohenRealty.com.
20 is Plenty – Portland’s New Residential Speed Limit
The new Portland residential speed limit is in effect as of April 1st. According to the Portland Bureau of Transportation, the 20 mph residential speed limit applies to “streets that do not have center line markings.” The “20 Is Plenty” campaign is part of the City’s Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. You can find more specific information about the City of Portland traffic safety campaign on the Portland Bureau of Transportation website. So, borrowing that famous line from Hill Street Blues and the late Steven Bochco, “Let’s be careful out there.”
Oregon Has a Trade Surplus
In all but 7 states, Oregon imports more people than it exports, creating a population trade surplus.
The Portland Business Journal recently published this great infographic (click on the photo to go to the interactive map) showing that Oregon has a trade surplus will all but seven of the United States. The commodity creating this surplus? People! State by state, more people are moving to Oregon than are moving from Oregon to those states. As a result, Oregon’s population continues to rise. So when you learn that a friend or colleague is moving to Oregon form California, Colorado, Texas, or any of the other 43 states with a population trade deficit with Oregon, kindly tell them that you know a great Realtor in Portland who would love to introduce them to his great city.
WHY IS THIS REAL ESTATE BROKER LOOKING FORWARD TO JURY DUTY?
The Multnomah County Courthouse is not for sale – yet! However, as I reinstate my real estate blog, something from my days as a lawyer is crossing into my real estate world.
Later this month I will have the honor and the duty to fulfill my civic responsibility to appear for jury duty, and hopefully be chosen to sit on a jury. While this statement may trigger memories of the creative excuses you manufactured to avoid jury duty, or the times you cringed at the thought of spending any part of a day, or several days, listening to lawyers, witnesses and judges, I’m still looking forward to the opportunity to serve on a jury for the first time.
By now, you are probably wondering why this real estate broker is writing a blog post about jury duty, and why is he using words like “honor,” “duty,” “responsibility,” and “opportunity.” I’ll explain.
Almost 35 years ago, not long after I graduated from college, I received a notice from the Boulder County, Colorado Court calling me in for jury duty. As a soon-to-be law student, I was excited about the possibility of serving as a juror. During the jury selection process, one of the lawyers asked if I was employed and where I worked. I told him that I was employed at the Denver law firm of Fairfield and Woods as an office clerk. The lawyer turned and spoke briefly with the judge, and the judge then informed me that I was excused.
The next time I was called for jury duty was in Portland, after I completed law school and began working as a lawyer. The story line didn’t change much over the years. The Court called me for jury duty, I appeared as requested, and, if called to a courtroom for jury selection, one of the lawyers summarily dismissed me because I worked as a lawyer. For so many years I’ve wanted to serve on a jury. And for so many years I’ve missed that opportunity because most lawyers prefer not to have other lawyers serve on their juries.
Now, perhaps my time has come. I’m a real estate broker now and have been for almost 14 years. Will I finally have the honor and the opportunity to experience all the responsibilities of jury duty? I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks.
Cheers.
