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Portland is a Top Choice City for Retirement
According to CNN's 25 Best Places to Retire, Portland is number two!
Whether you dream of retiring to a big city, small town, resort area or college town, these 25 cities offer reasonably priced homes, low crime and tax rates, quality health care, and more.
#1 Albuquerque
#2 Portland
Famous for its food and bike cultures, Portland is a thriving but manageable city that gives retirees easy access to just about anything.
To see a revolving door of art exhibits, performing arts, and festivals, look no further than downtown and the nearby Pearl District.
No need to leave the city for outdoor adventures; Portland has one of the largest urban forests in the country (wine country and beaches are just a short drive away). It's also home to several award-winning hospitals, including the Oregon Health & Sciences University, whose research center attracts experts and patients from around the country.
See complete data for Portland
I have helped many retirees find their dream home in the Pearl District, Lake Oswego, suburban Portland, and outlying small towns like Canby, Sherwood and Hillsboro. I've also helped a number of seniors sell their homes and find great accommodations in Senior Centers and Assisted Living. Please let me know if I can help you retire in Portland!
How’s the Portland OR real estate market doing?
The National Association of Realtors has released the following stats for the 2nd quarter of 2012. I continue to be busy, but never too busy to help someone new.
Where are housing prices headed?
Everyone seems to be asking their professional Realtor’s prediction is on where home values are headed.
To answer this question I want to quote three separate reports that have been published in the last 60 days: the Home Price Expectations Survey (HPES), the Urban Land Institute Real Estate Consensus Forecast (ULI) and the Demand Institute’s Report (DIR): The Shifting Nature of U.S. Housing Demand. Here are their projections:
A slow but steady return is projected by all. If you plan to stay in your house for 5 years, you can expect appreciation - not like the good old days in the rush, but a good, modest growth at a pace that’s a welcome relief after the last few years.
With thanks to the KCM Blog.
Rent or Buy?
Each quarter, Fannie Mae releases their National Housing Survey. They survey the American public on a multitude of questions concerning today’s housing market. We like to pull out some of the findings we deem most interesting each time it is released. Here they are for the most recent report:
84% of the general population believes that owning a home makes more sense than renting.
The Most Important Reasons to Buy a Home
When we talk about homeownership today, it seems that the financial aspects always jump to the front of the discussion. However, the study shows that the four major reasons a person buys a home have nothing to do with money. The top four reasons, in order, are:
- It means having a good place to raise children and provide them with a good education
- You have a physical structure where you and your family feel safe
- It allows you to have more space for your family
- It gives you control of what you do with your living space (renovations and updates)
The Home as an Investment
Though most people purchase a home for non-financial reasons, everyone realizes there is a money component to homeownership. Here is what they said on this issue:
- 63% of the general population believes that homeownership is a ‘safe’ investment.
- 53% believe that homeownership has more potential as an investment than any other traditional asset class.
Rent vs. Buy
We are always interested in the difference people see in renting vs. owning.
- 64% of renters have aspirations to someday own their own home
- 70% of renters think that owning is superior to renting
Bottom Line
Our belief in the value of homeownership grows each time this survey is released.
Excellent article on the Real Estate Rebound
Maybe you think Realtors are being optimistic when we say that the market is coming back. We are, I believe, optimists by nature. This job isn’t for the faint of heart, especially in the last few years when up to 40% of the Realtors left the business. But here is Barrons joining in our argument that we are on the mend.
Not only that, the article predicts 30% growth in the next 10 years. Payback. If you were waiting for the bottom, wait no longer. Let’s go house shopping.
