Portland
Blog: This Week in Portland April 14 - April 21 2012
Welcome to another
weekend, Portland and welcome to another edition of our all-local
Portland blog! This week, we look into Portland's love-affair
with urban chicken keeping. Much
like you, I bet, I see chickens absolutely everywhere now. I've become
blissfully desensitized to what has been making news elsewhere. News?
Indeed. Even Portlandia poked some fun at our expense: free range
chickens, chickens with names who are well fed and well loved, where
the fate of the chicken and the life it led was of passionate
scrutiny...Welcome to Portland!
My neighbor has had chickens for years and we are lucky recipients of
his fresh, delicious eggs. I've grown fond of watching them migrate
around his yard, clucking and turning up soil looking for worms and
fresh viddles. His coop is magnificent, huge and elaborate even down to
the framed images of regal looking roosters and hens on the wall. Some
of these chickens live better than humans, I swear it.
The question many are asking is "is it worth it?". Well, that
depends on you. For many, the act of keeping chickens is rewarding on
many levels-- many people feel more connected with the earth, the
chickens become like pets and bonds are formed and most kids love being
around chickens and it helps to teach them about life and
responsibility. Outside of that, its all about the eggs. Are the
chickens producing healthier-for-you eggs? Without a doubt. Studies
have shown that small flock eggs have: less cholesterol, less saturated
fat, more vitamin, 2x more omega-3 fatty acids, 3x more vitamin E and 7
times more beta carotene! It is a pure and simple case of
"you are what you eat". Take good care of your chickens you will reap
the benefits.
The time is not right for
me to become an urban chicken keeper but I do find it fascinating. I
recently read through an incredibly informative book called A
Chicken in Every Yard by locals
Robert and Hannah Lit who you might know from The Urban Farm
Store here in Portland. If you
are considering chickens, I cannot recommend this book enough. It
covers chicken keeping from A-Z and is well written and funny, too.
Here are just a few things I learned in this excellent book:
- Types of chickens and
how to select, handle and care for chicks.
- What to feed chicks,
adults and what not to feed them.
- How to care for your
coop and how to build a coop.
- How to keep your
chickens safe from predators.
- All about chickens:
life spans, how the weather impacts egg yields, how to care for them if
they become ill and more.
- Excellent (or shall I
say, eggsellent) egg recipes and even tips on how to tell if the eggs
you have are still good.
The
Portland Photo of the Week
The Portland Photo of the
Week is by
Aquatic
Squirrel.
This is a wonderful photo of the Astoria Bridge.
Our Portland
Photo of the Week winner gets a
$20 gift certificate to a local Portland business of our choosing.
Aquatic Squirrel
will receive a $20 gift cert to one of our favorite local restaurants, Miho
Izakaya.
Miho's menu is creative and incredible and the service is excellent in
every way. We adore the food at Miho and so will you.
Anyone who has an interest in getting anywhere beyond his or
her own neighborhood in this town is going to be crossing a
bridge. Lucky us, there are quite a few of them.
Look, even a dedicated east-sider like me has to cross the
river now and then. Usually it's to go downtown or to Forest
Park. Those two locales are most often my primary destinations,
but there are other, quite valid reasons to visit the west side.
I'm not averse to that part of town at all, you understand. I'm
more familiar with the east side of the river because that's where the
Fates cast us shortly after the missus and I arrived in Portland.
Plus, we don't own a poodle who needs regular coiffuring or a chauffeur
to take said pet to salon appointments (KIDDING, west-siders! Just
represe'in'!).
Here's the truth. I'd find a reason, if none were handy,
to travel Portland's bridges. Bridges are cool. Portland's
bridges are very cool. They aren't the
pretty, quaint little covered bridges over which your grammy might ooh
and aah and endanger her dentures; head toward Albany for that
variety. They have little in common with our iron behemoths
besides keeping one's feet dry. I've confessed here before that
I'm a sucker for atmosphere, and Portland's spans have an industrial
gothic quality that fits this city to a capital 'T' (which rhymes with
'B' and that stands for 'BOSS'!
And, well, 'Bridge'). They
cut a handsome, sharp profile under a summer sun, but in the rain and
fog they come into their true element. In muted color and illumination,
the Hawthorne Bridge becomes a pulleys-and-cogs contraption in a
steampunk fantasy; the St. Johns Bridge soars out of the mist, freshly
arrived from Gotham City.
Each structure has its own personality and each is as
essential as a living organ. Their iron vocal cords hum the
endless tune of traffic, and if that traffic, along with the river
below, can be seen as elements of a bloodstream, then the bridges are
arteries, and also the legs of the city as they stand like Colossi
straddling the waterway.
Do yourselves a favor. Walk over a bridge when you can,
or ride a bicycle, but leave the car at home. Sitting in a motor
vehicle deadens the experience. A bridge, if you let it, best
tells you stories through your legs.
Read and comment on the
original post
here.
Like this article? Check back weekly for a peek into Rob's world.
Featured
Portland Events this Week
The
Pub Presents:Tuesdays
with Morrieby
Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom.
Produced by Public House Theatre Company.
A
young man, an old man, and life's greatest lesson. The Pub presents the
true story of sports writer Mitch Albom’s weekly Tuesday
visits with his former professor, Morrie Schwartz, during the final
weeks of Morrie’s life. After a lapse of 16 years, their
rekindled relationship teaches Mitch lessons he never knew he needed to
learn about life, love, and letting go.
February
4, 2012at
10am toMay
27, 2012at
5pm –Portland
Art Museum
One
of the most controversial internationally known German avant-garde
artists of the postwar years, Beuys (1921-1986) was an influential
theorist and teacher for several generations of European arti…Organized
by | Type:exhibition
March
3, 2012at
6pm toDecember
1, 2012at
7pm –Portland
Central Library
Turn your Rosetta-stone brain on high and unravel the mysteries hidden
in the stacks, on the walls, and places you never imagined existed in a
public library. Upon arrival, a highly-trained Run Brain…Organized
byGary
Corbin|
Type:scavenger,hunt
March
9, 2012at
10am toNovember
11, 2012at
5pm –The
Portland Art Museum
This spring, the Museum will celebrate the restoration of Money Tree,
an extremely rare bronze sculpture that embodies wishes for eternal
prosperity in the afterlife. The money tree will be displayed…Organized
by The Portland Art Museum | Type:exhibit
April
9, 2012at
9am toJune
4, 2012at
9am –Beaverton
Hoop YMCA
Join us for this free 8 week workshop on Healthy Living. Participants
will take part in group discussions focused on goal setting and healthy
behaviors. Participants will also take part in a weekly g…Organized
byVickey
Foster|
Type:workshop
April
13, 2012at
7pm toApril
18, 2012at
9pm –The
Clinton Street TheaterBICYCLES AND
FILMS REEL IN
TANDEM ON THE SILVER SCREEN Portland, OR – Celebrating an
amazing decade, the 10th Annual Filmed by Bike is a film festival
filled entirely with bike-themed movies from arou…Organized
by Filmed By Bike | Type:film,festival
April
14, 2012from
12pm to 4pm –PortlandWe
begin at Coalition, a small 10 barrel brewery in the inner SE where we
taste their handcrafted, highly drinkable beers that reflect
traditional brewing techniques and NW innovation. Our next spot…Organized
byBrewvana
- Portland Brewery Tour|
Type:brewery,tour
April
14, 2012from
7pm to 10pm –Tualatin
Heritage Center
World renown mandolinist Brian Oberlin and Tualatin’s own
award winning original roots bluegrass group Kathy Boyd &
Phoenix Rising will return to the historic Tualatin Heritage Center on
Saturday…Organized
byKathy
Boyd & Phoenix Rising|
Type:concert
April
14, 2012from
9:30pm to 11:30pm –Helium
Comedy Club
Saturday 04/14 - 9:30PM $25-$30Headlined by MARIA BAMFORD and ERIC
ANDRE, other performers to be announced soon! One of comedy's best
festivals is here. With over 200 performers in The Rose City, the…Organized
byHelium
Comedy Club|
Type:comedy,fest
Sandhill
Cranes by Earl R Thomas
Add your own events to our
Portland
events calendar! Its totally
free. If we like it, we'll include it in this weekly Portland blog.
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the site and want to add your own two cents to the
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Thanks!
April 2012 Portland Real Estate Report
By
Ross and Leah Seligman
April 2012 Portland Oregon Real Estate Market Report:
What's Happening?
Here is a chart of all homes for sale, pending for sale, and
sold in Portland, Oregon for the last 15 months:
In March 2012, inventory has risen with 1852 homes on the
market. In March 2012, 461 homes sold and 692 are pending
for sale.
Yearly change from March 11 to March 12:
Inventory is Down 32%
Closed Sales are Down 11.3%.
Pending sales are Up 25.8%.
Chart for average price per square footage:
In the past 15 months, the average price per square foot in Portland,
Oregon has been between $132 and $142. In March 2012, the average
price per square foot in Portland was $136.
Yearly change from March 11 to March 12:
Average Price/Square Foot has not changed from the same
month last year
Days on market and sold/list price %:
This chart is showing us two things. First, how many days on the market
that a home is spending, on average, before being sold. In all of
Multnomah County, in all price ranges, a home is taking, on average, 76
days to sell.
The other thing that this chart shows is what percentage of listing
price the home, on average, is selling at. This is a great indicator of
pressure on prices. In March 2012, sellers were getting, on
average, 94% of their original asking price.
Yearly change from March 11 to March 12:
Average time it takes to sell a home has decreased 2.6%.
The percentage of original listing price that was paid
has increased 3%.
Average price for sale vs. average price of sold:
The largest segment of home sales have been in the price range under
$400,000. You can see this reflected in the average price of a home
that has sold. In March 2012, this figure was $285,000.
Yearly change from March 11 to March 12:
The average price of a home listed has increased 5.1%.
The average price of a home sold has increased 0.4%.
Months of inventory:
Months of inventory gives a timeline of how long it would
take for all of the current listings to sell. Anything above 4 months
is considered a buyers market. In March 2012, this figure was 4
months based on closed sales. Portland is currently, on average, a
balanced market.
This does NOT mean that it will take, on average, 4 months for your
home to sell. That number was, on average in all price ranges, 76 days.
It means that, if not a single listing were to come on the
market in Portland from this moment, it would take 4 months for all
available homes to sell before there would be none left.
Yearly change from March 11 to March 12:
The months of inventory figure has decreased 23.3%.
About the report:
They are a comparison of the past 15 months (including a
percentage change analysis for the last 12 months) for all of Portland
and are taken directly from the RMLS. What follows is my own analysis
of these statistics. For our purposes, I thought it best to analyze
Portland as a whole. Each neighborhood, however, is a little
micro-universe and has its own market. Changing the parameters of the
zip codes, price variables, or time periods can lead to very different
results. This analysis is of all homes sold in all price ranges
in Portland, Oregon. If you have any questions about specific zip
codes, or any questions about the market in general, please reply to
this forum with those questions or feel free to contact me at: http://www.propertiesofportland.com.
Since Portland is a neighborhood city, you can now search by
"Irvington, Alberta, etc.". You can check it out by clicking here.
This information doesn't matter if you have a particular
neighborhood in mind since Portland neighborhoods are their own
micro-markets. If you have one in mind to buy or are selling your home,
please request a report for that neighborhood and I am happy to post it
on this blog or send it to you. The complete Portland report is
useful for an overall snapshot of the Portland market.
Hey everyone, I want to know what you think of these reports. Too many
stats? Just right? Something missing? Let me know so I can make these
more useful for you. What are your thoughts about real estate right
now? What do you think of the information in this report? Post to this
blog so we can discuss.
Visit our website where you can contact us and search all
Portland
Metro Area homes for sale from the RMLS in Portland, OR, including
school and neighborhood reports: http://www.propertiesofportland.com
Visit our website where you can contact
us and search all Portland Metro Area real estate and homes for sale
from the RMLS, including school and neighborhood reports at : http://www.propertiesofportland.com
Best Deals in Portland this Week
Each
week Ross and Leah share five great Portland real estate deals.
We share two of them here on the blog each week.
6333
NE 10TH AVE Portland, OR 97211 -
Woodlawn - $289,900
Click
the image to see the full listing
Visit our website where you can contact
us and search all Portland metro area homes for sale and real
estate from the RMLS, including neighborhood and school
information: www.propertiesofportland.com
We
hope you enjoy reading our weekly Portland blog. Want to see
more or less of something? Let us know! Once again,
thanks for being here and making this Portland website such an asset to
the community! If
you love this site as much as we do, tell your friends!
Have a great weekend!
