Portland Blog: This Week in Portland August 28 - September 4 2010
Even though we are probably conditioned to believe so, summer does not end
when school starts. I must admit my heart felt a bit heavy as I saw the
lines of lunch boxes and back-to-school supplies at the grocery store but this
year, the official end of Summer is September 22-23. We have several
glorious weeks left and enjoy them, we shall!
A Prescription for Enjoying the Last Three Weeks of Summer- Portland
Style:
If you're able, break out your bicycle and helmet. This will be your
transportation. You'll love it! (Note: you definitely need a lock- there
is an underground bike thief ring gone wrong in this town!)
From the
Portland Neighborhood map, orient yourself with N, NE, S, SE, and NW
neighborhoods -- general area and direction.
Officially, you have four summer weekend remaining, including this one.
Here's what you can't miss:
Bike to breakfast - one or all of these weekends. Portland has a crazy
wonderful breakfast world you need to explore!
The Saturday Market - go! You'll love it. Its a mix of cool as hell and
weird as hell. Land around lunch time and enjoy some of the fine, fine
worldly eats.
BBQ at your casa or a local park using meat from
Sheridan Fruit. Sheridan's has
been a staple for Portlanders since 1916. Don't let the "Fruit" throw ya --
they have the meanest meat case in town.
Experience what Portland Monthly calls "the best coffee in Portland,
period." Coava Coffee Roasters.
A day in the life of the
Portland Food Carts. This would your life -- so eat as much as you want!
You're biking it off, anyway.
Still haven't hiked
Forest Park?
The largest urban park in the US -- right in your back yard!
This should definitely keep you busy for awhile...have fun, be safe!
The Portland Photo of the Week
In downtown
Portland and across from the ever famous
Powells Books is...um. The "whisk" looking thing moves from side to side but
other than that, we have no idea what it is or why it's there but we love it.
Welcome to Portland!
Our weekly Portland photo winner gets a $20 gift certificate to a
local Portland business of our choosing.
Paula will receive a $20 gift cert to
local darling Coava Coffee Roasters.
Portland Monthly calls Coava
"the best coffee in Portland - period"! Coava was also named one of the top ten micro-roasters in America by
Imbibe Magazine in the March 2010 issue. Their new cafe is a "tasting room" for
their roastery. Prepare yourself to be blown away. Learn more about
Coava Coffee Roasters.
Here are the featured Portland events this week! Thanks to everyone for adding all the great Portland
events to the community events calendar. You can add your own Portland events directly to the events
calendar, here.
Just click "Add an Event" and fill in the details.
Oregon State Fair
From traditional Fair fare to fine wines to the best barbecue this side of —
well — anywhere, the Oregon State Fair has more food and beverages than you
can shake a corndog at. Oh yeah, don't forget local beers and wines, live
music, old fashioned carnival rides and more!
Beginning June 26, OMSI welcomes visitors to Einstein, the most
comprehensive presentation ever displayed on the life and theories of the man
who many consider the most important figure of the 20th century. Albert Einstein
changed the world and our understanding of it: his Special Theory of Relativity
paved the way to unleashing atomic energy; his work on the photoelectric effect
led directly to the development of vacuum tubes and integrated circuits, and
eventually to the computer revolution; and his explanation of Brownian motion
created a new understanding of the size and shape of molecules that ultimately
helped to unlock the secrets of DNA.
This is the last weekend of the Portland River Fest- get on down
there! RiverFest offers a family-friendly chance to come down by the
riverside, get out on the water, take river tours, enjoy live music, learn
first-hand about the river's history and environment, clean-up the riverbank,
and view river spectacles.
Popular attractions from last year return, including The Freshwater Trust
Portland Triathlon, Portland Audubon events, the Festival at South Waterfront,
Kayak Tours, and the SOLV Cleanup. We have also added many new and exciting
events for the whole family to enjoy. Join us this summer to celebrate the river
on the river.
‘L’Union Fait La Force’
‘Unity Makes Strength’ (Haitian proverb)
Right now, that strength is being put to the test.
On the night of Saturday August 28, 2010, the Portland community
will join in a unique celebration of Haiti’s indomitable spirit.
Imagine David Lynch held a bakesale, invited 'Gladiators’, poured on the drinks
and dancing, and then brought 200 of your best friends to run riot for an
evening of kid-free mayhem. Tonight from 6-10pm
MFNW is entering its tenth year as Portland, Oregon's largest
and most successful music festival. Willamette Week teams up with music
professionals from the local, regional and national music scene to curate a
multi-venue festival with bands from indie, hip hop and punk backgrounds.
Sept 8-12
So many people consider moving to Portland Oregon, and with good
reason. You've researched the area and found that you love the close proximity
to the ocean, Mt Hood, St Helens, the seemingly endless acres of forest for
hiking, camping and fishing. Or perhaps you've fallen in love with us after
discovering that we are as green as they come; setting the national bar for
bicycle commuting in lieu of cars, innovators of revolutionary recycling
programs, demanding sustainability and organic meats and produce. Or, you've
longed to move to Portland to join the masses known for being fiercely
independent, home of the nation's largest open air market, jokingly dubbed
Beervana for our seemingly never-ending stream of local Oregon breweries and
also one of the best places in the United States to get a cup of coffee.
We count farmers markets like other cities count Taco Bell, Denny's or Safeway.
We've got a plethora of independent performance theaters and even movie houses
that serve beer and homemade pizza. We'll not sleep until Wal-Mart has been
foiled in their bid to open shop near a lovely river neighborhood. We say we
shop local and we mean it. In fact, you'll find that our Portland neighborhoods
are chock full with the pioneering, innovative strength of independent artists
and businesses, thriving and supporting one another.
You'll be happy to know that moving to Portland Oregon means an easy commute. We
boast a mass transit system that larger cities could only hope for, a small town
feel in a big, but not too big city, restaurants that find fame on the review
pages of New York and Los Angeles esteemed publications and more. What's not to
love? here to help prepare you either for your move to Portland or to help you
settle into your new home. We want to prepare you as much as humanly possible
for a move to our lovely city. Want to start a community garden? You'll be at
home here. Do you love dogs, beer, wine, art and outdoorsy stuff in general?
Take your coat off and stay awhile: I think you're at home already!
Read more on our
Moving to Portland page, complete with places to see, locals guides and
neighborhood profiles.
New to the site and want to add your own two cents to the
Portland blog?
Please do! But please remember to keep it real and community focused. Read
our terms
of use and don't spam the planet with self promoting material or weird stuff
as it will just get deleted. We have a zero spammer policy to keep the
site valuable and hassle free for our members. Thanks!
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Hillsdale Neighborhood Real Estate Report
By Ross Seligman
Hillsdale is a popular older Portland community with a strong neighborhood
connection, family friendly suburban feel, and is located close into
Portland so it offers convenience and a reasonable commute along with a more
laid back suburban environment for those who don't want to live in an urban
environment. For more information on Hillsdale, click here.
In my monthly Portland real estate report, I always talk about
how each individual neighborhood is a micro-market. If you are
looking to buy or sell in a particular neighborhood, the most
crucial information that you need to know is what is going on in
that neighborhood. In this situation, the overall Portland
market report is less important and the national real estate
report is just about useless. This posting is a real estate
report for the Hillsdale neighborhood of all homes in all price
ranges. Feel free to request particular neighborhoods in which
you are interested in buying or selling and I am be happy to do
a report, just contact me on this forum or at http://www.propertiesofportland.com.
If you are looking for homes in Hillsdale, visit this link where
you can search for homes by particular neighborhood: Click
Here
The first thing you will notice about individual neighborhoods
as compared to the overall Portland reports are that the numbers
can be wildly different month to month. Basically, the bigger
the pool of data you are working with, the smoother the stats
become. As we focus on smaller areas, many different things can
happen month to month.
Here is the overall chart of inventory, sold, and pending for
the Hillsdale neighborhood from 5/09 to 7/10:
In Hillsdale, closed sales rose from February through June while pending
sales steadily declined. In July 2010, there were 36 closed sales, 40
pending sales, and 431 homes on the market in the Hillsdale neighborhood.
More stats for you from your friendly neighborhood real estate statistics nerd:
One year change from July 2009 to July 2010:
Inventory (how many homes on the market for sale): Up 9.1%
Homes sold: Down 35.7%
Homes pending sale: Down 7%
Chart for average price per square footage:
In the past 15 months, the average price per square footage in
the Hillsdale neighborhood has been between $143 and $204/sq. ft. In July 2010,
the average price per square foot in the Hillsdale neighborhood was $164.
One year change from July 2009 to July 2010:
Change in Price Per Square Foot:
July 2009: 187
July 2010: 164
Percentage Change: Down 12.5%
Days on Market, 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 July 2010, the average
time on market for a home in the Hillsdale neighborhood was 42 days.
The second thing that this chart is showing you is what percentage of the
original listing price the owners actually are getting when the house is sold.
This is a great indication of pressure on prices. In July 2010, sellers
in Hillsdale received, on average, 92% of their original listing price.
Change from July 2009 to July 2010:
Time on Market: Down 19.2%
Sold/List price% difference: No Change
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!
