Market profile for Lake Oswego, Oregon

Lake Oswego located just 7 miles south of the Portland, OR metro area.  Market continues to brave a buyers market with price decreases to move inventories.

Though LO has not seen the short sale and REO conditions of some markets, we are experiencing a softening in price due to lack of confidence from the Buyer.  Still holding price average in the mid 500K we wold seasonally see a tick upward heading into spring.  Don't think we will see that is year as sellers are all targeting the same few buyers. 

Since many Lake front or view homes are either in the multi million range for the turnkey move in, the others sit just below the 1M and are in need of a major face lift or knockdown.  Those buyers don't have the cash to throw at properties today, and sellers in that zone are not use to having to wait for a buyer.

Only prices that seem to still be moving are the buyers capping at the conventional loan 417K (for here) and just enough cash for a decent down.

For more information on the Lake Oswego market, please call 5033495-5231 or email info@LakeOswegoHomeSellers.com

Spring is upon us and many Portland/Lake Oswego area sellers are about to list their home.  They want or need to sell their home in a buyers market. They need to find the right agent to get the home sold.  Marketing has moved to a whole new level.  

Far to many agents still subscribe to the 3P process: put up the sign, place on internet, and pray!

That thought process just may put a few agents into the poor house, along with a financially stressed seller.  Many LISTING agents never work with buyers.  NEVER.  Their business plan is the list plan, not the sell plan.  Think about it - just about any agent can take a listing. Tell them what 'they want to hear' and the listing is yours.  But is takes a trusted agent to actually get it sold.

Today our market requires a list agent that is balanced in working with sellers and buyers.  How else can we agents fully understand the mind set of the buyer and the challenges of each side.  With the amount of inventory in any given market, sellers today do not want to just list their home.  They want and need it to be sold.  Provide honest information, don't buy the listing.

Sellers hire us to get the job done.  Sell their home for the highest possible price with the least amount of hassle.  Selling a home requires much more tenacity than before.  We must EARN the trust and support of our clients before we can earn our commission.  Remember, we don't get paid to list, we get paid when we have done our job and the listing is SOLD.

Roberta

Lake Oswego Home Sellers

Just sat down to catch up on emails and write a blog.  I was reading ris medias article on social networking and came across PING.fm.  Sounds pretty cool.  I have a few sites and a few blogs going and being relative new to most of the blog traffic, this ping thing looks like a great opportunity to ease the blog hours.

I do have a few questions that I hope AR friends can help with - if the same blog appears on more than one site, what effect will that have on rankings etc.

Anyone on active rain using ping.fm or have opinions?  Is it easy to add my active rain account to their site?

Thanks - I appreciate your input.

Roberta - Lake Oswego Home Sellers

Portland real esate market is getting noticed.  Forbes has tapped our market again.  Keeping real estate real is what Forbes continues to do.  By evaluating all the data available and trends of what is coming down the pike, they give the best and worse perfoming markets.

In December Portland ranked #9 for the best long term bet in real estate.  Now just this week Portland is ranked #4 best performing housing markets.  The Portland market is a patchwork of communities that include Lake Oswego, West Linn, Beaverton and Tigard to name just a few.

Prices in the Portland, Oregon market had a steady increase in the high double digits, when other parts of the country were in the 30% and higher.  Our steady up tick in the boom years of 2005-2007 has helped soften the landing somewhat as current prices are in line with 2005.  Price decrease in the past 12 months is at 13%. 

Homeowners that made a purchase a mear 10 years ago and have made their monthly mortgage each month, should be sitting pretty happy with a doubled value of their home.  Historically homes will double in price every 10-12 years (depending on location and other ecomomic factors).  This is how real esate should be.  Steady as she goes. For more information contact me info@lakeoswegohomesellers.com .

Not only is the Portland market a good real estate investment, it is offers an awesome lifestyle that features clean air and water, the home of the bottle bill. 

Lake Oswego is a vibrant community and unique to the Portland market.  Only 7 miles from Portland city center, this prestigious cottage community surrounds Oswego lake.  The lake is the visual center attraction for many new comers learning about Lake Oswego.  It is not uncommon to read listing detail range from unsurpassed quality and attention to detail in a prime lake front location, to the 'peek-a-boo' lake view, or the waterfront property ready to build your dream estate 'value in the land'.

As a relocation specialist, I have been fortunate to help many moving into our community.  Many of the calls and emails I receive from my out of state clients want information on waterfront homes.  That's when things get abit interesting.  Price of course is the determining factor, but next to price is "what is waterfront to you". 

In Lake Oswego, it has a few meanings.  First one must understand the Oswego Lake is Private, owned by the Lake Corp.   As a private lake it is fed by several canal ways.  Not Venice, but homes do border both sides of the canal ways.

Many homes line the banks of the main lake, Lakewood Bay (mainly the south side of the bay), and the many canals.  Some are quite prestigious and others await a remodel.  So the question remains what does waterfront really mean to you? 

For many the alternative is lake rights.  These are easements that are granted to specific properties.  You have the use of the lake without the $$price tag of frontage or view.  Not all lake Oswego homes have these easements.  Never assume.

Lake Oswego is a wonderful community offering exceptional schools.  The Lake Oswego prestigious zip codes are 97034/97035 if you are a newbie. 

Knowing what the buyer wants and convincing the seller to do it can be a challenge. 

Time is money.  As the list agent, you only get paid when the home sales.  Your out of pocket expense varies with the type of marketing you do.  But none is free.   As the seller, you only get to move on when the home sells.  You have the cost carry every month if you bought before you sold, you may have needed to relocate to take advantage of a new opportunity.  But the monthly nut is still there. 

So why no common ground?  Many prospective list agents worry about offending the seller and not getting the listing.  Relax, do you really want to take just any listing that is competing with the many that are on the market here in West Linn or Lake Oswego. 

Agents that are taking listings on an over priced and under prepared home just clogs our already to high inventory.  Adding to our market time and many seem to forget the underprepared homes are the ones most likely to be competing with a REO as well.  Pricing going out the window  there!

Be honest with sellers on what needs to be done.  They really do want to sell their home.

Let them know homes ARE SELLING.  Do they want they want to be one of them?  In reality, the biggest cost will be reducing price, because the buyer of today wants to buy the home that is market ready.

I walked a West Linn property with the seller on January 15th.  The home needed a serious face lift.  Carpet and paint go along way.  Some updated lighting and a good scrub down.  As we walked, I chatted.  We discussed buyers.  Who would buy their home, where they may be coming from, what is the motivation.  Understanding the buyer is key for agents and sellers alike. 

We discussed options on what could be done, pricing, and of course the doing nothing option. And they listened.  I mean really listened.  When it came back to pricing, I told them the home would take 2+ weeks to get ready and when it was finished we would review pricing.  The market is changing daily.  Again, they listened. 

We put the home on the market on 2/6.  We accepted a full price offer yesterday.

Sellers are looking for straight answers and professional guidance.  Give them what they are looking for.

Lake Oswego is one of the most prestigious communities in the Portland market and has received many accolades over the years.  The newest is an interesting one that I read in the paper last week.  According to Goodwill donation statistics, Lake Oswego/West Linn residents donated 6.2 million pounds of clothing and household goods in 2008 at the local collection center.  The largest volume site in the country.  Wow ~ I had to ponder this. 

Thinking back I am a regular to that center.  See we have an Expedition that doesn't get out much.  So I use it as my goodwill storage.  When it gets full I drive it over to Goodwill and make my donation.  My clutter free system works pretty good too.  Now though it is the week before Christmas, still snowed in, but we could get around with chains on that truck.  It was the 22nd and we were going to need that vehicle with chains to take everyone to church Christmas Eve.  It needed to either be unloaded into the garage or it was a road trip!  

Mind you there was a good 8 inches of snow still on the ground,  and as I drove up to a closed collection center, the local givers had been busy doing the same thing they always do, giving.  Under the drive thru were boxes and bags piled high, furniture, framed art, you name it.  As I began to add to the inventory, 3 more vehicles pulled in to do the same.  One donater asked if the donation receipt cards out, but even without it she still made her donations.  I wonder if they use my clutter free storage system too!

We are finally past the artic blast...biggest snow storm to hit our market since 1968.  I wasn't here yet but we did hear about it, almost as frequently as the snow fell.  For the newcomers, it is not normal for us to have kids home over the Christmas break for 3 weeks.  Yes that was three - count em...weeks.  Today mine finally went back to school.

Lets just say ~ in my market the phone doesn't ring much with snow on the ground.  Given the additional quiet days, when I wasn't doing a divide and counger with the girls, I was able to pull together year end stats a few weeks earlier than normal.  I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Nationally existing home sales for 2008 will be near 5.02 million versus 5.652 million for 2007.  A double digit decrease yes, at just over 11%.  But, and it is a big one ~ over FIVE MILLION people purchased a home in 2008 ~ media headlines ~ nah they would never tell the big picture in these terms.

Since we all know real estate is local, let's take a look at Lake Oswego's local real estate market.

Lake Oswego saw numbers go from 11305 in 2007 to 10908 in 2008 down just <3.5%>, nearby West Linn went from 6778 to 6581 down <2.9%> and the entire Portland market combine is only down <3.7%>. 

That really paints a picture when you compare these stats to the recent stock market correction that turned many 401K accounts into less than a 201K!