In a recent article of the The_Oregonian_newspaper and on the front page in large headlines " Portland Home prices stable while most cities slide."
Of course the news is not all positive and the doom and gloom spin masters cannot help themselves as indicated in their sub Head line of " The Metro area is among five in the nation in which housing values escape decline, but 2008 could be different" Nothing like negative speculation to continue the hope of doom and gloom.
Yet this was meant to be a positive article about Portland residential real estate appreciation rates. Below are twenty cities used in their survey from top to bottom:
The Top 5 cities :
- Charlotte 4.7%
- Seattle 4.7%
- Portland 2.2%
- Atlanta 0.4%
- Dallas 0.2%
The remaining 15 cities are as follows :
- Denver -0.9%
- Chicago -2.5%
- Boston -3.2%
- New York -3.6%
- Cleveland -4.0%
- Minneapolis -4.5%
- San Francisco -4.6%
- Washington -6.6%
- Los Angeles -7.0%
- Phoneix -8.8%
- Las Vegas -9.0%
- Detroit -9.6%
- San Diego -9.6%
- Miami -10.0%
- Tampa -11.1%
The source of the comparisons for the article_written_in_The_Oregonian were provided by Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index monthly reports for the month of September 2007 compared to the same month in 2006.
The article goes on to say that " The index is one of the most reliable ways to track home prices, and is widely followed by wall street."
Now this may be true and certainly we do need some sort of bench mark to measure performance. But shouldn't the area accurately reflect the City for which it is being reported on? Or at least if you are going to report on an area called Portland and you use seven surrounding counties including two in a different state as the basis for your reporting numbers, then the name should reflect so.
According to the Oregonian article, the Portland region the index covers is single-family home sales in Oregon's Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties. It also covers Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington State in the Portland region as well.
Seven Counties is a huge region geographically speaking, specifically when the bulk of the City of Portland resides mostly in Multnomah county.It is understandable that the index could use Clackamas and Washington Counties and arguably Clark County in Washington state which includes the city of Vancouver as contributing factors in there analysis as they are often times considered to be bedroom communities for Portland Oregon. However the Portland metro area is fairly well defined geographically with the majority of it residing in Multnomah County.
In an attempt to report a more factual representation of appreciation rates in Portland Oregon, I have made the following comparisons using the local MLS reporting system RMLS. Here are the local numbers that we use as Realtors working in and around the greater Portland Oregon Metro area for each of the areas reported to be used within the index's surrey.
- County Name Appreciation
- Clackamas 2.6%
- Columbia 11.2%
- Washington 6.2%
- Yamhill 8.7%
- Clark 1.0%
- Skamania 0.4%
Multnomah County which comprises most of Portland can be reflected in the Metro Portland numbers which is 7.3%
The compiled RMLS stats are for residential home sales from November of 2005 through November of 2006 as they compared to the same reporting period of November of 2006 through November of 2007.
An interesting fact is that when all of the above numbers are taken into account the appreciation rate shows to be 5.34% instead of the index's figure of only 2.2%.
Of course the RMLS numbers do not reflect numbers for FSBO's ( for sale by owner properties) which may account for the lower number. Seems like another reason why to List your home with a Broker to me.
All in all the reported numbers of 2.2% in the Oregonian article which hope to report a positive spin on the Portland area market are much lower than the 7.3% for Listed residential properties in the City of Portland.
To find your dream home please go to www.househuntportland.com where your next home will find you. To read more about Portland Oregon or to do a traditional home search please visit www.portlandrealproperty.com
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