30 Year Fixed            5.0%

FHA 30 Year Fixed    5.25%

Stay tuned as rates have been up and down lately.  We will provide another update next week.

4 Bedrooms

3 Full Baths

2535 SF

9583 SF lot

New price $249,900

Address:  18580 SW Rosa Rd, Aloha, OR 97007

For more information on the local Portland real estate market see our other Portland real estate market update posts.

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If you are looking for a home for sale with more specific criteria, contact us to set up a custom search of Portland Oregon homes for sale.  Our contact information is at the bottom of the website.

Are you thinking about selling before you buy?  Find out what your home is worth in today’s market by asking for a Free Value Analysis of your home.

• •Live, work, and entertain in a well designed, thoughtfully updated family home.

• Join an engaged, active, and well-organized community of successful neighbors.

• •Enjoy the lake’s finest private marina, just a short walk away.

• •Educate your children at some of the top-rated public schools in the area.

• Completely remodeled 5BR, 3BA 3,421 SF home with extensive built-ins has been impeccably finished.
• •Gourmet kitchen, wine-bar, formal dining room, great-room style family room, expansive back deck, complimented by an integrated sound-system make this home an entertainer’s dream.
• •Magnificent master suite with deck highlight thoughtful living spaces.
• •Two offices, each completely wired, are ideal for the modern family.

Offered at $799,000 MLS# 9022856

Virtual Tour Here

Click on any of the images below to see a bigger image

Downstairs laundry room utility room, two additional bedrooms and family room with wood burning fireplace.  Large corner lot with mature landscaping and lots of potential.

Property Address: 13330 NW Marshall St, Portland, Oregon 97229

2600 SqFt

5 Bedrooms

3 Full Baths

2 Car Garage

.24 Acre lot

List Price: $350,000

Check out the full MSNBC article here and view the interactive maps.

With Oregon’s high unemployment rate, job creation is desperately needed.  This can only positively effect the housing market locally in Portland, as Portland real estate numbers have continued the downward spiral for the several months.

If it’s a good time to be a seller, can it also be the right time to buy?  Paradoxically, the answer is often yes.  How come?  Mortgage interest rates are extremely attractive right now.  If you think about buying a house payment instead of buying a house, it can get real easy to make an economic argument to buy now.

Example: Let’s assume that you have your eyes on a beautiful home that you could purchase today for $375,000 and you are in good financial shape and can put down 20% and will finance the $300,000 balance.  At a 5% interest rate, your monthly mortgage payment would be $1,610.  Let’s say you think this home might be worth 10% less in the future, so it could be purchased for $337,500.   This would be a significant price drop.  At the new purchase price, your 80% mortgage would only be $270,000.  If interest rates remained at today’s current 5%, your mortgage payment would go down to $1,449/mo for a monthly savings of $161/mo.

Let’s assume that you were correct and the home price bottomed at 10% below today’s price, and you timed the market perfectly.  Let’s also assume that mortgage interest rates rose 1% over the same period.  In this event, your monthly payment would actually increase nominally to $1,619/mo.  Given the assumptions in this example, you could end up with a higher monthly payment, even if you time the market perfectly, if interest rates increase by 1%.   The consensus of the economists we track expect the real estate market to bottom nationally in the 3rd quarter of this year.  Nationally we’re already at a 30 year high in housing affordability.  With the massive economic stimulus, it’s not unreasonable to assume that inflation will soon become a concern.  These same economists expect interest rates to start climbing this year, and increase significantly in 2010.

The advantage of buying today is you can take advantage of a great assortment of inventory and the buyer negotiating power to negotiate great terms with the inventory so high.  If you’re a first time home buyer you can also take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit and, of course you can take advantage of the interest deductions on your mortgage payments.  Add them up, and it’s not at all hard to make a compelling argument that it’s a very good time to “pull the trigger” on that home you’ve been eyeing.

Want to see more?  Check out the chart below to see the payment sensitivities to your own assumptions about how home prices and interest rates will change over the coming months.  In the cart below, I start with a base case of a $300K mortgage at 5%.  I then increase mortgage interest rates by 5% per period and decrease home prices by 5% per period.  The guts of this chart are principal and interest payments on a 30 year fixed schedule.

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Looking for something under $200K? You have only 2 to choose from! About 30 more condos are on the market under $300K.

The highest priced Pearl District condos all have wonderful views and the highest quality of materials. You do get quite a bit more space and most are penthouse units. There are 25 listings over $1 Million.

There is something for everyone is every price range if you are considering a condo in the Pearl District.

Click on this link to see all the Pearl District Condos currently on the market. If the Pearl District isn’t in your sites, not to worry. To see all the listings in the Portland MLS check out our Portland Real Estate Search tool.