One of my favorite recurring features in the NY Times is their What You Get column, in which they’ll pick a budget (say, $850,000) and tell you how much acreage that’ll get you in Texas versus what size of refrigerator box it will be in San Francisco. I’m now going to shamelessly rip this feature off (albeit strictly in a Portland and California way), but I’d like to make it more of a competition. Gladiatorial, perhaps.
Each house included in the comparison is, as of this writing, an active listing. I can legally sell you the Oregon one since I have a license to do that. I cannot sell you the California one, but if you need someone to go see it with I’d be happy to recommend someone and collect a fat referral fee.
Onward! For today’s comparison, we’re going to go with the entry-level price point of around $1.7 million. Our California listing is in my old stomping grounds of Culver City, which for those unfamiliar is a west side quasi-suburb of Los Angeles (in the sense that LA is 78 suburbs in search of a city as it is). Culver City is a nice place and to use the lingo, sought-after. It’s been popping since tech and digital media came in hard nearby- Amazon Studios, Apple, and HBO have newer presences there, Google/YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat are nearby, and Sony Pictures Entertainment occupies the studio lot in the middle of town. If you ever want to go to a taping of Wheel of Fortune, I’ll hook you up. Also, Culver City now has a Salt & Straw which opened right after I left.
All that growth has come much to the consternation of home buyers, and to the delirious joy of home sellers. Let’s take a look at ours. All photos sourced from themls.com.
List Price: $1,700,000
| Sq Ft: 1,445 | Lot Size: .11 acres | Beds/Bath: 4/2 |
This was built in 1940, a year after both Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released. Both of those movies were shot in Culver City. Later on, CHiPs was too. It is on a cut-through street, which would help account for the low price, and it backs up to Culver High, which is right next to both middle and elementary schools. This is awfully convenient if you have kids aged 5-18- as their lazy selves are walking to school- and inconvenient if you want to back out of your driveway at 3pm on any school day.
Distance to where people in suits work: It’s about 11 miles from downtown LA.
Distance to Trader Joe’s: You have your choice of three of them that are each about 2 miles away.
Distance to Powell’s City of Books, the greatest bookstore ever: 963 miles. Take I-5.
Can you park an RV and a boat in the driveway?: If you removed the carport you might be able to get an RV in there without blocking the sidewalk, but forget about a boat.
Is it transit-friendly?: Yes! The Expo Line train runs right through Culver City and can take you west to the beach or east to downtown LA. They did, however, tear out the parking lot at the train station to build a hotel and expensive condos. LA is great at spending lots of money on public transit and then doing everything they can to discourage use of it.
Let’s take a look inside.
The nice thing about house photos being taken with an iPhone 5s in portrait mode is that you can fit two of them side-by-side. Here we have one of the living area, designed for comfy fireside chats. The galley kitchen features a sink.
The house has four bedrooms and apparently these are two of them. Personally I would put a bigger TV on the dresser and scrap the Michael Scott TV in the corner, but not everyone is that particular about their TV and that’s OK too.
Backyard? I think so. That’s a nice tree and a nice potted plant. Be careful with that step down from the sliding door.
Let’s move on to Portland. We’ll be in Cedar Mill, which is an unincorporated part of Washington County, all of which makes it sound far from Portland when it isn’t at all. Going from Multnomah County (where the city of Portland is) over to Washington County (right next door) does a wonderful thing to your property taxes without really pushing you out of the area. Cedar Mill is a lovely place just on the other side of that line and is an easy shot into Portland for when you need big city things, like artisanal ice cream or culture. It also has the nearest branch of Grand Central Bakery to me, and I like that place.
Our Cedar Mill house just went on the market and is listed through the realty where I hang my license, so I went to go tour it. Don’t worry, I took my shoes off. It is $85,000 higher than the Culver City house but what’s $85k between friends? Photos are from rmlsweb.com and belong to Eleete Real Estate.
List Price: $1,785,000
| Sq Ft: 7,823 | Lot Size: 1.12 acres | Beds/Bath: 7/5.5 |
Do you think I drove right through those gates on up to the house? Better believe it. There’s something oddly satisfying about not just driving TO a property but ON a property.
Distance to where people in suits work: 8 miles of beautiful scenery.
Distance to Trader Joe’s: About 4 miles to the Tanasbourne one, 5 miles to Beaverton.
Distance to Powell’s City of Books, the greatest bookstore ever: 8 miles of beautiful scenery.
Can you park an RV and a boat in the driveway?: Easily, and there’s no HOA to tell you not to. There might be covenants though and it could annoy your neighbors, so please consult your boat/RV attorney first.
Is it transit-friendly?: Well that depends who you ask. It’s about 3 1/2 miles to the train station, where you can park your car. But at that point you’re probably just going to keep driving. I won’t judge.
Here’s what it looks like once you get past the gates.
While it’s “officially” a 7 bedroom house, the description in the listing says it has anywhere from 6-9 bedrooms. Having to decide which rooms are bedrooms and which aren’t tends to only be a problem once you’ve reached a certain price point. Unless you’re in Culver City, I guess. It reminds me of the late great Mitch Hedberg, who will be the one to decide which rooms are bedrooms in his house.
This room is not a bedroom, but I could take a nice nap on that couch:
Kitchens of yesteryear tended to be enclosed and separated from other rooms, while the trend lately has been to knock down walls and open them up to family rooms like this one. This one splits the difference. It’s got a couple of framing walls to define it as a different room, but there’s still the pass-through counter. I like it and would cook many meals in it. The kitchen is also enormous. You could put it in the White House.
There’s this room:
It’s right off the living room. The doors on the right lead to all the wine. This is the room you repair to after the dinner party to make some grown-up deals. Real business happens in rooms like these, not offices or conference rooms and certainly not on Zoom. Pour something single malt and buy a startup or a tall building.
Finally, the grounds:
While you may mistake it for a public park, this is the backyard. That’s a damn good sittin’ bench under that tree. There’s a swing set back there with both toddler and child sized swings, and the sport court allows multiple sports, although presumably not at the same time:
It would be tough to play basketball with a net down the middle of the court, but that’s what we in real estate consider a solvable problem. I didn’t measure the court, but it’s probably worth about $1.2 million in Southern California land value.
So which house wins? I’ll take the Portland house and build my own Trader Joe’s in the backyard.
*Editor’s Note: Shortly prior to publishing, the price on the Culver City house was lowered to $1,599,900. Now you can buy both!
About me: I am a licensed Realtor in the state of Oregon. For business inquiries I can be emailed at eli.cotham@eleetere.com or found on the web at eliknowsrealestate.com.
Boat/RV lawyer? Sounds like a job for Chareth Cutestory