eli.cotham – Page 5 – Movin' On Up

Finally, Some Good News for Sellers AND Buyers

By eli.cotham June 12, 2022Real Estate

The Word of the Day is correction. What needs correcting, you say? Home prices, which have risen around 15% over the past year. Nobody who has been paying attention ever believed that kind of growth was sustainable, and the Fed certainly saw it as a problem when they made moves that caused a rapid rise in interest rates. Those rate increases- mortgage rates are now about double what they were last year- are starting to do what they were designed to…

Charts and Graphs! May Market Report

By eli.cotham June 3, 2022Real Estate

All real estate is local, and this monthly report is a resource for those buying or selling on the Portland metro’s west side. The data below is for the areas including but not limited to NW Portland, SW Portland, Beaverton, Bethany, Hillsboro, Tigard, and Lake Oswego, and includes all residential resale transactions (new construction not included). Hey, good news! Home prices are no longer going up 4-5% every month. The rapid rise in interest rates that occurred in March and April…

What the Hell Are You Talking About, Part 2

By eli.cotham May 19, 2022Real Estate

A while ago I wrote about the real estate industry's penchant for overused words in home descriptions, typically written by someone who is too busy selling houses to crack open a thesaurus. Recently I was going through listings and saw three in a row that started with the word "beautiful," which is enough to make me crazy so for my own catharsis, I'm revisiting this topic. Consider this a glossary (in random order, deal with it) of terms you'll encounter often…

Charts and Graphs! April Market Report

By eli.cotham May 7, 2022Real Estate

All real estate is local, and this monthly report is a resource for those buying or selling on the Portland metro’s west side. The data below is for the areas including but not limited to NW Portland, SW Portland, Beaverton, Bethany, Hillsboro, Tigard, and Lake Oswego, and includes all residential resale transactions (new construction not included). So, if interest rates are doing this: Why are prices doing this: I'm no economist, but even I understand that at some point the cost…

Mortgage Interest Rates: Oof.

By eli.cotham April 29, 2022Real Estate

Since the start of the year mortgage interest rates have risen about 60%, and they’re widely expected to continue rising. That is a very sobering thought for those searching for a house. In essence, it means a homebuyer’s purchasing power has dropped 20% since New Year’s Day. That $600,000 budget now looks more like a $500,000 budget. The idea is that the rising interest rates will act as a fire extinguisher for inflation in general and the hot housing market, slowing…

February Market Report – Portland West Side Real Estate

By eli.cotham March 9, 2022Real Estate

All real estate is local, and this monthly report is a resource for those buying or selling on the Portland metro's west side. The data below is for the areas including but not limited to NW Portland, SW Portland, Beaverton, Bethany, Hillsboro, Tigard, and Lake Oswego, and includes all residential resale transactions (new construction not included). With the slow slow slow holiday season in the rear-view mirror, February becomes a good month to begin to see what kind of real estate…

First Time Home Buyer? Some Tips to Get Started

By eli.cotham March 6, 2022Real Estate

There’s nothing quite as exciting as buying your first home, whether you’re looking for something to start out with and build equity or your “forever” home. It can also be a stressful process, filled with unknowns and market-specific factors that are constantly changing. While the last couple of years of the Portland housing market has mostly favored sellers, we're now seeing shifts in the market that allow buyers more time and flexibility to shop. Still, there's much to learn and the market…

Why Asking Price Doesn’t Matter

By eli.cotham February 17, 2022Real Estate

In the past twelve months, about two-thirds of single-family houses listed for under $1 million that have sold in the greater Portland metro went for over their asking price. The remaining third was about evenly split between those that sold at list and those that sold under. Distill all that down, and only about one in seven houses that sold went for the number on the price tag. It would be an odd way to shop if you walked into Target…

Stop the Insanity!

By eli.cotham February 9, 2022Real Estate

I work a lot of open houses, which means I get plenty of face time with potential buyers. Visitors to open houses come in all shapes and sizes- those that have just started looking, neighbors who want to check out the new house for sale, and the battle-hardened who have already been putting in offers for a while, with no success. One question that seems to come up no matter who is asking is the Big Question of the Day: when…

What YOU Need to KNOW Right NOW Before GOING to an Open HOUSE (You Won’t Believe #4!)

By eli.cotham January 27, 2022Real Estate

If you really stop to dwell on it, there's something quite strange about open houses. You leave your home- with all your memories and your toys and that open Gatorade bottle in the back of the fridge- in the care of a real estate agent that you may not have ever met or seen or whose name you know, so strangers can walk through your house for a few hours and judge how you live. If you're fortunate enough to not…