Portland Residential Real Estate Report: January 2012

DCG — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:26:03 +0000

This year has started off on a stronger note. We’ve seen improvement in the sales activity in the Portland metro area in both closed and pending sales when comparing this time to that of a year ago. Closed sales saw an 18.3% increase, and the highest numbers for January since 2007. Pending sales increased 22.4% in the same comparison. We also saw Market Time decreasing from 160 to 136 days. There were also 16.5% fewer newly listed residential properties, which has continued the higher absorption we have seen in recent months that has helped to create a much lower listing inventory for this season than seen in the previous two years. At January’s rate of sales, our listings would be exhausted in only 7.0 months as compared to last January when we had 11.3 months, and January 2010 when we had 12.6 months. This inventory level is strengthening the pricing we are seeing in certain neighborhoods and we are seeing multiple offers more and more for properties that are priced well. Many are suggesting that we are at the bottom, but it will take a few more months to really pinpoint a trend.

We are seeing a great deal more activity in the area of investors as well. This trend in conjunction with the low interest rates, low inventory, and rising rents is creating even more strength in the area of the multifamily sector. Multiple offers are also picking up in this category when properties are priced correctly and returns look stronger than what investors are finding elsewhere. 2012 is shaping up to be an interesting year in real estate.

January Residential Highlights
The year has started off on a positive note. Sales activity in the Portland metro area continued to show improvement in closed and pending sales when comparing this January to the same month a year ago. Closed sales experienced a 18.3% increase, posting the highest numbers for January since 2007. Pending sales saw growth of 22.4% in the same comparison. Market time also improved, decreasing from 160 to 136 days.

There were 16.5% fewer newly listed residential properties. The combination of higher sales and fewer new listings helped to create a much lower listing inventory for this season than seen in the previous two years. At January’s rate of sales, the active listing count of 8,514 would be exhausted in only 7.0 months. (See chart to the right.)

Comparing month-to-previous month, closed sales fell 24.1% (1,612 v. 1,224) when compared to December 2011, pending sales increased 26.3% (1,443 v. 1,823) and new listings climbed 53.7% (1,700 v. 2,613).

Sale Prices
The average sale price of $249,100 for January 2012 was virtually the same as the $248,900 posted in January 2011, while the median declined 3.5%.

Compared to December 2011, the average price fell 4.5% ($260,800 v. $249,100) and the median fell 4.2% ($216,600 v. $207,500).

Over the rolling twelve month calculation shown to the right, which compares February 2010-January 2011 with February 2011-January 2012, the median price dropped 6.9% and the average price declined 6.1%.

For a copy of the full January report, A Publication of RMLS^™ you can download

Here

2012 Business Workshop Launch: Join us on March 14! 8 Tips To Telling Your Personal & Professional Brand Story

DCG — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:30:01 +0000

We had great feedback from our Fall Business Workshop Series, and are pleased to continue building on the resources we provide to our valued clients and partners next month!

Please join us on March 14 from 12-1pm for a “Lunch & Learn” session with Big Small Brands. We’ll explore an important topic and trend in small business marketing today: Telling Your Personal & Professional Brand Story. Below is a brief description of what we will cover. Spots are limited, so please email suzanne@dennisoncapengroup.com ASAP if you are interested in attending (we will provide lunch for you!).

We will also be collecting gently used and new children’s books at this event for Reach Out and Read, so we can help bring stories to Portland families who may not otherwise have books in their home. You can read more about our support of this important program here.

When you tell your brand story, is anyone listening?

One of the biggest challenges faced by growing businesses is how to tell your personal and professional brand story. Far too often, we get caught up in complex terminology, business jargon and acronyms, or words and phrases that don’t seem to align with the products and services we deliver.

Through the simple power of story, though, you can break through.

Research shows us that people are 6 times more likely to retain information if it is told in the form of a story, instead of as a statistic. What’s more, 85% of people are more likely to do business with you if they know something personally about you. This interactive session will address the core framework of storytelling, key elements and examples of strong brand storytelling, and the 8 tips to consider when building your own business story. Participants will have an opportunity to start re-working their own brand story, too.

Please RSVP to Suzanne at suzanne@dennisoncapengroup.com ASAP if you are interested in attending. And thanks in advance of your support of our book drive program! If you can’t make it to the workshop but want to donate books, you can stop by our offices anytime to donate in the collection box.

Monthly Question: What Is The Biggest Myth in Credit Scoring?

DCG — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:15:11 +0000

I recently received an email from Lea Snyder, Senior Mortgage Broker at Summit Mortgage who forwarded important insights from Thomas McKee from New West Credit Consultants (His great information was repurposed for this blog. Thanks, Thomas!). In the email, Lea said that she often hears Buyers explain that they are trying to “clean up their credit” prior to buying a home by paying off old debt collections. Most credit is repairable within a reasonable amount of time; however, you may be unaware of actions that continue to hurt your score.

Having a good credit score is incredibly important when it comes to many of life’s major purchases like buying a car or a home. Yet, one thing that is consistently misunderstood by people is the best way to clean up your less-than-perfect score.

Most of you are likely familiar with the idea of collection agencies, companies that buy debt collections for a fraction of the dollar and then try and collect your debt payments to make a profit. Now, let’s run a common scenario: say you have a five year-old collection for $200 on a credit card. This collection, by law, stays on your credit report for seven years.

So here is where we get to the very common misunderstanding. Credit scoring algorithms mainly focus on the last 18-24 months of credit history. While this collection is still negative and hurting your score, it is not a major factor! Most likely, the last few collection agencies that “own” your debt are usually small, less-than-reputable companies that will use scare tactics like threatening payment letters or calls to get you to pay your debt. These collection agencies are fully aware that the debt will soon fall off of your credit report in two years.

So what to do? Many people will be intimidated into making a payment to the collection company, but there is definitely a catch. As we stated earlier, debts remain on credit reports for seven years. What many people do not know is that the seven-year clock is based on the date of last activity. Therefore, anytime you make a payment it will restart the clock and your paid-in-full collection will stay on your report for seven more years and cause your score to fall drastically!

While this article is not meant to encourage debt avoidance, it is an important piece of information that many people are not aware of and should know. If you would like to learn about how to deal with credit debts and improve your score, contact Thomas McKee at tom@newwestcc.com. You can also get in touch with us at any time and we will provide you with the necessary resources you need.

5 Things You May Not Know About Carol Hushman

DCG — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:12:36 +0000

Our series on little known facts about The Dennison Capen Group team continues. This week, we are pleased to introduce you to Carol Hushman, our Lead Buyer Agent:

Carol was born and raised in the Yakima Valley in Washington State on a concord grape and asparagus farm. She did my share of farm work growing up and attributes most of her good work habits from working with her dad. However, life on the farm was hard work and she has no romantic notions of farm life whatsoever.
Carol loves to explore the great sights and places of the Northwest and Portland area. In the fall, Carol and her husband like to drive to Hood River for a picnic lunch at Phelps Creek Vineyards, then a stop at Kiyokawa Orchards to buy apples (she’s been known to buy over a 100 lbs. of apples while she’s there!). She also loves to take out-of-town visitors to Erath Winery in Dundee. Also, she has a standing date every Wednesday morning with her husband to have breakfast with her kids. They’re working their way through Breakfast in Bridgetown, a guidebook of local breakfast spots.
Something that you may be surprised to to hear about Carol is that she is a huge Wheel of Fortune fan. She even tried two weekends last fall to get an audition to be on the show, but was sadly unsuccessful. Don’t give up your dream, Carol!
Aside from farm work, Carol’s first job was assisting her high school counselor at the end of the school year when she was a senior. She couldn’t believe that she could get paid for working indoors!
Carol and her kids love to volunteer and give back to the community. She has been volunteering for SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) for over 15 years. The past few years we’ve read at Vernon Elementary School in NE Portland with SMART (she is an avid reader, working the night shift at Annie Bloom’s Books in Mulnomah Village for 17 years and spending her paychecks on books!). In addition, she has been a volunteer coordinator for the annual American Cancer Society Hope Ball.

Stay tuned for more great inside information on the lives of our team. Be sure to contact us at any time for any of your real estate questions and concerns. We are always happy to talk to you!

Reflections from the DCG Client Appreciation Event

DCG — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:51:03 +0000

Last weekend, we gathered at the Davis Street Tavern for a new Dennison Capen Group tradition— honoring our clients, and referring friends and partners for the tremendous support they gave us in 2011 and past years.

There’s no doubt that one of the greatest things about this business is being able to make so many incredible connections as we help our clients through the various phases of the real estate process; the relationships we develop with each of you extend well beyond the transactions at hand. It was great fun to introduce so many of you to each other, and witness the many connections being made.

Once we were seated, we also took some time to recognize some clients who have given significant support to DCG:

Kimberly and Lee Wuepper-Rudick
Ceb Barrs and Christine Olson
Steven Berman and Suzy Root

We also recognized the many members of the DCG team, who are the heart and soul of our operations. From the moment we opened our doors in 2003, Kira and I have felt incredibly honored to do the work we do; growing our team to include Carol Hushman, Karrie Ruby, and Suzanne Stevens in recent years has helped us deliver incredible service levels —and results — to our clients.

I think the highlight of the evening, though, was simply looking around the room and seeing great conversations, new connections, and lots of laughter happening. I am already looking forward to next year’s event, and hope to see many more of you there.

I have always felt, as I know our entire team does, that it is an incredible honor to be in a profession where we can participate in such significant milestones in our client’s lives. Between new home tours, inspections, and signing escrow documents, we’ve witnessed engagements, helped families prepare for new additions, watched businesses grow, and supported community organizations together. Thank you for letting us do what we love!

For those of you we haven’t seen recently, we’d love to catch-up by phone, over coffee, or perhaps up at the slopes in the coming months. Here’s to even more connecting in 2012!

5 Things You May Not Know About Karrie Ruby

DCG — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:19:22 +0000

We want to continue our series on getting to know our team at The Dennison Capen Group. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Karrie Rubie, our Transaction Coordinator:

Karrie was born in the midwest, but grew up in our very own Tualatin, Oregon.
When Karrie has out-of-town visitors, she likes to take them to the classic natural beauties of our area: The Rose Gardens or out to Multnomah Falls.
One thing that people might be surprised to hear about Karrie is that she likes to take cooking classes. Maybe we should be watching out for her on future seasons of Top Chef!
Before becoming a valued member of our team, Karrie was a maid at a Best Western hotel.
One of Karrie’s favorite hobbies outside of work is making jewelry!

Stay tuned for more great inside information on the lives of our team. Be sure to contact us at any time for any of your real estate questions and concerns. We are always happy to talk to you!

Portland Residential Real Estate Report: December 2011

DCG — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:27:14 +0000

December brought a typical reduction in listing inventory, but significantly, it also brought us down to levels we haven’t seen in some time. We ended the year with only 5.3 months of inventory down from a high of 11.3 months in January of 2011. This represents an interesting level as a Buyer’s Market is triggered at 6 months of inventory. This technically shifts us back to a Seller’s Market, although we will need to see a sustained level below 6 months to truly be able to call this a Seller’s Market, which may be unlikely in the short term. I am already hearing quite a bit from fellow Listing Agents suggesting new business they plan to bring to the market.

With some of the promising news we’ve seen in the media including lower foreclosure rates, we may in fact be heading for some form of stabilization. The upcoming months will be interesting to watch unfold. Because inventory levels don’t tell the whole story we encourage you to get in touch with us to discuss your specific micro market as neighborhoods vary greatly in both the inner city areas and the suburbs. We look forward to guiding you in 2012.

December Residential Highlights
Sales activity in the Portland metro area continued to show improvement in closed and pending sales when comparing this December to the same month a year ago.

Closed sales experienced a 10.3% increase, while pending sales saw growth of 19.3%. However, there were 11.7% less newly listed residential properties.

Month-to-month, closed sales rose 6% (1,521 v. 1,612) when compared to November 2011, pending sales fell 14.4% (1,685 v. 1,443) and new listings dropped 16.1% (2,026 v. 1700). At the month’s rate of sales, it would take approximately 5.3 months to sell the 8,612 active residential listings. Due to the drop of active listings in December, along with the rise in closed sales, low inventory resulted.

2011 Summary
Comparing activity from 2010 with that of 2011, closed sales rose 4% and pending sales rose 6%. New listings fell 25.4%. Total sales volume for 2011 was about $5.2 billion, down from $5.3 billion in 2010, and $5.5 billion in 2009. See “Annual Sales Volume” graph on page 7.

Sale Prices
The average sale price for December 2011 was down 6.2% compared to December 2010, while the median declined 5.8%.

Compared to November 2011, the average price rose 0.5% ($259,400 v. $260,800) and the median fell 3.7% ($225,000 v. $216,600).

For the year, the average sale price dropped 6.7% compared to 2010. The median price fell 7.9%. See year-to-date information in the table below.

For a copy of the full December report, A Publication of RMLS^™ you can download

Here

What You May Not Expect Bank Lenders to Check

DCG — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:46:23 +0000

What information and pictures are you posting on your social media profiles? We’ve all heard the stories about potential employers looking through the social media profiles of interviewees and using information they gather to determine whether a person is worthy of hiring. However, did you know that bank lenders may also be scouting your online identity to determine whether you will receive a home loan?

Bankers are using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to help determine whether a potential buyer is a risk. They are evaluating honesty (i.e. you said you weren’t a smoker, yet in 10 pictures you were smoking) and also watching your connections to help determine your credit score.

Here are 5 tips to help you safeguard your online identity:

1. Never post anything you don’t want on the internet permanently. Don’t be fooled, the internet can be tricky. Deleting an embarrassing picture or drunken status update does not mean that it is gone from the internet forever. A general rule of thumb is to always ask yourself if this picture or post is something that you’d want an employer to see; if it is not, don’t post it.
2. Don’t P.U.I (Post Under the Influence). This one is pretty obvious to most people, but you always hear about the crazy drunken tweets of celebrities, congressional aides, and even your fellow real estate agents. Don’t make the same mistake they did: stay off the road and off the computer if you’re intoxicated.
3. Create your own good press. Whether you are a business owner or are looking for a job, you can create your own positive image online. Ask others to help you foster a positive online identity by posting their recommendations prominently online.
4. Google yourself. Monitor your own online reputation by pretending to be the bank lender or employer. Search for your name or business online on several search engines to see what comes up. Even if you can’t remove negative content, you will be prepared to address it. Google Alerts, Social Mention, and Hootsuite are all great tools for ongoing monitoring.
5. Don’t be shy, get online! Don’t let the preceding points scare you away from making an online presence for yourself. Getting involved with online communities and conversations such as Facebook, Twitter, and the general blogosphere is an easy way to demonstrate your positive reputation and your expertise in a subject.

If you have any questions or would like to schedule some time to talk with us about being approved with a lender, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to work with you!

DCG Community Spotlight: Books Make It Better & Reach Out and Read

DCG — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:31:10 +0000

This year, we continue our Community Spotlight series to highlight community organizations across Portland who need our help. This week, we’re profiling Books Make It Better, a grassroots early literacy program based here in Portland.

We were first introduced to Books Make It Better through its Founder, Jen Barth, who also runs Big Small Brands, one of our service partners. When Jen shared with me a startling statistic — the ratio of children to books in low income zip codes in Portland is 300 to 1 — I was inspired to step up and support this initiative. We began by donating copies of Goodnight Moon, one of our family’s most treasured reads, and hosting a book collection site at our offices this Fall. Our son Beck even got involved, helping collect books through his preschool; here’s a photo of his trip to the Children’s Book Bank , who distributed the books to kids in Headstart programs across Multnomah County.

The Dennison Capen Group is proud to continue our involvement this winter. On Monday January 16, Books Make It Better will launch its winter book drive in recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr National Day of Service. This year’s drive will benefit Oregon’s new Reach Out and Read Program, an evidence-based program that prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.

Ellen Stevenson, M.D., Doernbecher Pediatrician and Oregon Reach Out and Read Medical Director, says, “From research, we know the early years are critical to language development. The best thing parents can do to help their children succeed in school is to start reading aloud to them in infancy and continue throughout childhood.” The program begins with well-child visits at 6-months and continues through age 5, providing books and literacy tools for families in low-income communities.

If you are interested in supporting these efforts, here are a few ways you can help:

Dropping off gently used, or new children’s books to our offices anytime between now and February 28. As the focus is on early literacy, Board Books, Picture Books, Alphabet/Counting Books, Rhyming Books, and Early Chapter Books and Spanish Books are very much needed.
Make an online donation to Reach Out And Read Oregon Virtual Book Drive by visiting www.oregonpediatricsociety.org and clicking on the Reach Out and Read logo, or find out more here about Oregon Reach Out and Read locations.

You can also volunteer to become an additional book collection partner, or help gather, count, and distribute books. Contact Books Make It Better to get involved.

We hope to see some of you in the coming weeks drop by with a few books in support of this program, and encourage you to contact us directly anytime for more information on getting involved. And, as always, we’re keeping our eyes out for other community efforts that need support in the year ahead, so please contact us anytime if you have a suggestion for organizations to highlight in future posts.

5 Things You May Not Know About Jeff Capen

DCG — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:17:45 +0000

Happy 2012! We hope that everyone had a fantastic 2011, and that the new year is just as great.

To start off what were are sure will be a wonderful new year, we at The Dennison Capen Group wanted to start a blog series that will help you learn a little bit more about our team. So to begin, here are 5 things that you probably didn’t know about Jeff Capen, our Buying & Listing Agent:

Jeff is not a native of the Northwest, in fact he is used to a much warmer climate than the rainy weather we have all grown to know and love! Jeff was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up in El Paso, Texas. Since moving to Portland, he has really gotten to know and appreciate the city and all of its quirks.
When Jeff has out-of-town visitors he loves to take them to see the natural beauty of the Columbia Gorge. He also loves the “keepin’ Portland weird” mentality of the various Mcmenamins establishments which characterize our city so well.
Most of Jeff’s friends & clients know how much he loves the mountain and ocean, but not everyone knows about his fascination with snakes. His son and him have a vastly growing snake collection!
The first job Jeff had was stringing tennis rackets for a sporting goods store. He still loves playing tennis, but leaves the stringing of his rackets to others. There is just not enough time in the day!
Traveling is perhaps one of his family’s greatest delights. Both his wife and Jeff see themselves both living abroad someday and maybe even taking off 3-6 months to explore the United States by car or camper. At this point in time, Jeff has actually spent more time abroad than visiting our diverse states.

Stay tuned for more snapshots into the lives of our team in the coming weeks. As usual, if you would like to contact any of our agents we would be happy to address any of your real estate questions or concerns.