Posted on August - 17 - 2010
Bargain hunters prowl the streets of Portland
Foreclosures are up again in the suburban areas of Portland, Oregon compared to the inner city, although the latter continues to be plagued too. In the first 6 months of 2010, they jumped 20% in Lake Oswego and 10% in Hillsboro year-on-year. Nearly three hundred properties and over five hundred properties were affected in these two areas respectively. St Helens, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin, Milwaukee and suburban Oregon City were the worst off.
“The foreclosure activity that is occurring in suburban markets in Oregon is unprecedented,” claims retired Federal Housing Manager for Portland Tom Cusack. “It’s affecting not just rural areas, not just inner-city neighborhoods, but suburban neighborhoods, probably more substantially than any time in the past.” Cusack says.
During the period under review 6.5% more foreclosures were filed in Portland City, compared to 8.5% on average in Portland suburbs (excluding Clark County). Foreclosures affected more that 2% of total properties in 10 zip codes – 3 in the city and the other 7 in suburban areas. Details of year on year changes in Portland suburbs are as follows (compared to the United States average of up 8.3%):
- Beverton —> Up —> 3.6%
- Forest Grove —> Down —> 0.8%
- Gresham —> Up —> 6.1%
- Happy Valley —> Down —> 5.5%
- Hillsboro —> Up —> 9.9%
- Lake Oswego —> Up —> 19.5%
- Oregon City —> Up —> 17.0%
- Milwaukee —> Up —> 15.3%
- St Helens —> Up —> 25.9%
- Sandy —> Down —> 12.4%
- Sherwood —> Up —> 26%
- Tigard —> Up —> 22.8%
- West Lim —> Down —> 3.1%
- Portland —> Up —> 6.5%
- Oregon —> Up —> 13.0%
According to local real estate agents, these ongoing foreclosures are controlling local markets, keeping prices low and attracting increasing numbers of distressed property bargain seekers.
“Either you’re helping people get into them or helping get out of them,” comments Northwest Portland realtor Fred Stewart. Distressed properties account for “40 percent of the business right now,” adds his colleague Dale Kuhn.
Explanations vary for the varying trends in different Portland suburbs. One factor could be the greater number of sub-prime loans in poorer areas. “They got hit the hardest first,” another realtor told me. By contrast, more affluent middle-class Portlanders favored interest-only and negative amortization loans. These were ticking time bombs too, but had longer fuses, Member of the Portland interest group Our Oregon Angela Martin thinks.
All this makes Portland a great place for shopping by investors or consumers with jobs, especially at prevailing low interest rates and prices. “We are nowhere near the end if you look at the number of homeowners that will ultimately be at risk,” Angela Martin added. The latest report by the Center for Responsible Lending suggests that Oregon is just entering the other side of the foreclosure storm.
Find Portland foreclosed property at .
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