Dozens of Hillsboro Homes Soon Needed for Transferred Intel Workers

The Oregonian reports on Intel workers to be transferred to the Portland area.

This News Tribune reports says up to 380 people could be needing somewhere to live.

They'll be needed homes in the Hillsboro area. Some reports have mentioned 380 people, some have mentioned about 40. Do we currently have homes enough for them, for sale now? No. No, we don't.

Do you have a home you wanted to sell last summer or fall, and are waiting for the spring to re-list?
In the spring, you will have to compete with all the other houses coming on the market. 

If you sell now, you'll catch those serious buyers who are getting transferred. 

Call or e-mail me. I can help you get your home listed for sale, same day as you sign, and get you offers right away. 
(ninesevenone...toosevenwon...twelveOHseven.)
neighborlyportland (-at-) gmail.com

The Five Types of Money Spenders - which kind are you?

When you are preparing to buy a home, you are best positioned to become as aware of your money spending habits as possible. Especially if you are part of a couple, going forward into home ownership, because couples usually express more than one kind -- often opposing -- spending styles.

When you realize your Spending Style, you can apply logic to pure impulse, and go against your grain, in order to experience new things with money. To shake it up, and make life interesting now and again. Rebelling from your natural spending style doesn't have to mean losing your balance. In fact, it can mean bringing some balance to your habits with money, if they are too polarized.

For example, if you are extremely frugal, you might recognize that in yourself, and purposely go get a massage or take a hot air balloon ride--just to mix it up, and realize the world won't come to an end if you spend money lavishly once in a while.

Likewise, if you are impulsive and self-indulgent with money, you might challenge yourself to commit to a savings plan so that you can experience an enduring ability to reach long term goals -- such as homeownership.

Which of the following Money Spending Types are you?

The Super Saver
The super saver will drive across town to shop with doubled coupons at the grocery store. Will not buy anything unless it is marked down or on sale, or the best bargain. Keeps a chilly house in the winter, and a warm one in the summer. Holding on to money makes them feel secure, and spending money makes them feel anxious. Theirs is a fear-based relationship with money.

The Conservative 
The conservative doesn't enjoy shopping as a past time. Saves 10% of paycheck, and brings a lunch from home to work most days. Never buys something new when an old one will do. Is nervous paying on credit, prefers to save up for purchases. This relationship puts satisfaction into the future. The conservative wants money in order to have things in the future--not now.

The Free and Easy
The carefree spender wants nice things, and thinks about them until she can get them. Always has one major debt to pay off, but always pays bills on time. Buys what he can afford, within reason - spending habits fluctuate with income. Has little or no savings, but enjoys spending the money she worked to earn. The free and easy spender has a positive relationship with money, but can lack the focus and perseverance to achieve long-term goals.

The Big Spender
This spending style takes lots of vacations, buys clothes in the latest styles, and loves to treat his friends and leave big tips. Spending is a way to show her power and effect in the world, as well as a way to make herself feel good. Often borrows up to his credit limit, paying interest on purchases. Doesn't mind working to pay for things, but wants them now.

The Overspender
Is always hoping to win the lottery. Has had to put all her debts together and turn in her credit cards. Owes money to the IRS. Moves to a more expensive place when he has more money, and moves to a less expensive place when he has less. Agrees to buy things even if she doesn't have the money for them. Will over-buy things, and then take them back to stores for refunds in order to keep checks from bouncing. Spends money to make himself feel important, and pretends not to have money problems.

So...which of these remind you of yourself? You may recognize family and friends and your partner in some of the other profiles as well. Are you satisfied with how you deal with money? What would you like to change?

Is a house worth altering your natural spending style?


Adapted from the NeighborWorks America homebuyers manual, 4th edition.

Rhododendrons Light Up Portland Gardens

Vivid rhodi bush lights up a 4-square off SE Belmont

Those vivid rhododendrons are in bloom again. 
Rhodies come in: orchid pink, bright magenta, scarlet, pale pink, cream, and a rare apricot yellow, an unusual peach-orange, and their bushes are packed with tightly spaced, scentless blossoms. 

These bushes will be lighting up Portland neighborhoods for about the next few weeks or so. Their display is short lived, but breathtaking.

To anyone outside of Portland, the density and hue of their blooms is hallucinogenically thrilling. Like the purple jacarandas of Australia, or the lightning yellow forsythia, these blossoms crowd out all the green leaves, and all you are left seeing is a blaze of enchanting color.

To Portlanders, they are common enough as to be ripped out if inconveniently located, however, these gorgeous bushes signal that spring is here, like no other plant does! 

Portland Monthly Defines "Microhood"

Portland Monthly Magazine expands the definition of Portland's "20 minute neighborhoods" to include smaller areas united by a specific theme, calling them Portland's Hottest Microhoods. 

A microhood is an area of town, off the main beaten path of our well-known and beloved walkable neighborhoods, but still with a characteristic theme in place, which creates a hub of offbeat interest for the locals. And: generates interest in little-watched areas of the city which may be "up and coming."

Also:

"Prices in Portland are up 6 percent over last year, home sales are up 20 percent, and time on the market is down to 64 days."

(Prices are up 9% all in all, since the lowest days of the crash)

Portland Neighborhoods: Brooklyn, Sellwood & Moreland

Running from Division southward to Milwaukie, bounded on the west by the river and on the east by 82nd Avenue, Sellwood and East and West Moreland and Brooklyn contain Reed College and a few very pleasant neighborhood hubs.

 Sellwood 100 years ago

The Brooklyn neighborhood's mostly 1800's/early 1900's homes are interspersed with industrial and commercial buildings clustered along Milwaukie Street, south of Powell. The vintage-kitsch Aladdin Theatre hosts legendary music acts, and is the visual cue that you are entering Brooklyn.

Driving further south, Sellwood homes range from the late 1800s to the 1950s, with build-ins and apartment buildings from the 1960s onwards, built on the grid. At it's birth in 1883, Sellwood developers hosted a free Willamette River ferry to shuttle potential home buyers from Portland to Umatilla (pron. you-ma-tilla) street. The neighborhoods running off Milwaukie Street, the main commercial band that runs through Sellwood, tend to have slightly larger lots, with more spacious mid-century developments. Parking can be tight in this area near the thoroughfares, but streets are well planted with trees and landscaping, and have a classically American, beautiful neighborhood look to them.

1930's Spanish Colonial home in Eastmoreland

The Moreland neighborhood homes near Reed College have larger lots, and more spacious, stately homes: mostly Bungalows, Tudors, Cape Cods/Colonials up to WWII, and ranches from mid-century, with more attention and care paid to yards.

Nearby Reed College can be said to be the Bennington of the West Coast, with a progressive tradition and an inventive course structure. Academics are at the heart of this college, which has no sports teams or fraternities which so often impact the campus environs and nearby homeowners. Of course, local renters are college students and employees.

Moreland with it's Art Deco movie theatre

Westmoreland tends to be slightly more modest and commercially located, while Eastmoreland, as per it's proximity to the Waverly Country Club, has sweeping and curving streets and large, immaculately landscaped lots. Eastmoreland is bounded by Woodstock Blvd, Johnson Creek Road, McLoughlin Blvd, and Steele St.

Since it's 'rediscovery' in the late 1990s, Sellwood/Westmoreland has a slightly more upscale and family-centered feel, clustered around independently and locally owned antique malls and shops, Mediterranean/Asian restaurants alongside upscale national chains one sees in trendy University towns, which are clustered along Milwaukie Street.

River front park in Sellwood

Sellwood perches a top a bluff over the Willamette River, with some of the nicest views in the city, seen from some of the least-likely to be sold houses in the area, on the meandering street that goes past Oaks Park, a former amusement  park. Farther down, the waterfront River Park is popular with walkers and dogs, and is a verdant place to get some fresh air near the river.

Sellwood Bridge undergoing transformation

Currently, the Brooklyn/Sellwood area is going through some growing pains, with elaborate road construction in the industrial areas, as well as the replacement of the Sellwood Bridge (which makes Beaverton and Lake Oswego easily accessible over the river). Local opinions can run high over taxes and traffic inconveniences, yet over the long term the changes appear to be for the good of these Portland neighborhoods.

Handy Online Budgeting Apps and Tools

Mint


Free and online. Free phone apps, too. Almost everyone recommends Mint first and foremost.

"(Mint) shows me how much I’ve spent as compared to the average amount I spend (as calculated by Mint based on an analysis of my spending patterns) each month. Based on the day of the month, Mint determines if I’m on my way to spending more or less than I should. In just a few seconds, I can check the status of the spending categories I’ve chosen to keep an eye on."
                                                                               -- Rob Berger at Doughroller's 
                                                                               "Ten Online Budget Tools."

Personal Capital

Recommended for people with investments to keep track of, as well as day-to-day expenses.

Manilla

One-stop budgeting control. Pays your bills as well.

Step Two: Preparing for Buying a Home: Knowing Where Your Money Goes

You've established a good year or two of steady employment. You are beginning to look like a good risk for a mortgage lender: somebody they can count on to show up and pay off the debt. It looks like you can handle the financial responsibility for buying a home.

The next step, and this is something you can do at the same time that you become a steady employee, is to get a clear understanding of where your money goes, and how you spend it.

Some people enjoy this; they like to create budgets, write everything down, and it satisfies the organized part of their soul to have a working knowledge of where their resources go. If this is you, great for you: you don't have any resistance to taking responsibility for how you use your money. Count yourself lucky, and realize that your talent doesn't always come naturally for others. Are you partnered with someone who spends just like you? (That would be a miracle!)

Random types enjoy having places in their experience, even significant, important sides of their life, for which they have blind spots. I say they enjoy this, because part of their spending habit is the pleasure derived from making impulsive purchases without anyone else, er...breathing down their neck.

They enjoy the momentary freedom of buying, and then, remarkably, they might actually forget how they've spent their money. These folks might be able to recite minutiae about which hops create the best IPAs, or could patiently teach a left-handed, hyper five year old how to crochet...but they don't even know how much money they spend per week, nor what they spend it on.

 This feels like freedom for some folks, as if not watching their money allows it to magically appear and recede within the floaty consciousness of a mirage. As if not knowing how you spend it, makes those purchases...not really count. I know of couples who deliberately keep their purchases secret from each other, if only to have a part of their lives that is not overseen and judged. If nobody knows about the extra stuff you bought, then it remains in a liminal space of nonexistence; and it feels liberating to spend money without having to justify it to anyone. Having your mate or friends berate your spending choices is a major buzzkill, but it also can lead to you even hiding your own spending habits from yourself.

If you want to buy a house, you need to have a good overview of where your money goes, period. Because whether you get this overview or not, the lender certainly will. And not understanding your own patterns, habits and needs, makes you vulnerable to your own blind spots. You need to know: if you spend seventy dollars every month on coffees, that is seventy dollars each month you could spend on taking care of your house, instead. You need to know how much more freedom you have by knowing what to cut back, and where you can save. Knowledge is power, here.

In this age of online banking statements, and mobile budgeting apps for your phone, it is more convenient than ever to keep track of your money. Take that statement and break it down into what you spend money on; know and understand each part of where your money goes. This can be a challenge. Wow, did we really spend $178.00 eating out last month? Was the pleasure or the convenience of that activity worth it? Prepare to both question your decisions, and to come to terms with them.

Step two: watch your money, look at it, track it, take it in, and be honest with yourself about it. Planning and keeping a budget: this is the next step to moving toward home ownership.