Does Oregon Have the Answer to High Housing Costs?
Oregon is emerging as a testing ground for a new approach to solving the nationwide shortage of affordable housing.
New zoning laws in Oregon have spurred more apartments and some objections as the state tries to fight the nationwide shortage of affordable housing
Oregon is emerging as a testing ground for a new approach to solving the nationwide shortage of affordable housing.
Stucco in the West, Vinyl in the Northeast
Post by: NAHB Now – the News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders
Builders are Stuck on Stucco in the West, In Tune with Vinyl in the Northeast
The most common exterior wall materials on homes started in 2018 were vinyl siding and stucco, according to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC). Vinyl siding and stucco were each used on 26% of new homes started in 2018, followed closely by brick or brick veneer at 21% and fiber cement siding (such as Hardiplank or Hardiboard) at 20%.
Far smaller shares of single-family homes started last year had wood or wood products (5%) or stone or rock (1%) as the principal exterior wall material.
Oregon homeowners use innovative ways to get energy use to zero
The folks who live in zero-energy homes are paying next to nothing for electricity.
By: Keely Chalmers | kgw.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Did you know that residential homes account for almost a quarter of all the power consumed in Oregon?
Some homeowners are bucking that trend by making their homes zero-energy.
And a dozen of those homes will be featured in the Goal Zero Tour later this month. The tour highlights the sometimes simple and innovative strategies that homeowners are using to get their energy use down to zero.
The Tillamook Row apartment complex is one of the residences on the tour.
An array of solar panels on the South-facing rooftops produce the energy and then several things are in place to keep that energy inside the buildings.
Things like foot-thick walls, triple paned windows and decorative shades that help block the sun and reduce overheating are inside.
As a result, the folks who live there are paying nothing for electricity.
It’s a feeling Susan Leafe knows well. She also lives in a zero-energy home.
She said she not only pays nothing for electricity, but her home is on track to produce about 30 percent more power than it needs.
And she is pleasantly surprised every time she opens her power bill.
“It’s $10.64 and that’s really just the fees and taxes,” she said.
In addition to new builds, the tour will also feature homes that have been remodeled to be net-zero or at least close to it.
The Goal Zero Tour will take place Saturday, October 19 from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Portland is attractive to millennials — those buying homes, too
Photo by: Matthew Hurst
Three generations were recently surveyed on where they want to live, and Portland rose to the top, based on home affordability, crime rates, commute times and “community well-being.”
Millennials like the climate and jobs, while Generation X and baby boomers were drawn to social activities.
Potential homebuyers took Clovered home insurance company’s online survey stating their living preferences. El Paso, Texas, was listed first for desirability among the 50 most populous U.S. cities.
Portland came in second. More than 1,000 people took the survey, Clovered said.
Read MoreOpinion: Allowing homes on smaller lots will help ease housing crisis
By Justin Wood and Ezra Hammer | Wood is vice president of construction and owner of Fish Construction NW. Hammer is director of policy and government relations at Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland
The Portland region is currently staggering through another year of an unprecedented housing crisis. With prices creeping ever skyward, our families, friends, and neighbors find themselves living in the precarious world of housing unaffordability. These rising costs are having significant ripple effects across our city, leading to increased homelessness, declining home ownership and depressed activity in other parts of the economy.
Read MoreThe U.S. isn’t building enough houses — and that’s not changing anytime soon, economists say
BY: JACOB PASSY marketwatch.com
Home buying is expected to ‘move further out of reach’ as new home construction still hasn’t returned to pre-recession levels
Home-building activity has never fully recovered from the last recession.
Real-estate website Zillow ZG, +1.54% and research firm Pulsenomics conducted a survey of more than 100 economists, real-estate experts and investment strategists to gauge their expectations regarding the U.S. real-estate market. A 54% majority of those experts said they don’t expect new-home construction to reach an annual rate of 1 million units until 2022 or later.
Read MoreHomebuyers may have an edge as sales flatten
By Elliot Njus | The Oregonian/OregonLive
It appears a relatively good time to be a homebuyer in the Portland area. Mortgage rates have fallen to near-record lows, and more houses are listed for sale. Bidding wars are mostly a thing of the past.
But buyers nonetheless are sitting on the sidelines, brokers say. Sales are in a slight slump as a result, and homes are spending more time on the market.
“Sellers are putting their homes on the market and feeling it should be like it was just a few months ago, where they get immediate interest…People will come in and look, but no one is pulling the rip cord and buying.”
– Micky Lindsay, the president of Oregon First Realtors
New numbers from the listing service RMLS show a Portland real estate market that’s turned decidedly flat.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index measures home price changes in 20 major U.S. cities. Here’s how they rank, from fastest-growing prices to slowest.
Wikimedia Commons
Phoenix: Prices rose 5.8% from June 2018 to June 2019.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Las Vegas: Prices rose 5.5% from June 2018 to June 2019.
AP Photo/Chris O’Meara
Tampa: Prices rose 4.7% from June 2018 to June 2019.
AP Photo/Chuck Burton
Charlotte, North Carolina: Prices rose 4.5% from June 2018 to June 2019.
The 3,757 homes sold in August represent a 2.2% decline from the same month a year ago, and sales this year through August have fallen 3.3% compared with the same period last year.
Read MorePower struggle hindering U.S. growth of renewable energy, experts say
BY Nicholas Sakelaris | Aug. 5 (UPI) — As more consumer options for greener technologies emerge in the United States, there’s a power struggle for control of the electricity market — between customers and vendors of solar power and utilities that deliver and sell volts to the masses.
Read MoreSolar Advocates Launch ‘Hang Dry Your Clothes For Climate Change’ Week
Oregon Public Broadcasting – Cassandra Profita
Oregon solar advocates have calculated just how much energy goes into drying a load of laundry in a clothes dryer.
On average it’s three kilowatt hours per load, according to Joe Wachunas with Solar Oregon.
Courtesy of Joe Wachunas
“What does three kilowatt hours mean? Well, it takes about a pound of coal to create one kilowatt hour of electricity, and coal is a big provider of our electricity across the country,” he said.
Hang drying clothes saves energy over putting them in a clothes drier.
Read MoreRemodeling your kitchen? Here’s why a Design-Build might be the best option for you
Originally written by Dima Williams | The Washington Post
When a dishwasher, refrigerator and double oven — all builder-grade and all nearly 20 years old — failed in a brief span in late 2017, Dan and Marianne Casserly pondered their options.
They could undertake an extensive kitchen remodel, or they could seek a new home for their five-member family.
“I was intimidated by all of the potential construction and potentially being displaced from our home for a long time,”
The Casserlys had purchased their large, Craftsman-style home in Falls Church, Virginia, in 2001, raised three children there and cherished their community, which is why they opted to renovate rather than move.
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