Buy Here Now- Portland Monthly Magazine's annual Real Estate issue from May 2008. Explains why Portland is still one of America's Hottest Hometowns. Opportunities in a Buyer's Market- Explains how much leverage buyers have in Portland's current housing market. Ignore The Headlines- Time Magazine article that explains how mortgage rates are related to inflation and the housing market. Steady Growth in Portland- Real estate in Portland, Oregon is arguably one of the West Coast’s best-kept secrets. Portland Housing Market Improving- President of Remax talks about the improving market in Portland from March's Oregonian. Buyer's Market, Seller's Market? A Market in Transition Portland OR- Portland Business Journal article about Portland's current housing market.
The New American Dream Towns: Portland, Oregon
By Mike Grudowski: Outside Magazine April 2005
POPULATION: 550,000 // MEDIAN AGE: 35.2 // MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $203,600 // AVERAGE COMMUTE: 23.1 min.
For more than three decades, Portland has been so green you could serve it as a side dish. And the unofficial capital of the Pacific Northwest ecotopia is still showing the rest of America what's possible. "What would be total fringe in other cities approaches the mainstream here," says 32-year-old Amy Stork, who moved to Portland nine years ago and has since morphed into a microcosm of the place. Stork pedals three miles daily to her communications job at the city's Office of Sustainable Development. She attends bike-film festivals and bike-in movies, bike-hauls compost to her community-garden plot, and, when she must resort to four wheels, whips out her membership card at Flexcar, the popular car-sharing company. Portland is a magnet for people like Stork: college-educated twenty- and thirty-somethings looking for a progressive urban lifestyle. The city's outdoor playgrounds don't hurt either. Pacific sands, 90 minutes to the west, draw beachcombers and whale watchers; Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, just an hour to the east, lure anyone who hikes, bikes, paddles, windsurfs, or skis.
PROGRESSIVE CRED // Green space? Check. Portland has 227 parks, including Forest Park, at 5,000-plus acres the nation's largest urban wilderness. Bike-friendly? Emphatically, with almost 270 miles of street lanes and paths, all lovingly marked with nonskid paint. Walkable? Two-hundred-foot blocks, half the length of those in many cities, and narrow streets keep the scale human. Public transit? Yup: 44 miles of metro-area light-rail lines, and the country's first new urban streetcar line in half a century, all free within a 330-square-block downtown grid. Hybrid cars? More per capita than anywhere else. Structures certified, or awaiting certification, by the U.S. Green Building Council? The most—no "per capita" needed. Almost too good to be true, isn't it? But smug Portlanders better watch their backs: Measure 37, a private-property-rights law approved by Oregon voters last fall, makes it harder for government agencies to enforce the tight land-use rules that have so far curtailed sprawl.
LIVABILITY // On average, Portlanders spend more on reading material, watch more indie films, and grow more flowers than their countrymen. Portlanders drink better beer than most, too, with 23 microbreweries within city limits. The arts, performing and otherwise, are booming, and the 11 farmers' markets help locals eat local. The city's job market bottomed out two years ago, taking multiple blows in the key high-tech manufacturing sector, but that hasn't slowed the flow of new arrivals.
YOU'LL LOVE IT IF // Job opportunities and rising home prices matter less to you than keeping it clean and green.
America's 50 Greenest Cities
Want to see a model for successful and rapid environmental action? Don't look to the federal government—check out your own town. Here, our list of the 10 communities that are leading the way. Does yours make the cut? By Elizabeth Svoboda: Popular Science, January 2008 How the Rankings Work:We used raw data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society’s Green Guide, which collected survey data and government statistics for American cities of over 100,000 people in more than 30 categories, including air quality, electricity use and transportation habits. We then compiled these statistics into four broad categories, each scored out of either 5 or 10 possible points. The sum of these four scores determines a city’s place in the rankings. Our categories are: Electricity (E; 10 points): Cities score points for drawing their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric power, as well as for offering incentives for residents to invest in their own power sources, like roof-mounted solar panels. Transportation (T; 10 points): High scores go to cities whose commuters take public transportation or carpool. Air quality also plays a role. Green living (G; 5 points): Cities earn points for the number of buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, as well as for devoting area to green space, such as public parks and nature preserves. Recycling and green perspective (R; 5 points): This measures how comprehensive a city’s recycling program is (if the city collects old electronics, for example) and how important its citizens consider environmental issues. 1. Portland, Ore. 23.1- Electricity: 7.1 Transportation: 6.4 Green Living: 4.8 Recycling/Perspective: 4.8
America’s top green city has it all: Half its power comes from renewable sources, a quarter of the workforce commutes by bike, carpool or public transportation, and it has 35 buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. 2. San Francisco, Calif. 23.0- Electricity: 6.8 Transportation: 8.8 Green Living: 3.5 Recycling/Perspective: 3.9
- See how San Francisco turns wasted roof space into power, here.
3. Boston, Mass. 22.7- Electricity: 5.7 Transportation: 8.7 Green Living: 3.4 Recycling/Perspective: 4.9
- CASE STUDY: Grass Power
Boston has preliminary plans for a plant that would turn 50,000 tons of fall color into power and fertilizer. The facility would first separate yard clippings into grass and leaves. Anaerobic bacteria feeding on the grass would make enough methane to power at least 1.5 megawatts’ worth of generators, while heat and agitation would hasten the breakdown of leaves and twigs into compost.
4. Oakland, Calif. 22.5- Electricity: 7.0 Transportation: 7.5 Green Living: 3.1 Recycling/Perspective: 4.9
- See how Oakland's hydrogen-powered transit helps the city cut pollution, here.
5. Eugene, Ore. 22.4- Electricity: 10.0 Transportation: 4.7 Green Living: 2.9 Recycling/Perspective: 4.8
- CATEGORY LEADER: Electricity
Much of the wet Pacific Northwest draws its energy from hydroelectric dams. But Eugene draws an additional 9 percent of its municipal electricity from wind farms. It also buys back excess power from residents who install solar panel
6. Cambridge, Mass. 22.2- Electricity: 6.1 Transportation: 7.5 Green Living: 3.9 Recycling/Perspective: 4.7
7. Berkeley, Calif. 22.2- Electricity: 6.2 Transportation: 8.4 Green Living: 2.9 Recycling/Perspective: 4.7
8. Seattle, Wash. 22.1- Electricity: 6.2 Transportation: 7.3 Green Living: 4.7 Recycling/Perspective: 3.9
9. Chicago, Ill. 21.3- Electricity: 5.4 Transportation: 7.3 Green Living: 5.0 Recycling/Perspective: 3.6
- CATEGORY LEADER: Green Space
In addition to the 12,000 acres Chicago has devoted to public parks and waterfront space, the U.S. Green Building Council has awarded four city projects with a “Platinum” rating, its highest award.
See how Chicago's power plants produce twice the energy with a third the carbon, here.
10. Austin, Tex. 21.0- Electricity: 6.9 Transportation: 5.9 Green Living: 3.3 Recycling/Perspective: 4.9
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