Marisa Swenson

Montavilla in the News

swensonm — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:08:19 +0000

It’s been a little while since I have updated but I wanted to share some links to exciting articles about the Montavilla neighborhood. Montavilla was named neighborhood to “watch” in 2010 by the Willamette Week, full story here. Also, this article was just published about the Stark Street business district (in Neighborhood Notes) and it’s continued, fast growth of great local businesses. I like that they make a point in the later article that Montavilla is not “up and coming” since it has a lengthier history (est. 1889).

Montavilla Movie Night in the Park

swensonm — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:41:43 +0000

movie night in Montavilla Park

The Montavilla Neighborhood Association is about to host it’s first ever Movie Night in the Park event. Festivities kick off at 4pm Saturday, August 22nd with City Blessing church’s kids carnival. There will also be vendors hosting children’s activities (I will be there applying temporary tattoos), food vendors and loads of people and fun. Get there early to get a good seat for the movie and if there is time to spare, hop across the street for the Manor of Art event going on at Milepost 5. We hope to see you there!

Details:

- Kids Carnival starts at 4pm

- Movie starts at 9pm, free, appropriate for all ages

- Located at 685 NE 82nd Ave

Energy Performance Score – New Measure for a Homes Efficiency

swensonm — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:46:59 +0000

energy efficient homes

Forget price per square foot, the new energy efficiency scoring system, the Energy Performance Score, is taking over as the way to rate new homes based on energy efficiency. Developed by the Energy Trust of Oregon, the new system assigns a number score for each home based on factors such as the homes size, level of insulation, air leakage, heating and cooling systems, major appliances, lighting, and water heating. The lower the score the better, a low score represents a home that is highly energy efficient with a low carbon footprint and low utility bills. Compared to MPG as a measure for cars, the EPS is the future measure of the efficiency of the home (more sensible than price per sq. ft.). The EPS will assist efficiency conscious home buyers in making a decision based on an easy to understand comparison. It is currently available for new homes only but the Energy Trust of Oregon is working on developing the scoring system for older homes as well.

Sold Listings – SE Portland Real Estate Update

swensonm — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:10:46 +0000

Sold listings for the week ending July 11th – July 18th in the Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, North Tabor, South Tabor, Richmond, Hawthorne, and Laurelhurst neighborhoods. There were 11 homes that sold in this area last week, prices range from $153k – $925k (quite the span in price range).

Here is the map with details:

sold listings SE Portland Oregon

info from the RMLS

I usually don’t post pending info but check it and thought it was interesting that there are 108 pending transactions in these neighborhoods as of July 20th. That doesn’t mean these are all going to sell but hopefully a large percentage of them will.

pending sales SE Portland

New Listings – SE Portland Real Estate Update

swensonm — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:00:04 +0000

New listings for the week of July 11th – July 18th in the Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, North Tabor, South Tabor, Richmond, Laurelhurst, and Hawthorne neighborhoods. There were 28 new listings last week, prices ranged from $179k – $750k and 7 of those listings have gone pending in the same week they were listed.

Here is the map and details:

new listings in SE Portland

data taken from the RMLS

Financing for Fannie Mae Foreclosed Properties

swensonm — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:22:50 +0000

I have been seeing a lot of listings come up that read “approved for Homepath financing” and thought we could all use an explanation of what that means. A “Homepath” home is a property that is owned by/repossesed by Fannie Mae. “Homepath” is thier mortgage financing company/name. This mortgage allows you to buy the specific property with as little as 3% down for an owner occupied property and they are allowing investor purchases with only 10% down. The properties have to be identified as “Homepath approved” in order to get this financing. In the case that there is renovation work that needs to be done, there is also a renovation mortgage option that allows you to finance some repair into the loan. Not all lenders are able to work with this loan, check the Homepath site for elligible lenders.

Saint Cupcake – Portland Oregon

swensonm — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:28:52 +0000

yummy cupcakes

The other night while hanging around Nob Hill, we decided to stop in and get some Saint Cupcakes cupcakes (is that redundant to say it twice?). I have had them before at numerous events but had never been into their NW store. The interior itself is decorated like a cupcake, painted chocolate and pink with lots of polka dots and on one wall, in beautiful writing is the story of Saint Cupcake (I’m not going to tell you, you have to go in and read it yourself). As you can see from the photo, we had a large assortment of small cupcakes and each and every one of them was so delicious only 1 actually made it to the car ride home, and there was an attempt by a 2 year old to eat it for breakfast the very next day. Next time you are out checking out the old Victorian architecture in the Alphabet District, stop in for a cupcake and oh by the way, they serve Stumptown coffee too!

Located in Nob Hill:

407 NW 17th (Flanders)

Portland Oregon 97209

Sold Listings – SE Portland Oregon Real Estate Update

swensonm — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:01:37 +0000

Here is the bi-monthly update of Sold Homes in the Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, North Tabor (Center), South Tabor, Richmond, Hawthorne, and Laurelhurst neighborhoods. There were 25 homes that sold in the past 2 weeks. Prices range from $105k – $875k.

Here is the map with details below:

sold listings SE Portland Oregon

New Listings – SE Portland Oregon Real Estate Update

swensonm — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:57:00 +0000

I am still doing the SE listings update, just switching it to bi-monthly instead of weekly*. For the weeks of June 7th – June 20th there were 35 New Listings in the Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, North Tabor (Center), South Tabor, Laurelhurst, Hawthorne, and Richmond neighborhoods. Six of these listing went pending in the same 2 weeks that they went on market which shows us that it is still active out there.

Here is the list of the pending homes:

$259k – 4833 SE Caruthers St – 2 bdrm, 1 ba, 1,292 sq ft
$259k – 1812 SE 46Th Ave – 4 bdrm, 1 ba, 2,287 sq ft
$274k – 3212 SE 55TH Ave – 3 bdrm, 1 ba, 1,562 sq ft
$295k – 5136 SE Belmont St – 3 bdrm, 2 ba, 2,900 sq ft
$474k – 3870 NE Glisan St – 3 bdrm, 2.1 ba, 2,948 sq ft
$569k – 4236 SE Oak St – 3 bdrm, 2 ba, 2,557 sq ft

Here is the map with all of the new listings and details below:

new listings in SE Portland Oregon

info taken from the RMLS

*if you would like new listing updates in the SE Portland area please contact me and I can send you a daily report cell: 971-285-7955 e-mail: marisa@m-homes.net

Sold Listings – SE Portland Oregon Real Estate Update

swensonm — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:52:47 +0000

Here is the weekly update of sold listings for the week of May 31st-June 6th in the Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, North Tabor, South Tabor, Laurelhurst, Hawthorne, and Richmond neighborhoods. There were 10 sold listings, prices range from $151k – $740k. The past couple of weeks has shown double digit solds, while May remained mostly in single digit closings each week.

Here is the map with details:

sold listings in SE Portland Oregon

data from RMLS