"For Sale" homes unsold...for a while. Why? (Portland: renting, loan)

[ActionJaxn]

I will do that Steve! Weather is also a factor for me of course, which is why I picked Josephine County in the first place. And thanks PNW-type-gal. So when you say it is expensive to live there, that refers to what? Taxes? Gas prices? Milk prices? I live in the Bay Area and everything is out of wack here compared to any other city in the world. Property taxes here are anywhere from 6k to 15k a year. Gas right now is $4.50. Milk is $5 a gallon, state sales tax is about 9%. Don't even ask me about my car insurance.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Oregon got hit hard by the real estate crash. Real estate has just started to recover over the past 12 months or so. Prices are going up noticeably, but are not to where they were before the crash.

Higher priced houses are slower to sell. A few months on the market mean nothing at all, except that the house hasn't found a buyer yet. The lower priced houses are being sold and the best bargains are selling before anything else sells.

It's not like you aren't close enough to drive up to Oregon for a couple of days to look for yourself.

[Hawk J]

I saw a beautiful property, on ifish, close to Gold Beach, a few minutes from the Rogue River......

Gold Beach home/shop/horse property - www.ifish.net

[Billy_J]

In small towns or rural areas in Oregon, a home which has gone unsold for a long period is not for the same reasons a home in a large city would go unsold.

I've noticed this is because there are not many jobs in the area. Or there were jobs in the past, but less so now - like some areas have had logging jobs reduced. Or mill jobs have been replaced with automation.

Or people have moved due to the recent poor economy.

Or a house needs a lot of repairs - people don't know how to do that and it would be too expensive for them to pay a contractor.

Or the house is much more expensive than most people working in that area can afford. It is waiting for someone from California to sell their $750k house and move to the area. Or waiting for a retirement type.

Bottom Line: Nothing wrong with the area, just a supply and demand thing.

[ActionJaxn]

Aaahh. Thanks for the explanation! Speaking of areas, am I allowed to list, say, a street and the zip code hoping to get some info on the reputation of that neighborhood? No addresses, just the street of course.

[Billy_J]

I don't see why you couldn't ask about a specific street and address range in a specific town?

Note some small towns have one zip code for the entire town! I would mention the city/town name so you will get more responses.

[bler144]

I post links for housing posts from Padmapper all the time and AFAIK I haven't been censured for it. The TOS do prohibit links to competitor sites but I don't think a zillow housing post per se violates that.

Expanding on what others noted earlier, it's not just the job market here that's different - salaries in Oregon (even Pdx) are a world away from the Bay. I have a friend who moved here from SF who was amazed at what 400k buys you in Oregon so he moved up and splurged, but he hadn't really taken into account the hit from also taking a 40% paycut, and much higher utilities. Eugene or Medford salaries will be even lower still generally.

I couldn't find a posting for the house on Almaden you mentioned - for the Eugene metro 330k buys a pretty nice house, and Almaden is a mixed bag. It's certainly central, but it's a short street, and it crosses several of the busiest streets in the city (6th/7th/11th) and at the north end is going to be generally much less desirable. So sight unseen I'd say it sounds somewhere between moderately overpriced and vastly overpriced.

[Steve Pickering]

You can not promote commercial sites here.

[ActionJaxn]

Steve I will not post the actual site ad, just the street name and zip without addresses, to get a general idea of the reputation/condition of the areas where these homes are. Like: Grants Pass: Jeramy Way (97527); NW Queens Way (97526) & Robertson Crst (97527). Medford: Sycamore Way (97504); Brookside Dr. (97504) & Lara Ct. (97504). Ashland: Sleepy Hollow St. (97520). Thanks in advance fellow forumers...or is it forumees?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by ActionJaxn

Steve I will not post the actual site ad, just the street name and zip without addresses, to get a general idea of the reputation/condition of the areas where these homes are. Like: Grants Pass: Jeramy Way (97527); NW Queens Way (97526) & Robertson Crst (97527). Medford: Sycamore Way (97504); Brookside Dr. (97504) & Lara Ct. (97504). Ashland: Sleepy Hollow St. (97520). Thanks in advance fellow forumers...

Medford:

Sycamore Way - the house is near Cedar Links Golf Course, which is in the (active) process of being converted into housing and a park. I THINK the side that house is near is in the area that is being converted to more housing. Originally the plan was for mixed use, light commercial and residential but I think it it all residential now, some multi-family and some single family. The biggest disadvantage is that it isn't really near anything - everything is "hop in the car."

Brookside Dr - reasonable area of town, again, everything requires a car, nothing really nearby.

Lara Ct - not quite as nice as the other two areas, smaller houses, smaller lots, many houses built in the 70s and 80s and really needing updating.

Ashland:
Sleepy Hollow Ct - reasonable part of Ashland, about a 1.2 mile to 2 mile walk from good restaurants in the heart of Ashland. A drive to less upscale stuff. Really paying the Ashland price jump for small sf - check the price per square foot.