Air conditioning in Portland homes + businesses? How common? (Eugene, Salem: real estate, rental)

[citizen]

Hello folks,

I just asked the same question about Seattle over in the Seattle section, and I ASSUME Portland is similar (but assumptions are dangerous), so please let me know if Portland-area homes just plain DO NOT have air conditioning (central hear/air) at all?

And how about businesses, gov't buildings, hotels, stores, etc. They must have modern HVAC systems, yes?

Some people have medical conditions that might require A/C is the reason for my question ....

Thank you all.

[Clear2land]

You are unlikely to find central air conditioning in older homes. Homes built in the 40’s and 50’s were small and forced air not yet in wide use. Window air conditioners are still used extensively in older homes. Newer homes tend to be larger so you will see a lot of forced air that includes air conditioning. Buying an older home that later added air conditioning should be doable. Most businesses have and do air condition their retail outlets.

Growing up in Portland, the homes we lived in did not have air conditioning. I have no recollection of ever needing it. Portland can get into the 90’s in summer but always cools off at night. Summers in Portland are delightful.

Just let your realtor know what is important to you before looking at properties.

Dan

[Oregontileman]

I agree with the previous post on the older homes not having ac. We moved from Florida to Portland 5 years ago and rented a brand new house. We turned the thermostat to cool and after an hour we were just as hot. I walked outside around the house and could find no compressor. I shouldn't have assumed it had ac. I would not live in a house without ac because the summers get in the 90's and you can't cool the house down enough at night to sleep well. The guy who built my rental house was cheap but most of the new homes do have ac now, just check them out. Good luck

[DocOregon]

It's true that most older homes in Oregon don't have central A/C. It's also true that most newer homes don't either. While virtually all new construction has modern, forced-air heating systems, air conditioning is an add-on that most builders include only upon request. And most buyers don't request it. There are a fair number of homes with central A/C, but they are vastly outnumbered by those that don't have any kind of A/C at all. Especially in the Willamette Valley and on the Oregon Coast, most people feel it's just not needed. Although the high temperature does rise above 90F on some summer days, most of the time summer high temperatures are in the 70s and 80s. Portland averages only 11 days a year with a high temperature above 90F. The average in Salem is 16 days above 90F. The average in Eugene is 15 days.

[citizen]

Thanks for all the info, folks!

[mazurkr]

on a similar vein, what is the prevalance of basements in portland-area homes, especially in newer and new-construction homes?

my family and i will be moving out there late next year, and from browsing real estate online, not much mention is made of basements in the house descriptions.

thanks!

[Oregontileman]

Not really any basements here. Some house's will have them. I have what you might call a daylight basement because me house is built into a hill. I'm in the new construction business as a subcontractor and I've worked on over 5,000 homes in the last 5 years and......no basements, just crawlspaces.

[PDXmom]

AC: we looked at putting in AC in a 1926 home that we owned. The AC guys said that on average there are about 18 days a year that you need AC. We decided we could live with the window units in the upstairs bedrooms. Honestly, you only need the window units in the upstairs. Downstairs is usually cool enough w/out AC.

All the companies that I and my husband have worked for all have AC.

Basements: not sure where the previous poster lives but in Portland's older neighborhoods (late 1800s to 1930s/ 1940s) all of these homes will have a basement. Some will have a 1/2 basement (meaning 1/2 the area of the house... not ceiling height) and some a full basement. You don't find as many basements in the suburbs because most of those homes were built after 1950 when builders stopped building basements because of the expense. (This was national trend... not just here.)

We have a basement and spend alot of time in it in the summer and winter. Cool in the summer and easier to heat in the winter.

[checar]

Yes, we have basements galore here. Watch out for the "wet" basement. You can smell them - dry ones don't have the musty smell. Some basements are full height and easily walkable, some have places where you have to duck under something. Some are fully finished and hardly seem like a basement at all.

By the way, we had a heat wave here this past summer (100+ for several days) that sent people scrambling to buy AC units. Stores were selling out of them. And while it does cool off at night, that doesn't mean your house will cool off, even with the windows open. Ours held a lot of heat until 1 or 2 AM it would start to cool off.

[mobilemindstationaryreality]

This is not the east coast or upper mid-west. The humidity may be noticeable, but definately not as bad as those other areas.