2009-2010 Cost vs. Value Report

Which home improvement projects or remodeling work are recouping the most money? Remodeling Magazine has issued its 2009-2010 Cost vs. Value Report. On a national scale, the overall cost-value ratio this year was 63.8%.

Relative to the Pacific coast, here are the top remodel projects in terms of percentage of cost recouped.

MIDRANGE PROJECTS

Recouped% = Cost vs. Resale = Project

94.8% = $23,210 Cost vs. $21,991 Resale = Minor Kitchen Remodel
91.6% = $74,974 Cost vs. $68,648 Resale = Basement Remodel
91.5% = $12,838 Cost vs. $11,744 Resale = Wood Deck Addition
88.8% = $12,760 Cost vs. $11,328 Resale = Viny Windows Replacement
88.2% = $13,804 Cost vs. $12,175 Resale = Wood Windows Replacement



UPSCALE PROJECTS

Recouped% = Cost vs. Resale = Project

92.1% = $13,759 Cost vs. $12,674 Resale = Fiber Cement Siding Replacement
88.2% = $16,589 Cost vs. $14,634 Resale = Vinyl Windows Replacement
85.4% = $20,559 Cost vs. $17,554 Resale = Wood Windows Replacement
80.7% = $15,960 Cost vs. $12,873 Resale = Siding Replacement (Foam-backed)
78.5% = $8,408 Cost vs. $6,602 Resale = Grand Entrance (Fiberglass)
74.6% = $120,379 Cost vs. $89,764 Resale = Major Kitchen Remodel

Here is the full report. I will post Portland specific data at a later date.

Portland Real Estate Statistics and Trends

Since today is the first of the month, I thought it would be interesting to see how the Portland real estate market behaved during the last 30 days. Here are some real-time statistics regarding home prices, prices per square foot and average days on market. The statistics are based on active properties for sale. More detailed reports are available for specific zip codes. If you are interested in receiving a report, please email me.

PORTLAND MEDIAN PRICE

PORTLAND MEDIAN PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT


AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET

Email me if you would like to receive a free city or zip-code specific extensive report.

Crime Rankings For Oregon, U.S. Cities

A recent study has ranked the 400 most dangerous cities in the U.S., with Gresham having the highest crime rate of any city in Oregon.

The study was published by CQ Press, formerly known as Congressional Quarterly, and based on last year's statistics.

Gresham ranked 157th in the U.S. (Camden, New Jersey ranked 1st, by the way). Other Oregon cities included Portland ranking 173rd, Eugene 190th, Salem 230th, Bend 337th, Hillsboro 345th and Beaverton 347th.

Here's a report by Portland NBC-TV affiliate, KWG-TV, explaining the rankings.



Here is the complete list of rankings.

Let's Take The House Off The Market Until January, Really?

I helped buyers buy a SW Portland house a few years ago on Thanksgiving Day, but that was an exception. Most buyers and sellers take that day off, if not the week. In fact, it’s safe to say a good number of homeowners will either remove their property from the market or not list their property for sale until the holidays are done with- in other words, until January.

So what?

Well, if you’re a seller you should expect housing inventory to be very high in January. As I mentioned earlier this week, January historically is the month of the year where inventory is indeed highest. That means that at the beginning of 2010, you’ll have more competition to sell your home. So if you don’t have to remove or withdraw your property from the market during the holidays, why do so?

Just as sellers don’t like to be inconvenienced during the holidays, buyers have plenty of parties, visits, family get-togethers, and office socials to attend as well. The result is that the buyers who are active in the market looking at homes during the holidays are serious buyers. They could just as easily be doing other things, but are spending their time in search of real estate.

Serious buyers are always in the market and they’ll be around in January, but so will lots of other properties listed for sale.

Case-Shiller Report: Portland Home Prices Fell...

Portland home prices have fallen 11.8% from last year, according to this morning's new Case-Shiller report.

The report covers the time span from September 2008 to September 2009. Last month's report showed Portland's home prices to be down 12.5%. Month-to-month, there's no major movement in the prices, but as you'll see below, Portland continues to fall in the “rankings.” Out of the 20 cities analyzed in the report, Portland ranks 14th best (or 7th worst) for depreciation.

Overall, U.S. Home prices were down 9.4% year-to-year, but continue their trend of general improvement since the start of the year.

Here are the 20 cities in the report listed from lowest rate of depreciation to highest:

Rate = City

-1.2% = Dallas
-1.2% = Denver
-3.3% = Boston
-3.7% = Cleveland
-5.0% = Washington, D.C.
-5.7% = San Diego
-7.8% = San Francisco
-8.1% = Charlotte
-9.0% = New York
-9.0% = Los Angeles
-9.3% = Atlanta
-10.6% = Chicago
-11.2% = Minneapolis
-11.8% = Portland
-13.8% = Seattle
-16.2% = Miami
-16.7% = Tampa
-19.2% = Detroit
-21.8% = Phoenix
-28.6% = Las Vegas

The Best Time Of The Year To Buy In Portland is...

I recently met a first-time homebuyer who had her eye on living in close-in, Southeast Portland. She had lots of questions about the buying process, the cost of homes, and the state of the market. One thing she asked was if there was a “best time of the year” to buy.

I've found that the best time of the year to buy for one person is different for the next. After all, we're all different and our ups and downs come at different times of the year. So to me, the answer is specific to person asking the question.

That said, there is a factor in Portland's real estate market that is beneficial to buyers more so in winter than in summer- housing inventory.

When housing inventory is high, buyers have more homes to choose from and ultimately more leverage in negotiating with sellers. And housing inventory peaks in Portland come winter.

Including 2009, the month of January has had the highest inventory six of the last eight years. The month of February has had the second highest inventory in five of those years. And the months that close out the year, November & December, also tend to have high inventory.

Why?

The holidays roll into town in November and December. Both buyers and sellers have lots to do these months, getting busy with many things not real estate related. The weather also changes becoming colder and rainy. This tends to leave only serious buyers in the market. And with few buyers house hunting, inventory increases. Plus some sellers will often take their homes off the market or not list them until… the beginning of the new year- January!

Relocation companies also take action in the new year. This is when many job transfers take place, resulting in new listings hitting the market. Again, housing inventory climbs as buyers, historically, don’t start house hunting in mass until spring. By the way, inventory usually hits its lowest point of the year in summer.

January 2009 had record high inventory of almost 20 months and inventory dropped for most of the year. Latest inventory levels have uncharacteristically dropped in the fall to 6.5 months, but I suspect they’ll probably start to climb thru the end of the year. That's something worthwhile to consider for buyers.

Trees Add Value To Portland Homes

This is the first time I’ve seen a report specific to trees and their financial value to real estate. The following are excerpts from Friends of Trees:

In a study of sold homes on the east side of Portland, a new report says street trees add an average of $8,870 to sales prices and reduce time-on-market by almost two days.

The report, which will be published in Landscape and Urban Planning, is the first of its kind to examine the “effect of urban trees on the housing market” by explicitly focusing on street trees. Co-authors, Geoffrey Donovan of the Portland Forestry Sciences Laboratory and David Butry of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also published a valuation report on street trees last year with the east side of Portland as its test sample.

Both reports used data collected during the summer of 2007, when 3,479 single-family homes—every home sold in a 10-month period—were visited for detailed evaluations.

Algorithm factors gathered include: sale price; distance to downtown; distance to nearest park; house age; tree type; tree size; and many more.

The Friends of Trees article can be seen here and the report can be found here.