Comments on: Cozy Cottage for Sale in Portland

By: kenny

kenny — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:53:23 +0000

Right now, that house would be lucky to sell for 140k. There is substancial homes just 1.2 miles away in Woodstock for that much, 2 bed rooms places with more commerce to walk to and a bigger yard to create anyway you like too boot.

By: nancy

nancy — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:43:03 +0000

Way too high, even for Portland. We left there about 12 years ago, good timing. We moved to Boise, have all the above in 1,100 sq. feet. I’d like to go more rural, and smaller, with about 500 sq. ft., but not for $180,000.! Too high, and property tax is REALLY high there too… and I lived right by Mt. Tabor too, nice area, if you can afford it…

By: River

River — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 04:31:09 +0000

I dont think its the small size thats deterring a buyer, but rather the BIG price! I live in Portland, and although this house is cute as a button, there are others – some twice or 3x the size for $50K LESS. Even in the neighborhood its in, IMHO this price is way overboard.

By: Matty T

Matty T — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:56:31 +0000

Why don’t we just concentrate on the houses here, and leave the political and economic whining to a minimum. Yes, I think we all understand that NY is more expensive than Portland. I also think we all understand the economy is in crisis and is affecting almost everyone. I am interested in living within my financial means and to satisfy my personal means by stripping down what I ‘think’ I need. For myself, I would never think of dropping $190k on a house this size. Period. I wont bore you like davidrc does in his fine blog book above. Look, the house is too much for what this blog is about.

By: Tuesday Wishlist | Katie Joy Photography

Tuesday Wishlist | Katie Joy Photography — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:10:37 +0000

[...] I can paint or hang as many shelves as I want. Some place to own. I found this tiny house in the Tiny House blog. It’s 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, with hardwood floors and a wood-burning fireplace, appliances [...]

By: Tuesday Wishlist « Katie Joy Photography

Tuesday Wishlist « Katie Joy Photography — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:42:45 +0000

By: HB

HB — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:34:33 +0000

I think the key words are “most suburban areas” and “Midwest.” Portland has an urban growth boundary, and this house is well inside it and in fact is fairly close in. Eastside close-in houses (esp. vintage homes that have been renovated and cared for) are at a premium. There are suburban towns around Portland, but Portland itself cannot get any bigger, so living anywhere in Portland proper means that you are a pretty short distance from the city core, and this keeps commutes manageable within city limits (vs. suburban commutes which are commuting nightmares just like everywhere else). For some people, that is a quality of life factor that they are willing to pay for (less house for more money, but more time to spend in it!) just as other people would value several acres to put horses on or just have peace and quiet- and would be willing to drive 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store! There are definitely “crashed out” areas like Happy Valley (a suburb 30 min out from the city core w/out traffic) where new-construction homes averaging >2500sf (with all that implies- 2 and 3 car garages, two master suites, etc.) that were going for $350-400k a few years gone by are being tossed out for under $200k. But again, “more” isn’t always “more.”

And definitely, the cost of living is higher here than in the Midwest; our minimum wage is close to twice the federal minimum wage. When I was job hunting recently, out of curiosity, I looked at other areas, and my profession’s starting wage is nearly twice here what it is in many parts of the country ($35/hr vs. $16-18/hr). Housing prices are scaled as well, in that light.

By: Davidrc

Davidrc — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:39:41 +0000

Told you I’d add the rest of my initials. seriously, we’ve all been affected by what’s happening these days. If not by ourselves then we know people who have been, everybody is nervy and re-evaluating their lives.

Just a quick re-cap of the 21st century thus far for me: 2002,lost my nice job and started my own business and in Dec. nearly died in a wreck; 2003, my mother died; 2005 lost the electric meter for the last time in the house; 2006, my partner, friend, and back watcher in chief, my 10 year old Akita died; 2007, the heavy rains of the 1st half of 2007 caused the blocks holding up my house to sink into the ground and dropped the house over to the ground (that was exciting in the middle of the night), causing me to move into my storage building; 2008, lost my mediocre job and have nearly starved, broiled (summer), and frozen (winter) since then, nearly died in 2009 from the unsuspected allergy to the sting of the red wasp (back of the head. Ouch). Could I carp and complain? Absolutely. At each incident I permitted myself 1 week to feel sorry for myself and moved on, had to.

But, all of the above is not my life, they’re merely incidents that have occurred and I choose to find them instructive. I will not go into any more detail about the last decade, people in America aren’t supposed to have my experiences here, I let other people keep their delusions, they need them. I look at the near future and I find it a good place and I work at making it so.

So cheer up, let people argue about the relative merits of their place in the Country, and thank God (the Force, Source, Universe, or whatever your view is) every day you’re still here to read about it. It could always be worse. What has kept me going, even when things are at their worse, I know there are people out there, in this Country, who are worse off than me.

Sorry, I fussed at you for preaching and now I’ve gone and done it. My only point is, it can be so much worse. And quite frankly, I’m thankful every day that I live in Texas. I used to think that homes were overpriced in my little part of it, I’ve found out I was really wrong, thanks to this forum. So lighten up, enjoy these forums, dream, then put your head down and work to make those dreams into reality. Really and truly, it’s all we really have.

By: Anne B

Anne B — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:25:17 +0000

I find the comments on this post very interesting! The cottage is exactly the size and amenities that I would like to find. I have been wondering if those who are shocked by the price are from the Midwest. In the past few years I have lived both sides of this argument. I bought a 560sf cottage with 1/4 acre lot in SoCal in 2001 for $150,000. That was so absurdly low price for the area that the first set of underwriters refused the loan with the argument that there can’t be a house in that area for so cheap a price! It was in abysmal condition, but historical character. I sold it in 2005 for $325,000 without even listing it. It may be worth less now, but still considerably more than $190,000!
I thought I would cash in by moving back to the Midwest, bought an 888sf house on 1/2acre in Indianapolis for $43,000 (now know I paid too much considering the condition) and fixed it up. I love the house, but after 2 years I have decided that the close community that I left behind in SoCal is worth much more than having a cute house mortgage free. I am selling the house in two weeks for $79,000 (and taking a loss on what I invested). I know I can’t have a house in the area of SoCal where my friends/family are for the $175,000 equity that I have so I am arranging to rent a “granny flat” from friends at a bargain price of $700/month. It will be less than 400sf, but worth it to be back with those I love.
If you haven’t lived and bought property on the west or east coast areas, it is hard to appreciate what you get for the price. Quality of life is entirely determined by a person’s priorities in life. To each his own!

By: David

David — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:11:24 +0000

I’m sorry to sound so negative, in retrospect it does come off a more preachy than I had intended, that was not my intent. I guess my usually positive outlook has been rocked by news like Wall Street bank bonuses skyrocketing to record highs of 20 billion, after we the American people bailed them out from their greed and corruption. This all the while the rest of the country is trying to claw its way out of a recession. For the many friends of mine who have lost jobs, and then had their homes foreclosed on them, losing everything, I guess watching them struggle has hit me hard in the heart. It just seems that all forms of modesty have flown out the window, in the face of the millions of Americans trying to get by. Two hundred grand for such a small house, in this current economy, just seemed like an awfully excessive luxury.