Federal government steps up probes into foreign real estate deals

The change could make investors nervous. 

A little-known federal rule change could be making it harder for foreigners to invest in Oregon’s real estate market.

In November the Trump administration took steps toward implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, broadening the scope of the committee that investigates business transactions involving foreigners. The recent policy changes make it much easier for investigators to flag foreign real estate dealings of any kind, sending a shockwave through the real estate market.

The mandate of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is to protect national security, and it’s been around since 1988. The idea is to prevent foreign interests from acquiring advanced technology or other information that could be used against the U.S.

The committee has investigated an increasing number of deals every year since 2011, and the legislation makes it likely that trend will continue. Experts predict the number of reviews could jump by 20% or more as the Trump administration intends to apply the law as broadly as possible.

The number of deals that come under scrutiny each year is less than 200, but David J.  Petersen, an attorney at Tonkon Torp, says just the threat of higher regulatory hurdles could slow down the overall real estate market. “It’s a total drag on business transactions,” he says. “Most parties aren’t going to wait around for six to 12 months for an agency to review their deal.”

The lack of data on foreign real estate deals makes it unclear how the new policies will hit Oregon, but the effect could be significant. Portland has a concentrated cluster of companies in the technology and renewables space. The West Coast is a popular target for investors from China or other Asian nations.

Presidents from both parties have used the review power before. In March, President Trump blocked the acquisition of telecommunications company Qualcomm by a Singaporean company with ties to China. In 2012, the Obama administration blocked the acquisition by a Chinese company of an Eastern Oregon wind farm near a naval base. In both cases, the presidents cited national security concerns.

The escalating trade war with China and the Trump administration’s isolationist attitudes might have influenced the policy change. In many of the high-profile real estate deals involving foreign nationals, especially on the West Coast, Chinese investors are involved.

In China, land belongs to the state, and individuals can only lease it from the government for up to seven decades. Many people in China therefore see U.S. property as a more secure investment.

“Combined with the Trump administration’s general isolationist, nationalist tendency, (the act) creates a tool the administration could use to kill real estate deals by foreigners,” Petersen says.

There have been recent signs that Chinese investors are less interested in acquiring U.S. businesses. Chinese foreign direct investment into the U.S. in 2018 fell to just $4.8 billion. That’s a precipitous dive from $29 billion in 2017 and $46 billion in 2016, according to independent researcher the Rhodium Group.

The policy change gives federal investigators latitude to look at a number of new transactions, and hand down greater penalties. The old rule stated that only deals with more than 10% foreign investment could be reviewed, but now there is no threshold.

The act casts additional scrutiny on 27 technology industries, including biotechnology, manufacturing and aviation. Investors could potentially be fined an amount equal to the value of deal. For large commercial real estate transactions, that number could stretch into the millions.

Petersen advises investors to read up on the new rules. The changes have not been widely publicized, despite the serious consequences they might incur. “It’s not a well known thing,” Petersen says, “so a lot of market participants could get caught with their pants down.”

View the full article here at Oregon Business

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Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady, promises patience in 2019

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve is no longer in a hurry to raise interest rates in 2019, a change likely to please President Donald Trump and Wall Street investors who urged the central bank to hit the pause button on future rate increases.

The Fed opted Wednesday to leave interest rates unchanged – at a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent – and the central bank signaled it was unlikely to hike rates soon, a big shift from December when the Fed predicted two more rate increases this year. The central bank pinned the change on the uncertainty around the slowdown in China and Europe as well as what would happen with Brexit, U.S.-China trade talks and any further government shutdowns.

“Over the past few months, we’ve seen some cross-currents and conflicting signals about the outlook,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. “We believe we can best support the economy by being patient before making any future adjustment to policy.”

Trump called the Fed “loco” for raising interest rates so much last year and was so angry after the December hike that he asked close advisers whether he could fire Powell, an unprecedented move that top White House officials later said wasn’t legally possible.

Powell strongly dismissed the notion that the Fed caved to Trump’s demands.

“The only thing we care about at the Fed is doing our job for the American people and using our tools appropriately. That is very strongly our culture,” Powell said at a press conference following the interest rate announcement. “We’re never going to take political considerations into account or discuss them as part of our work.”

The stock market surged after the Fed announced it would be “patient,” with the Dow jumping 1.8 percent, or 435 points, to close at 25,015. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 1.6 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 2.2 percent.

Trump tweeted, “Dow just broke 25,000. Tremendous news!”

The central bank also put out a separate statement saying it was prepared to adjust its plans for bringing down its balance sheet, another signal of greater caution and that the Fed is paying attention to Wall Street. Markets tanked after Powell said in December that the balance sheet was on “autopilot.”

Most of Wall Street is now pricing in zero rate increases this year out of fears the economy is slowing dramatically, according to the FedWatch tracker, and Trump has repeatedly told the Fed to stop raising rates. For now, the Fed is on hold, although the central bank has left open the possibility of increases later in the year.

“The FOMC has gone all-in, more or less, on the idea that the headwinds facing the economy mean that the hiking cycle is over,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics in a note to clients. He added that the Fed’s statement “oozed dovishness, for no apparent reason; what has changed?”

Powell said the central bank is “patiently awaiting greater clarity” on matters such as Brexit, the trade dispute with China, the impact of the partial government shutdown and the markets and that the case for additional rate hikes had “weakened somewhat.”

“In light of global economic and financial developments and muted inflation pressures, the [Fed] will be patient as it determines what future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate may be appropriate,” the Fed said in its official statement.

The language in the statement marked a significant change from December when the central bank was still saying that “further gradual increases” in rates would likely be necessary.

The Fed has predicted that growth will slow from about 3 percent last year to 2.3 percent this year, a pace that is robust but noticeably less than in 2018.

Wall Street remains on edge, believing it will be easier for the economy to fall off track as growth slows.

“We think a sharp economic slowdown over the course of this year means the Fed will be cutting rates at the beginning of 2020,” said Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

The Fed described the U.S. economy as “solid,” a slight downgrade from last year when the central bank called it “strong,” but Fed leaders remain upbeat and said the most likely path for the economy is sustained growth, low unemployment and modest inflation.

“The U.S. economy is in a good place,” Powell said. “Generally speaking, we think the outlook is still favorable.”

The Fed also put out a separate statement Wednesday saying it will continue its gradual run down of its balance sheet – the roughly $4 trillion in Treasuries and other assets the central bank bought in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But the Fed indicated it is “prepared to adjust” its plans by altering the size and composition of its holdings “in light of economic or financial developments.”

“The Fed gave a strong message to markets that it won’t derail the expansion this time,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. “But we’re in uncharted waters that are getting more complicated by all the political uncertainty at home and abroad.”

 

View the full article here at Oregon Live

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How a recession could impact the housing market

The United States has enjoyed one of the largest economic expansions in its history since the 2008 housing bust brought the global economy to its knees. But with each passing year, the recovery gets a little longer in the tooth, prompting questions about if or when a cyclical recession might take place.

These questions have gotten louder in recent months as rising interest rates and tariffs have wreaked havoc on the stock market,which had been hitting new all-time highs on a regular basis. One of the most reliable tells of an impending recession—the dreaded Treasury bond yield curve inversion—occurred earlier this month between 2-year and 5-year Treasury bonds, leading some economists to sound their alarms.

If a recession does hit, how would it affect a housing market that’s already starting to cool? With the scars of 2008 still fresh, it’s understandable that some would worry about another housing implosion. But most real estate professionals don’t expect a possible recession to spell doom for the housing market. Some even think it would hardly affect housing at all.

“People’s incomes get squeezed [in a downturn], but they still need a place to live,” said Aaron Terrazas, Zillow’s director of economic research. “Usually what that means is they’re still in the market if they need one, but their price-point is lower.”

Housing in previous recessions

It’s somewhat counter-intuitive, but recessions don’t necessarily mean bad things for the housing market. In fact, they usually don’t.

ATTOM Data Solutions, a leading real estate data provider, looked at home prices during the five recessions since 1980 and found that only twice—in 1990 and 2008—did home prices come down during the recession, and in 1990 it was by less than a percent. During the other three, prices actually went up.

“Housing is such a basic need that it won’t necessarily do well, but [it will] at least truck along,” said ATTOM’s Daren Blomquist. “It may flatten out a bit, but people still need somewhere to live, so that basic need is going to cause how the housing market—and particularly home prices—to continue to go up.”

ATTOM data also show that rents are even less impacted by a recession. During the housing bust in 2008, the average fair market rent for a three-bedroom property, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, rose at a steady clip even as home prices cratered. Rents likely rose as homeowners who had to go into foreclosure during the crisis added new demand for rental housing.

That doesn’t mean that every housing market in America will go unfazed. Real estate professionals like to say there’s no such thing as a national housing market, as each city has it’s own dynamics between supply and demand. Depending on the cause of the recession, it could hit some cities but not others.

For example, the recession in 2001 was caused by the collapse in stock market value of companies trying to take advantage of the newly popularized internet. This caused home prices appreciation in the San Francisco to slow, particularly at the high end of the market. But some other cities were largely unaffected.

Current housing market appears poised to weather a recession

Affordability concerns have plagued the housing market over the last few years, as home prices have long since surpassed their pre-crisis peaks in most markets. High prices have led to a slow down in housing activity, particularly in high-cost markets like San Francisco and New York.

And despite inventory spikes on the West Coast, housing supply for sale remains tight across the country, as home builders have been slow to produce. At the same time, the strong economy coupled with a millennial generation coming of age has added new demand in the housing market. Low supply and high demand means higher prices.

For a recession to impact the housing market, it would need to fundamentally alter this dynamic between supply and demand. A spike in unemployment could negatively impact demand, particularly if an intensifying trade war leads to export tariffs, which could put jobs at risk. But with unemployment already unusually low, it would take a pretty dramatic rise to cause home prices to drop.

It’s even harder to see the supply shortages being alleviated by a recession in a way that impacted prices. If a trade war leads to tariffs on imported construction materials, the cost of new home construction could rise even higher than it already is. Tight immigration policy could make construction labor more scarce as well.

“It really depends on … the magnitude of [foreign] tariffs, and then how aggressive the federal government is at placing tariffs on imports that go into the housing market,” said Ralph McLaughlin, an economist with CoreLogic.

Rising interest rates would prevent a number of potential homebuyers from qualifying for a mortgage and also lower the price point for some wealthier homebuyers. But if a recession hits, the Federal Reserve is almost certain to lower rates in order to jump start the economy, meaning any pain caused by rising rates would likely be temporary. The Fed has also signaled that in the short term it intends to keep rates where they are, and President Trump has made no secret of his opposition to the rate hikes.

The current rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is at 4.83 percent, according to Bankrate. For perspective, rates reached highs of 18.5 percent in 1981, so even a rise above 5 percent would be historically quite low.

Why this time won’t be another 2008

For a lot of millennials, the only recession they have specific memories of is 2008. That recession not only caused complete chaos in the housing market, but was directly caused by chaos in the housing market. So it’s natural that a lot of people would equate recessions with a housing collapse, but 2008 was a unique case, and today’s housing market in many ways is the complete inverse of the housing market in the run up to 2008.

Primarily, the shoddy mortgage lending practices that flooded the market in 2004 are not present today. In the years before 2008, mortgage lenders made loans to unqualified buyers, or subprime buyers, without verified income or down payments and pushed those buyers into risky loan products that were destined to fail.

Those loans were bundled in to bonds, known as mortgage-backed securities, and dispersed throughout the entire global financial system. When the subprime loans in the subprime bonds started defaulting en mass, the securities failed, too, leading to a financial collapse on a scale never seen before.

But today, mortgage lending is so strict that some in the industry think lenders over-learned the lessons of 2008. The Dodd-Frank legislation passed during the Obama administration enacted strict standards for what types of loans the government-sponsored mortgage facilitators Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy.

The vast majority of mortgage lenders originate a mortgage and then sell it to Fannie or Freddie, so mortgage lenders confirm to the strict standards set by Dodd-Frank. In short, mortgage lending practices today are air-tight, whereas in 2008 they were as sloppy and risky as they’ve ever been. As a result, subprime mortgage bond issuance is a tiny fraction of it was prior to the crisis.

One of the factors in the 2008 collapse that isn’t talked about as much is the oversupply of housing. Going into the 21st century, regional home builders consolidated to form large national companies, and they were churning out houses in volumes that dwarf the pace of building today.

Real estate speculators often purchased this oversupply, and when the crisis hit, they just let those houses go into default because they hadn’t put any money down on it anyway. This led to massive housing supply for sale during the collapse, which pushed prices into free fall. But today, housing supply today is incredibly tight.

“A correction can only go so far because of [the housing supply] dynamic,” said Eric Abramovich, co-founder of home-flipping lender Roc Capital. “I think there’s a floor [today], as opposed to 2008 when there was no floor.”

While the specific mechanics of the 2008 collapse won’t play out if there’s another recession, economists have speculated whether the psychological scars of the crisis would lead to unwarranted panic in the housing market if the economy starts turning sour.

“The psychological component I think is absolutely dark horse in what might happen in the next downturn,” McLaughlin said. “The more that we can provide data out there to help such households make more rational decisions in the housing market the better.”

 

View the full article here at Curbed

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New real estate term “surban” a sign of the times

Developers are betting that millennials are demanding a new type of neighborhood. 

A strange word has entered the real estate vocabulary: “surban.”

This awkward portmanteau represents a fundamental shift in where people want to live and work. In particular, where millennials want to live and work.

Millennials, who for too long have been dismissed as golf-shunning, plastic straw-killing egotists, are finally starting to accrue power and wealth. As 30% of wealth transfers to their hands over the next few years, marketers must cater to their tastes. And one of the things they need to know is, where do these people want to live?

It’s well-known that people in their 20s and early 30s today are gravitating to cities. What remains an open question is whether they’ll stay. When millennials start to raise families and get old, will they stay in the city or retire to the suburbs? This is one of the liveliest debates in urban planning today.

Real-estate developers think they have an answer, a sort of compromise between city amenities and suburban calm. They’re calling it “surban.”

How did we get to “surban?” First, the U.S. had urban development. Then the cities grew too noisy, diseased and dangerous for affluent white people, so they fled to the suburbs,trapping minorities behind them with redlining and discriminatory housing policies.

But then, the affluent white people realized the suburbs sucked in different ways from the old city. They felt disconnected and homogenized, so they fled back, gentrifying low-income and minority neighborhoods.

For businesses, this has played out as a migration of emerging talent from the suburbs to downtown. The trend has become readily apparent in Portland’s tech scene. Nearly every startup that’s made headlines in the past few years has landed in the central city, not in the historic tech headquarters of Hillsboro or Beaverton. Intel, Salesforce and other suburban tech outposts are struggling to win back the talent they’ve lost to the big city.

Could “surban” be the answer to their talent woes? We’ll see. They could start with a catchier name.

We’ll have more on how the “surban’ ideal is shaping new Portland Metro Area developments in the upcoming February issue of Oregon Business magazine.

View the full article here at Oregon Business

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6 Great Tiny House Communities

Looking to live differently? Opting to forego a traditional house or apartment for a home the size of a typical American living room would certainly be a change. If that sounds like heaven, consider a tiny house.

Tiny houses have no formal definition, but they are commonly classified as homes between 150 and 600 square feet, built as part of a do-it-yourself project or custom designed by a builder who specializes in them. They’re often built on trailers so they can be towed easily to their permanent spot or even to allow long-distance travel.

If the nomadic, portable life isn’t what intrigues you about the prospect of living in a tiny home, you may want to consider one of the tiny house communities throughout the U.S., which range from newly developed properties to well-established communities with long-term residents.

People choose to live in tiny homes for a variety of reasons, including maintaining a lower overall cost of living, being able to easily travel and opting for a minimalist, greener lifestyle. And where people embrace the tiny home life, communities tend to sprout up. Whether it’s permanent settlements with property lines, RV parks meant for tiny houses or even short-term stays for residents who don’t own one, tiny house communities serve as designated spots for people to live without having to battle zoning restrictions or private and public land use laws.

“A lot of people look at tiny homes as second homes, or in the cases of disaster, a temporary home,” says Dan Dobrowolski, CEO of Escape Traveler, a tiny house building company that also runs two tiny house villages in the U.S.

Many tiny house communities are formed by nonprofit and charity organizations to provide housing and transitional options for homeless individuals. Other communities focus more on green or minimalist living, where people make a conscious choice to live in tiny homes over larger, permanent houses.

The versatility of tiny houses and their ability serve both personal preference and lower-cost need is what’s driving the surge in popularity of tiny homes, Dobrowolski says, who has seen the Escape Traveler building company continue to grow as more people look to purchase a tiny house. A tiny house can cost between $10,000 and $60,000 to build from scratch, compared to the median home price of more than $225,000, according to real estate information company Zillow. “It’s becoming more and more mainstream because people are seeing these … solve a lot of problems,” Dobrowolski says.

Here are six flourishing tiny house communities throughout the U.S. 

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Little River Escape

Cloudland, Georgia

In the northwestern corner of Georgia, this gated community on Lookout Mountain is made up entirely of tiny houses. The property was founded by Ed Watters, who first learned about tiny houses in 2011 after having recently developed a retirement community in nearby Rome, Georgia, and was exploring more downsizing options for people as they retire, explains Sylvia Dickinson Brophy of Little River Escape. While many residents are retired and live there full time, the community also includes families with children who treat their tiny house as a vacation home. “We use river rock and gravel (on pathways), and that doesn’t really lend itself to strollers and wheelchairs. So you’ll be fine as long as you can carry your baby or use a cane,” says Dickinson Brophy, who notes that the community is considering paved pathways in some areas to help make it more handicapped accessible.

 

 

Las Vegas

Airstream Park (Llamalopolis)

Las Vegas, Nevada

Downtown Las Vegas has possibly the most famous tiny house community in the U.S. Created by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, the community is the permanent home to Airstream trailers, tiny houses and a few alpacas. Hsieh transformed a parking lot he owned into the existing community as part of his efforts to revitalize the city’s downtown. Guests can stay in some of the tiny houses and Airstream trailers short term, although many people live in the community permanently (by referral only, according to online reports), including Hsieh himself. Business Insider reported in 2016 that about 30 trailers and tiny houses make up the community. Being in the heart of Las Vegas also brings visitors to the community for reasons other than living the tiny lifestyle. The Airstream Park Facebook page shows corporate parties and concerts that are held on the grounds, while the free-roaming alpacas serve as an attraction to daily visitors.

 

 

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WeeCasa

Lyons, Colorado

About 45 miles northwest of Denver, WeeCasa is a tiny home resort for people looking to experience the lifestyle for a short period and also enjoy the local area at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. While WeeCasa owns many of the tiny houses on the property, others are contracted to WeeCasa to be rented out to guests. Karen Agena, director of WeeCasa in Lyons, explains that the resort was created following a local flood in 2013 that left many homes destroyed, with few short-term stay options for displaced families. The resort is particularly busy with wedding parties during the summer months, but it also serves to provide a glimpse into tiny living. Agena notes it brings many guests “who want to try it out and see if they could actually commit to it before buying a tiny home themselves.”

 

 

 

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Tiny Homes Detroit

Detroit

Created and operated by local charity organization Cass Community Social Services, Tiny Homes Detroit is a permanent tiny house community aimed at using the small size and cost of tiny homes to help resolve low-income housing needs. Those who occupy these tiny houses, funded through charitable donations, are formerly homeless, senior citizens or even low-income college students. The focus of Tiny Homes Detroit isn’t just about providing housing, which has been a part of the Cass Community Social Services program since it was founded in the 1980s, but also to provide tiny home recipients with a path to homeownership. “We were more concerned about helping people achieve the American dream,” says the Rev. Faith Fowler, executive director of Cass Community Social Services. Recipients pay $1 per square foot each month in rent while also attending a homeownership class, meeting with a financial coach and volunteering eight hours monthly for the organization. After seven years, the recipients earn the deed to their tiny house and the property it sits on, which Fowler valuates to be between $40,000 and $50,000, depending on future housing market changes. The tiny house community is currently growing, with seven completed and occupied homes, six near completion and six more ready to break ground, with a goal of 25 tiny houses total, Fowler says.

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Canoe Bay Escape Village

Near Chetek, Wisconsin

Canoe Bay started out as a community of brick-and-mortar buildings on more than 300 acres on a lake in northwestern Wisconsin and has since expanded to include a community of tiny houses used as second homes, vacation rentals and short-term stays. Dobrowolski says most people who own a tiny house at Canoe Bay come on weekends or stick to seasonal visits, especially snowbirds who live in southern U.S. during the winter. Because the community is also associated with the tiny home builder Escape Traveler, the short-term rental option serves as an opportunity for people considering the tiny lifestyle – and an Escape Traveler tiny house in particular – before actually making a purchase.

 

 

 

 

A bridge crosses over Big Creek along Route 101 that parallels the Oregon Coastline, USA.

Tiny Tranquility

Waldport, Oregon

Located on the Oregon coast, Tiny Tranquility launched in 2018 to offer nightly stays in the property‘s tiny houses, along with spaces for rent to park existing tiny houses and hook them up to available utilities. Like many tiny house communities, much of the focus at Tiny Tranquility is on easy access to outdoor attractions, including a dog park, picnic and fire pit area, greenhouse and hiking trails. While the community offers site lease agreements for as short as one month for nomadic tiny-house owners looking to move on, long-term lease agreements are also available for people looking to stay permanently.

 

 

 

 

 

View the full article here at U.S. News

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In “Hell Yeah” News: More Single Women Own Homes Than Single Men

Sisters are doing it for themselves—and building equity while they do it!

All over the United States, single women are outpacing single men when it comes to homeownership. LendingTree, an online loan marketplace, determined that on average, single women own around 22 percent of homes, while single men own less than 13 percent. Considering how expensive it is to buy a house, that’s quite the statistic, particularly since the average woman in the U.S. only makes 80 percent of what the average man does.

On both coasts, almost twice as many homes are owned by women than by men. In the New York metropolitan area, single women own slightly more than 820,000 homes, while men own about 435,000. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, women own 460,000, while men are at just 260,000.

The statistics continue to vary when you move away from the coasts. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, proved to be the metropolitan area where single men own the largest share of owner-occupied homes, at 16 percent. But even though single men own a greater proportion of homes in Oklahoma City than they do elsewhere in the country, they still own fewer homes than single women, who own 24 percent of residential properties in the area.

Meanwhile, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the metropolitan area where single women own the largest share of owner-occupied homes. Out of the nearly 300,000 owner-occupied households in the area, single women own nearly twice as many of them than single men do: 27 percent compared with 15 percent. That’s an 11.61 percent gender gap between single homeowners! Just behind New Orleans is Miami, Florida, followed by Birmingham, Alabama.

LendingTree determined these results through analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey. For this report, LendingTree focused on owner-occupied housing units.To determine the percentage of homeowners who were either single men or women in an area, they divided the number of homes occupied by either single male or female homeowners by the total number of owner-occupied homes in an area. If you’re wondering why these percentages do not add up to 100 percent, it’s because there are other types of homeowners (i.e. married couples) in the area.

View the full article here at Apartment Therapy

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Business Owner Fights TriMet’s Overcrossing Project

This article originally appeared on BikePortland.org   bikeportland.org/2018/12/20/business-owner-uses-attorney-and-electeds-to-fight-trimets-carfree-gideon-overcrossing-project-293425)

Neighborhood transportation advocates in SE Portland are sounding the alarm about TriMet’s Gideon Overcrossing project. They say opposition from an adjacent business owner could shelve the project.

“It’s unfair to me. What it’s doing to my business would require me to move.”said Michael Koerner, owner of Koerner Camera Systems on SE 14th and Taggart. Koerner hired a lawyer who sent a letter to the regional head of the Federal Transit Administration on December 14.

The letter includes criticisms of TriMet and the Portland Bureau of Transportation, questions the need of a bridge, and asks the FTA to require a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement before moving forward.

As reported last June, this project would build a new crossing of the Orange Line MAX light rail and Union Pacific Railroad tracks near the busy Clinton Street transit station.

It would be a much-needed replacement to the crossing at SE 16th and Brooklyn St. TriMet demolished during Orange Line construction in 2013.

The new bridge would go from SE 13th on the south side of the tracks to SE 14th on the north. In March 2018, TriMet said that location was “an attractive option for commuters” due to its proximity to the existing light rail station at Clinton St. (about 300 feet west of the new overcrossing).

The location was also chosen to, “best link to the Powell pedestrian crossing serving the Brooklyn neighborhood to Hosford-Abernethy.”

TriMet began the design process this past spring and the new $14 million bridge was supposed to start construction in the next few months.

Michael Koerner doesn’t want the bridge on 14th Ave. His camera rental business that supplies high-end equipment to the film and TV industry is directly adjacent to the tracks.

As designed, the bridge needs to use existing public right-of-way currently used to access Koerner’s parking lot and loading zone.

Koerner said his concerns about safety and business impacts have fallen on deaf ears at TriMet so he hired a land-use attorney to fight the project.

In a phone call, Koerner said he doesn’t oppose the bridge project, he just doesn’t want it on 14th St. In addition to his concerns that mixing trucks and forklifts with bicycle riders and walkers would be a safety hazard,

He isn’t the only business owner opposed to the project. Several others share his concerns and are actively engaged against it. Koerner also has support from Oregon House Representative Rob Nosse.

In a letter dated December 10 and addressed to PBOT Director Chris Warner and TriMet General Manager Doug Kelsey, Nosse wrote that after talking with Koerner and other business owners on 14th St., “I am respectfully asking that you consider moving the bridge to a different location either up further on 16th St. or even consider 8th or 9th instead.”

“I don’t think your planning is so far along that you could not consider an alternative,” Rep. Nosse continued, “And I think this would be an appropriate compromise.”

According to Rep. Nosse, the planned alignment would make it difficult for these businesses to operate forklifts and access loading zones with large trucks.

“… both Tri-Met and PBOT have failed to provide evidence that the proposal is actually necessary for pedestrians or bicyclists. Neither agency has provided evidence of accidents or injury to either pedestrians or bicyclists at this railroad crossing nor have they provided evidence that the proposed bridge will be useful to bicyclists or pedestrians.

“If Tri-Met and PBOT believe a pedestrian and bicycle bridge is necessary, the Gideon Overcrossing should be placed in a location that will result in greatest utility for pedestrians and bicyclists – specifically in the location of the previous access bridge at SE 16th and Gideon which supports connectivity between neighborhoods, or other alternative locations that have yet to be examined in an EIS.”

Communications Manager Roberta said that’s just not possible. “TriMet and the City of Portland have determined that the project cannot be built on another street,” she wrote in an email. “However, the city and TriMet continue to look for ways to minimized or mitigate the impact on local businesses.”

Altstadt said the bridge can’t be built at any other location because the FTA funding is tied directly to safety issues at SE 11th and 12th, where long UPRR delays cause some people to cross unsafely and even to walk across stopped train cars.

According to Altstadt, FTA guidelines stipulate that a bike/walk bridge must be located close enough to the original location of the safety hazard to “provide a convenient alternative.”

Placing the bridge at 16th would not address the safety issue that is the basis for the FTA funding.

The bridge at 16th would simply be too far away and require too much out of direction travel – particularly for pedestrians – to be a viable alternative,” Altstadt explained.

Altstadt says TriMet and the City of Portland analyzed several other locations and for various reasons, none of them could accommodate a bridge because there was either not enough room for the structure or the project would require condemnation of entire businesses.

 

View the full article here at The Southeast Examiner

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8 historic Oregon places listed to the National Register in 2018

Oregon’s historic buildings might not be that old, but every year there are some old enough to warrant inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2018, a total of eight buildings were added to the register, joining more than 2,000 other places in Oregon already honored. While most are found in the Willamette Valley, there is one representative this year from southern Oregon and one from central Oregon.

The register is managed by the National Park Service, which aims to support “efforts to identify, evaluate and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.” In Oregon, that primarily means pioneer-era farmsteads and barns, as well as early 20th-century businesses and architecturally unique homes.

Here are the eight places added to the register last year.

 

 

 

 

1. Spring Valley School
Courtesy of National Park Service
1. Spring Valley School

Built in 1907, the one-room Spring Valley School served the pioneer community of Zena, founded in 1858 northwest of Salem. The building has served as a school and community center for more than a century, but also stands as a prime example of the architectural style of the time, as few alterations have been made since the community stopped using it as a schoolhouse in 1952.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Lewis C. and Emma Thompson House
Wikimedia Commons/Ian Poellet
2. Lewis C. and Emma Thompson House

Representing the transition from 19th century Victorian to 20th century Craftsman style architecture, the house was first built in 1892 on unincorporated land in Yamhill County. While home to three generations of the Thompson family, it was Lewis C. and his wife, Emma, who revised the house, transforming it into a great example of one of the most important shifts in American architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

3. John B. Wennerberg Barn
Wikimedia Commons/Ian Poellet
3. John B. Wennerberg Barn

The John B. Wennerberg Barn was a significant building not just for the original owner but for the company that soon took it over. First built by Wennerberg in 1895, the barn was used for his early commercial farming operation in Yamhill County, then sold (along with the surrounding property) in 1919 to the Carlton Nursery Company. The company used the barn for 17 years as it grew from regional to international distribution, mirroring the growth of Willamette Valley agriculture as a whole.

 

 

 

 

 

Wikimedia Commons/Ian Poellet
4. Dr. Robert R. and Mary Helen Mooers House

 

 

 

Courtesy of National Park Service
5. Shute-Meierjurgen Farmstead

 

View the full article here at Oregon Live

 

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Will 2019 Be The Year of the Millennial Homebuyer?

Only 32 percent of millennials owned a home in 2015, according to a 2018 Millennial Homeownership Report from the Urban Institute. However, that might change in 2019.

While interest rates are rising, housing prices are expected to stabilize, offering additional affordable options to first-time homebuyers. Plus, mortgage lenders are experimenting with new ways to check creditworthiness and streamline the application process.

When it comes to whether the climate is favorable to millennials entering the housing market, Leo Loomie, senior vice president of client development for mortgage solutions provider Digital Risk, suggests “there are more tailwinds than headwinds going into 2019.”

However, millennials still like the flexibility of renting, so the reality of a wave of millennial homebuyers in the coming year is no sure thing. While millennials may be able to get mortgages in the coming year, the appeal of being able to move at will may win out over the prospect of homeownership.

Why millennials wait to buy homes. The entrance of millennials into the housing market has been delayed by a number of factors, including student loans, limited savings and mobile lifestyles.

“They often are paying off other loans, making it tougher to save the cash required for a down payment,” says Steven Gottlieb of Warburg Realty in New York City. However, he adds that money isn’t what seems to hold back many of the young adults he encounters in New York. Instead, they are hesitant to commit to a long-term living arrangement. “Millennials change jobs more often than previous generations, and thus are less likely to want to be tied down to a neighborhood or even a particular city.”

What’s more, delayed homeownership may be a natural consequence of millennials holding off on other rites of passage. “Homebuying is often linked to life events like getting married or having a baby, both of which are happening later in life, and many people are choosing not to take these steps at all,” says Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at online loan marketplace LendingTree.

In fact, the percentage of married millennials tracks closely to the number of young adults buying homes. The Urban Institute found 37 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds were homeowners in 2015, and the Pew Research Center found an identical percentage of millennials were married in 2017.

Making millennial homeownership possible. Kathy Cummings, senior vice president of homeownership solutions and affordable housing programs at Bank of America, says millennials have misconceptions about homebuying that can keep them out of the market. For instance, nearly half of 2,000 adults surveyed by Bank of America in 2018 believed a 20 percent down payment is necessary to buy a house. Instead, many properties can be purchased with only 3 percent down, Cummings says.

Credit scores are another factor that can discourage millennials from buying a home. Of the 685 millennials responding to the 2018 TD Bank Buy or Rent Survey, 17 percent said they didn’t think they would be approved because of their credit.

The average credit score for millennial homebuyers in the nation’s 50 largest metro areas is 656, according to a 2018 analysis by LendingTree. Cummings says most institutions use 680 as the cutoff for what they consider good credit, although applicants with credit scores as low as 580 may be eligible for mortgages.

However, the launch of the UltraFICO Score later this year could be a game-changer for millennials with low scores because of a limited credit history, Loomie says. The credit scoring model will allow mortgage applicants who don’t initially qualify for a loan to opt into having bank account data used to further gauge their creditworthiness. UltraFICO offers a revised score based on factors such as average account balance and automatic deposits from payroll or other sources. According to FICO, 70 percent of those with at least $400 in the bank and no negative balances in the past three months should see their score improve.

“It’s a very interesting way to assess someone’s financial responsibility,” Loomie says. Since the program is only in the pilot phase, it remains to be seen how much of an impact it will have on millennial homebuyers. However, Loomie says UltraFICO could potentially bump up credit scores by 20 points.

Young buyers need affordable housing. Even if millennials are able to qualify for a mortgage, they may have trouble finding a property within their budget. “The key challenge recently is affordability,” Kapfidze says. “Six years of rapid home price increases and higher interest rates over the past two years are making it more challenging for all types of homebuyers.”

As a result, access to housing may vary significantly throughout the country. “We’ve seen a lot of millennial homeownership in markets like Detroit, Minneapolis and Charlotte (North Carolina),” Cummings says. However, young homebuyers are priced out of many properties in urban areas such as San Francisco and New York City.

While interest rates are climbing, that may not be a significant obstacle when taken in context of historical rates. “In the ’80s, mortgage rates were 18 to 20 percent,” Loomie explains.

Millennials still want flexibility. Ultimately, the question of whether millennials will embrace homeownership in 2019 may boil down to whether young Americans are ready to settle down and pour their money into a single asset.

“Many millennials I work with in New York City would rather rent, thus keeping more capital freed up for other investments,” Gottlieb says. Plus, they aren’t convinced they will want to live in one place for five years, let alone 30 years. “The world is smaller for them, and moving to another city for a new job is not as daunting as (it was) for previous generations,” Gottlieb explains.

With low down payment options, more affordable housing and alternative credit scores, homeownership will likely be within the grasp of many millennials in 2019. But don’t count on them relinquishing their freedom to grab hold of it.

View the full article here at U.S. News

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Reinforced Workspace Ready for a Long Future

The iconic old building that faces Hawthorne Blvd. at Mt. Tabor is now reinforced in case The Big One hits. Despite the commotion of the deconstruction and reconstruction, Gabe Rahe along with his staff was able to keep Art Heads, SE 50th & Hawthorne open and doing business as usual.

Given the choice to close for three weeks or work around construction for three months, Rahe chose the latter. He and his employees scrambled to move the framing business around the space while construction was going on.

“We moved all the display racks, work stations, tools etc. to a portion of the building that wasn’t being renovated. The most difficult part was to make sure no dust particles touched the art. Our customers were very accommodating too.” 

The end result is iron subterranean shafts and crossbeams that will keep the building safe in case of an earthquake or natural disaster. Another end result of the reinforcement was Rahe’s collaboration with the contractors to create a work space to his specifications.

“We had a blank slate to work with,” he said. He and his fellow employees knew what would make the work space flow and designed the shop to fit their needs and those of their customers.

Starting in 2019, the makeover at Art Heads will be complete and Rahe will own the business. He was first employed here when Art Heads was located in the Hawthorne Masonic Building in 1999. After moving to this location in 2005, he became the manager and started the process of buying the business.

When the recession hit in 2008, Art Heads created a new line of ready-made frames to offer to their customers. This kept the doors open and the four employees working. With ready-made frames they could offer every price category from the person living on a fixed income to someone wanting to frame an expensive piece of art.

In framing they take into consideration color and size, the environment it will be placed in and the completed piece. Not everything requires a gilt gold frame as in bygone days. “People spend a lot of time looking at the art on their walls, and we want it to look its best.”

The business is also capable of refreshing paintings and photos, doing enlargements and restoring some works. If its not in their purview of expertise, they know people who do art restoration they can recommend.

Creative expression is an intrinsic part of Gabe Rahe’s makeup. It was what first brought him to the framing world all those years ago and continues to drive him to this day. He helped design and build all the new tables and storage units, taking aesthetics and ergonomics in mind.

The frame displays have been magnetized and will feature more selections. The west facing shades can be drawn so they create a backdrop for art exhibits that are soon to be part of the scene here. They have incorporated the Halsey Hanging System on the tall ceilings making it possible to display art in this open space.

One of his most recent at-home projects was to build a skate park in his backyard for his son. He helped from engineering the design to pouring the concrete. Rahe says he enjoys projects that are like a big puzzle. “It gets me going.”

While The Southeast Examiner was doing this interview, one of Rahe’s customer-friends, photographer Larry Olson, stopped by to say hello and see how work is progressing. Art Heads is that kind of a place because the owner is that kind of guy, a friendly, welcoming person who along with his staff can make the art on your walls reflect how you feel about a particular piece of art.

View the full article here at The Southeast Examiner

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