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Lake Oswego Website
Today I typically write something off the wall, different, of personal interest or whatever isn’t related to real estate. Recently at a local Starbucks®, a Lake Oswego Police Officer and a Clackamas County Sheriff were joking back and forth about what was going on in Lake Oswego, at least as far as crime, breaking of the law, etc. Both indicated there isn’t much that goes on in our small town - Lake Oswego. That reminded me that I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time. I want to personally thank our Lake Oswego Police Department because I’ve had many embarrassing moments and have needed someone in uniform to come to my rescue. The LO Police always have.
Our Lake Oswego Police Department has helped me in countless ways:
- In a past post I wrote I had another agent’s buyer arrested and put in jail the morning of a closing. It was the Lake Oswego Police Department that came to my rescue. The Portland Police Department would have thought I was crazy, but Lake Oswego took the time to not only listen but act on my intuition…based only on a gut feeling I had.
- One late night I drove home and opened the wrong side of the garage door with the opener. I immediately pressed the remote to close it and opened the side I drive in. I went upstairs and went to bed. Next thing I knew, I had a flashlight shining on my face. Apparently, the neighbors across the street had seen the garage door open and never close. It hit a box coming down and reopened and stayed open. They knew I never opened that side so they came to the house and rang the doorbell to let me know the door was still open late that night. They didn’t know my doorbell wasn’t working and when I didn’t answer they called me on the phone. I didn’t hear it ring. They proceeded to call the police who came in the house to see if everything was ok and were shining their flashlight on me to my embarrassment.
- A large truck delivered brick to a neighbor and coming around the corner, ran over and knocked down my brick mail box. After many repeated calls to the contractor to repair my mailbox and never responding, it was the LO Police that finally got the contractor to return and rebuild my mailbox.
- Last year during our Arctic Blast, I got stuck at the Lake Oswego Post Office. Just as I was getting frantic, a LO Police Officer drove by, saw me and helped by pushing me back out into the street.
- And lastly recently, apparently the 911 dispatcher in LO received a call from my cell phone with no response from me. They thought they had heard a baby crying in the background and attempted to reach me a couple of times on my cell to no avail. They left a message and I returned their call. By that time, the officer was on his way over to my house to see if I was ok…there was no baby in the house and I don’t know how my cell phone wound up calling 911. However, they were concerned and wanted to make sure I was ok.
Now, I’m from Los Angeles, and trust me, none of the above would have ever happened in LaLaLand. There’s a real advantage to living in a small town which I consider Lake Oswego to be. Thank you, Lake Oswego Police Department, for going above and beyond…I really appreciate it. In the whole scheme of things, I know there’s lots going on that’s much more important but I thank you, you’re the best.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative 
Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Portland
During these holidays we get so busy, we are always in a hurry, and we don’t take the time to enjoy some of the simple, and best, life has to offer.
When I first started writing this blog, I wrote a post “In Awe”. I had written about the simple things I really enjoy…the things that take my breathe away such as the smell of fresh grass, a rainbow, lights shining on freshly fallen snow, etc. The following is a reposting from another blogger in San Diego (San Diego Blog by Gary Glaser), that pretty much talks about the same thing I did in my post and it made me stop and think again. I took some time to dwell on what he said.
This week marks the start of the holiday frenzy. Don’t forget to take some time for things that don’t cost any money and could be the jewels of your day during this holiday season.
LOVE – LIFE – LIVE – PERCEPTION
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.
The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over.
No one noticed.
No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.
He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story.
Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.
The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…. How many other things are we missing?
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Portland
No longer can you text while driving. A new word according to this year’s Oxford American Dictionary, is driving while being intexticated and it is banned after January 1, 2010 in Oregon along with talking on your cell phone.
The other day while waiting for my light to turn green, I was watching people make left turns to see how many drivers were on their cell phones while dr
iving. All but one that I saw was talking on their cell. This is all about to change and will, perhaps, be harder on some folks than others.
The cell phone ban was approved June 24. If you’re planning on visiting Oregon after January 1, 2010, it will cost you $90.00 if caught texting or talking on your hand-held cell phone. Hands-free is allowed. Oregon is only one of 7 states that bans talking on a cell phone while driving. In fact, there’s talk the ban will go nation-wide soon.
I wrote a post a while back about the studies that have been done on the driving habits of those talking and driving. Granted, there are others that don’t need cell phones as an excuse to drive recklessly. However, when I get a call I always try to pull over to the side of the road or I won’t answer the phone. I had a near miss not too long ago with someone else driving while on their cell phone and I don’t want to be placed in danger nor do I want to place others in danger. There are enough crazy drivers on the road already.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Portland
Builders + Boomers = Disconnect
I’ve written many posts about Baby Boomers, inasmuch as I am one. In holding open houses here in Lake Oswego, I meet many Baby Boomers as well. All
along I’ve been against the McMansions and have stated so. In addition, however, I have also given kudos where due to the builders who are finally getting on board and building smaller houses.
Now comes word, that everything in my blog posts is “happening” in new construction. Gone is the glitz and glam of yesterday. Gone is the popularity for the McMansions and now the 1,900 sq. ft. house is the most desired sq. ft. by Boomers. It’s the first-time home buyers, the Baby Boomers, empty-nesters, singles, and seniors that all want and need the smaller, quality-built affordable houses. All those add up to a large percentage of home buyers.
In a recent story, along with a MetLife report which I’ve written about,
“depending upon where these buyers were from, they wanted homes between 1,600 square feet and 2,400 square feet. This year’s data showed the most popular size at 1,900 square feet — and 79 percent wanted that space on one floor, up from 17 percent in 1970.”
Guess I’ll stay in the house I have as long as I can do the stairs, as it’s exactly that sq. footage. The article goes on to say there’s been a Builder-Boomer disconnect – I’ve only been saying that forever!
Lake Oswego + Boomers = Disconnect
In last week’s Lake Oswego Review there was an article about the City now once again concerned about the affordability of houses for its seniors and Baby Boomers. Lake Oswego has always been a high-end market with a lack of easy transportation and affordable housing.
Particularly, the West End of Lake Oswego where I live there is no easy transportation with only one limited bus route and service and you have to cross a busy highway. Situated next to I-5 and Kruse Way, the West End would be a logical place to add light-rail along those two corridors. The Kruse Woods Financial District is located at this West End, with office workers not given any choice but to drive. Certainly not an amenity the City can shout about nor can Boomers and Seniors use on a frequent basis. There are no stores or shopping within walking distance from my house other than perhaps Trader Joe’s which is about a mile away. So much for the Walk Score for its West End – the “forgotten child” of Lake Oswego’s City officials.
Everything seems to be geared towards the affluent area of First Addition and near the Lake instead. There is no easy parking at the Library and in fact I’ve had my car hit in its parking lot. Yet the Lake Oswego residents are hesitant to transfer those facilities to its West End Building. The Lake Grove Post Office is severely lacking, and it would be a great addition to the West End Building not to mention the Booktique which is currently in Mercantile Village. We bought the building, so now let’s use it. Are there any Planners on staff at Lake Oswego with the vision to make this an even better place to live?
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
The major players in the housing market sent their letter to President Obama requesting that the home buyer tax credit be extended for
one year, that it be increased in amount and be made available to all home buyers. There’s been a final push in favor of the tax credit.
Mark Zandi, the Economist has said extending the home buyers tax credit and increasing its amount makes sense. We haven’t seen too many economists in favor of the credit, but I agree wholeheartedly with Zandi and if you’ve been reading my posts you know that I believe if you don’t fix housing, you won’t fix the economy. In case you missed it, here’s the news story.
However, yesterday USA Today reported that a housing credit isn’t needed and that 80% of financing for first-time home buyers is with FHA financing. I had written a post not too long ago on that very subject that in fact FHA financing in the three areas my blog covers wasn’t the primary source of financing. I decided to do another check since we are in the middle of the frenzy for first-time home buyers to purchase in order to get their tax credit.
For the month of September, RMLS™ #147, 148 and 151, showed that once again the bulk of purchases were not FHA financing. The bulk of the transactions in the above areas this blog covers were in fact Conventional financing.
(The stats aren’t broken down by RMLS™ for West Linn and Lake Oswego. The totals also include both residential detached and condos, townhouses and attached dwellings).
| September 1-30, 2009 Methods of Financing |
#147 Lake Oswego /West Linn |
#148 West Portland |
#151 Tigard |
| Cash | 22 | 39 | 27 |
| Conventional | 59 | 109 | 71 |
| FHA | 8 | 26 | 46 |
| Other | 1 | 5 | |
| VA | 1 | 8 | |
| # Houses Still for Sale | 832 | 1,018 | 1,024 |
| # Condos Still for Sale | 171 | 817 | 123 |
| Source: RMLS |
With the large number of houses and condos for sale in these three areas, I still feel that a tax credit should be extended, increased and open for all buyers.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
At one time in metro Portland we had a Realtor® association for each county. There was the Clackamas County Board of Realtors®, 
Multnomah County Board of Realtors®, Washington County Board of Realtors® and even a Gresham Board of Realtors®. I don’t remember exactly when all the Boards became consolidated into one, the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors®, but I believe it was sometime in the late 80’s early 90’s, but I could be wrong on the timing. Prior to that consolidation, I was very active in the association to which I belonged, the Washington County Board of Realtors®, serving on committees and holding office. After the consolidation my involvement came to an abrupt halt. There was no conscious reason for it, but I also stopped going to meetings. Now I look back and realize perhaps it was because there were so many changes in real estate and computers coming at us that I had enough to do with just “keeping up” with the times and changes.
Last year at the urging of a colleague in my office, I put my foot back in the water so to speak and started attending meetings. The first meeting I went to I was shocked to see the small number of Realtors® present and the “graying” of those in attendance. I realize our agent numbers have been dwindling the last few years due to the economy and our state of our real estate market. It was a lot of fun reconnecting with those agents from the past. What I also noticed, however, was the small number or lack of “newbies” and younger agents in attendance. Recently I read that the average age of a Realtor® is now 54 years of age and that companies are having a hard time filling the ranks with younger agents. I’ve written a past post indicating I was very young when I started selling real estate as well. It’s not as much about supporting the association we are all a part of but I attend because of the educational benefits, the camaraderie, connections old and new and the sharing that goes on among the agents. We share with one another what is going on in the real estate market and what we are facing on a day-to-day basis.
Last week I attended our PMAR (Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors®) luncheon meeting because David Gibbons from Zillow was the guest speaker about Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and blogging. Inasmuch as social media and marketing is such a hot topic I thought many more Realtors® would be in attendance, particularly those younger agents. I enjoyed the meeting not only because of what I learned, but met 5 of my “followers” from Twitter, and had been following them as well. A new agent did sit next to me and she went back to her office to “follow” me only to find out she’d already been doing so.
What I learned once more was that all the social media and marketing is great but it’s still that one-on-one, face-to-face contact that is the most rewarding and fun.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Typically it always seems we have nice sunny weather on weekends when I have to work. As a Realtor® here in Portland, I work most weekends. Today with the sun shining I am asking myself - why am I working today? With the sun shining it gets me thinking about why I’m a Realtor®. I’d much rather be out in the yard gardening. Typically you’ll hear a new real estate agent when they get their license excitedly say the want to sell real estate because “they love to look at houses” or “they love people”. Funny, that’s isn’t why I love selling real estate nor the reason I have stayed in this profession for 34 years. I have many stories to tell but one by way of explanation goes like this.
Many years ago I had a customer (in an upcoming post I’ll explain the difference between a customer and a client), call me about a listing in a neighborhood where I’ve had 44 properties for sale. Unfortunately, this young man who was under 21 at the time, wanted to buy a house there. After pre-qualifying him, I found out he really couldn’t afford the house he had called on nor could he afford anything else that was on the market in this particular neighborhood. Admittedly, I brushed him off and didn’t take him seriously. After a while, on a face-to-face meeting, he looked me in the eye and said “Betty, I’m serious, I want to buy a house”. At that moment I remembered when I was 19 and became a first-time home buyer and I was determined to help him. The only house I found that he could afford backed to the freeway and was a for sale by owner. I wound up selling him that house, eventually relisted that house, it sold and wound up selling him another house with his new wife. During the time they were looking, the news was given that a baby was going to be born who would be joining them in their new home. I felt as if I had become a part of his family and cared about him and his new family greatly. There was an extreme sense of pride I felt in his accomplishments. That story has been repeated over and over in my career. It’s never been about making the decisions for you, it’s always to provide you with the best and most current information I have to assist you in making the best decisions you can for yourselves. It’s been about caring for my clients and wanting them to succeed. I’ve watched their successes over and over again all these years. It has always been about the relationships I have with my clients.
When I get up in the morning, 99.9% of the time I’m still excited about going to work, learning something new, meeting new people. With this blog, I’m trying to do the same by providing you with the latest news or information, with what is pertinent in our local real estate market, and to establish a long-time relationship with you the reader.
When readers leave comments or suggestions I appreciate the input and I hope you continue to feel free to do that. I appreciate all the readers of this blog. Thanks! So get out there and enjoy this sunshine we’re having this weekend.
©Copyright Betty Jung 2008-2009. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
(For more national and local real estate information, go to my website at www.bettyjung.com)
The last job I had before moving to Oregon 34 years ago, was the most demanding job I’d ever had. During that time period I needed an assistant and 
hired a very young gal who worked for me for about 8-9 years. Actually we were both pretty young and I was the youngest person to have ever held that particular high-level job. After leaving that position, and moving to Oregon, I only saw her once when she came to visit me. I had just started selling real estate at that time.
This gal was so very young, worked hard, was extremely dependable and never sat around. She always looked for work and came up with things to keep herself occupied and to help me get the job done. She always “covered my back”. She became like a sister and best friend to me over the years but, like many people, we lost touch. Over the holidays and when we were all snowbound, I guess I got a bit nostalgic and decided to see if I could find her. After only one attempt via the Internet, I found her. She hadn’t changed her name which made it easier.
She too is selling real estate, and she too had worked for the exact same company I did when I first started out. It has been so wonderful to be in touch with her again. Today, I got an email from her telling me what an influence I had been in her life, that she looked to me as her mentor and through the years she called upon my strengths to pull her through her tough times. It made me cry. It made her cry too and she needed to end the email.
What struck me was how much we influence the lives of others and don’t even realize it. I never knew I had that much of an impact on her or how much I had helped shape her into the woman she is today. What she doesn’t realize is that she had all those strengths within herself and perhaps I just helped bring them to the forefront is all. She is, and will always be, a life-long friend. Our lives have paralleled each other in other ways as well without even having been in contact with one another.
Growing up I went to an all girls’ Catholic High School. One of the Dominican nuns, one of many of my favorites, was my geography and history teacher. She was all of 4′7″ or shorter and she would jump up and down with her pointer teaching us. She put enthusiasm and excitement into a class that could be boring. To this day, I love the history, the story, etc. She recently passed away. Many times while writing this blog, I have thought of her and thank her for sharing her love of history with me.
Who had the greatest influence on your life? Who helped mold you into the person you are today? I had surrogate grandparents as a child who helped raise me and who had the most profound affect on me. Even to this day, I know they are watching over me. Be mindful of who you talk to - one smile, one word of praise, one word of thanks, may impact that person more than you will ever know.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
This is my second post today, I normally don’t post more than one a day. However, this “scandal” here in Portland somehow has hit a nerve.
The title of this post came to me 
when I was thinking about Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams. I had a real estate trainer who in the 70s always spoke about “stinkin thinkin”. Today instead we say “garbage in-garbage out”. That’s pretty much how I feel about this situation.
If you haven’t heard, Portland lately has had a “mayor” problem. Inasmuch as I don’t live in the city limits, I don’t have a say. However, this post is not a political post as much as it is a post about lying. It seems that the people who want to keep Sam Adams in office don’t care whether he lied or not. Aren’t political figures held to a higher standard of the law? Shouldn’t we demand that our leaders tell the “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”?
There’s so much outcry today about “transparency in government” and “holding people accountable”. What happened to that thinking here in Portland?
Lying has never brought about a greater good. Lying in fact has gotten this country into the likes of war, disgrace, scandals, etc. No one is perfect, but shouldn’t telling the truth be a basic attribute of any political official?
I’m not a part of the politics in Portland, but as a Realtor®, I took an oath and have principles and ethics to live by. Shouldn’t we expect political leaders to live by the rules they said they would? Since when has lying become “ok” in our society? If it’s ok for a mayor, president, congressman, then it becomes ok for you and your children to do so too? Shouldn’t honesty be a sought-after characteristic in an elected official or in anyone for that matter? What happened to leading by example?
Here’s a time-line of the supposed “relationship” or “sex scandal” of the Mayor. If in fact his aide was 17, isn’t that a criminal offense? What is happening to the values and morals of our country? I know in the whole realm of things perhaps you’re thinking this isn’t important, but I ask, since when is honesty not important? I don’t know if I’m more upset with Sam Adams for lying or with the people who approve of it.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
At the new year, my BlackBerry™ died and normally any warranty or insurance has long since expired just when I need it. However, this time, I had 5 days remaining on my warranty, so I got a new phone. The Warranty Center service rep said cell phone use while driving had been banned in Oregon effective January 1. Maybe I was living under a rock or blanket during the snow storm, but I never heard anything about a new law. There were stories about Washington’s new law, but I hadn’t heard about Oreg
on. Checking on what she said, I found a website listing which states actually ban hand-held devices while driving and Oregon isn’t on the list. However, the other evening, and after I had already written this post and scheduled it, there was a story on our local news about how the National Safety Council is trying to enforce the ban nation-wide and currently there is a bill in Oregon’s State Legislature to do so.
Which brings me to my point. I am a cell-phone user, however, when I receive a call I make an effort to pull over to the side of the road if I can. Recently, I hit a car, but I wasn’t the one on the cell. The car in front of me was turning right, in the middle of the street and in the middle of his turn, stopped without his brakes on. I had seen him starting to turn and I looked to my left and proceeded to turn right directly behind him. When he stopped in the middle of the intersection, I hit him. He had been on his cell phone the entire time. Getting out of his car, he was still on his cell phone and still conducting his conversation while at the same time telling m
e he was lost and getting directions. Dah! Pull over when getting directions.
A local insurance company says people become so absorbed in their conversations while driving on their cell phones their ability to concentrate on the act of driving is severely impaired, jeopardizing the safety of vehicle occupants and pedestrians.
Oregon Health and Sciences University says poor driving performance while conversing on any cell phone – handheld or handsfree- is confirmed in numerous studies, indicating cognitive rather than physical distraction. The condition of ‘looking but not seeing’ or ‘inattention blindness’ occurs when daydreaming while alone or in conversation on a phone while driving. The news story the other evening said talking on a cell phone is the equivalent of driving under the influence.
I’m not advocating a cell phone ban in Oregon. However, if you are in a conversation or texting, please pull over. With this recent incident, I’m rethinking my own actions and habits. Further, the laws may be changing and Police might start issuing fines.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
As we enter a new year, I look at my business plan and mode of operating. Never has that phrase we use in real estate “getting back to basics” have more meaning than this year. In this tough economic climate, we’re forced to take a long, hard look at what the most important things in life truly are. Some things have taken on more meaning, others less.
The era of unchecked consumerism and financial excesses has had the insidious effect of devaluing everything. Why save money when you could borrow to get whatever you wanted? Why hang on to clothes and appliances when you could just go to the store and buy new ones? I heard on T.V. the businesses that are succeeding now are the “fix it” shops. Those doing repairs to clothing, cars, appliances, houses and even the shoe repairmen putting new soles on shoes are in high demand. Perhaps that’s the silver lining in the dark cloud hanging over us. Perhaps now it’s about how to turn this crisis into opportunities for ourselves, our families and our clients.
My 2009 goals are to:
- Take a fresh look at everything I do. Replace some of the extraneous activities that have filled my time and refocus on making concrete improvements in areas where I may not have had the time or the will.
- Re-engage with customers and clients, family and friends. To take the time to truly understand what’s important to them. Communicate with more empathy, authenticity, and consistency. As Realtors®, we can pick and choose modes of operation that suit us, that we are comfortable with. There’s no right or wrong way as long as we operate within the law. In spite of all the new gadgets of the day, it’s still face-to-face contact that is the most meaningful to all involved and most important.
- Live simply and cut out excesses. The saying “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without” is taking on new meaning for most of us.
- Our ability to work together cooperatively and to show good will and thoughtfulness to one another, as we adjust during our new economic time, is a measure of our strength. We are all in a “new reality” and we will be there for some time. There are many opportunities to help one another during these times.
- There are lots of things I need to eliminate, change, refine and learn. It means the way I run my house, my personal life and my real estate business. Doing things that cost less but have them mean more.
What’s important are the connections, the contacts that you make. People just want to know you care about them.
So what about you? What new things will you bring into your life or get rid of? What changes are you wanting or willing to make in 2009?
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Part of the lack of confidence on the part of the consumer is because the media and everyone else plays up the negative to a large degree. I report some of it, but you hear plenty of it in the news.
Having been snow-bound and house-bound like most of you, I couldn’t wait to get out. Finally at the grocery store loading up on what was missing at home, I had one of those “aha” moments. The Fortune 500 magazine was on stands with their real estate predictions for 2009 and I wanted to purchase it. As I was pulling it off the shelf, I saw the headlines on all the covers in front of me on the magazine stand screaming “Buy Stocks at their Lowest Values Ever”, “Best Bets for Stocks”, “Now’s The Time To Get Into The Stock Market”, etc. and it got me thinking. The managers who’ve lost all or most of your 401k money, your childrens’ college educations, your long-term investments, most of your dreams not to mention your confidence, are now wanting you to invest in the “drama queen” of all investments. Yet, in the same breath and on the same pages they’re advising everyone not to buy real estate. They’re saying how bad the real estate market is and that the real estate market could only go lower. It occurred to me:
- Those same people couldn’t warn you about their own industry i.e. the stock market. They didn’t know their market would crash but they can and know all about real estate. They continue to warn you there will be price drops in real estate. Where were they when their stocks plunged and companies failed? Remember, they didn’t see it coming? Oh, but they got bailed out and you didn’t.
- We’ve all heard about the greed, sheer greed, of the Wall Streeters who lost all your money but they are encouraging you to continue to invest with them. They still want more of your money now? Didn’t they lose enough of your money?
- The one industry that hasn’t been hit as hard over the-long term and hasn’t had as wild of a ride, has been real estate and that’s the one investment they’re telling you not to make.
- One of the market’s guru’s Jim Cramer right before Bear-Stearns failed kept encouraging his followers to invest in Bear-Stearns yet he’s saying “don’t buy real estate”.
- Rumor has it, and it is only rumor as I can’t verify everything I read in blogosphere, that the same Jim Cramer and Suze Orman bought real estate at the end of last year for themselves, but of course, they won’t tell you to invest in real estate. Why? Because they want prices to continue to drop so they can get the good values for themselves. They might start a rush towards a good thing.
John Kenneth Galbraith wrote of the 1930’s stock market crash: “Never before or since have so many become so wondrously, so effortlessly and so quickly rich… Perhaps it was worth being poor for a long time, to be so rich for just a little while.”
Nearly $7 trillion in stock market value was wiped out last year. Here is how those broad market indexes finished up in 2008:
- The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 33.84 percent, its third-largest decline ever and the biggest decrease since 1931.
- The S & P 500 lost 38.49 percent, just slightly better than the severe decline of 1937.
- And the Nasdaq composite index, created in 1971, posted its worst year with a 40.54 percent plunge. That was actually worse than the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000 when the technology- heavy index only lost 39.3 percent.
Real Estate experts see prices in Portland, Oregon dropping 12% below their peak before rising again. Wall Street is saying don’t invest in real estate yet stock market loses have been 40% or better and mostly they’re at their 1930 levels? In fact, daily losses were almost greater on Wall Street than our entire yearly real estate losses here in Portland.
The Greatest Dow Jones Industrial Average daily point losses of all time
- Sept. 29, 2008= -777.68 points=-6.98 percent loss
- Oct. 15, 2008=-733.08 points=-7.87 percent loss
- Sept. 17, 2008=-684.81 points=-7.13 percent loss
- Dec. 1, 2008=-679.95 points=-7.70 percent loss
- Oct. 9, 2008=-678.91 points=-7.33 percent loss
RMLS™ Statistics – Housing Appreciation in Lake Oswego/West Linn (147), SW Portland (148), Tigard, Tualatin, Wilsonville & Sherwood (151)
As reported in my “Oregon’s Housing Appreciation” post, I showed how Oregon as a state has appreciated over the last 21 years. What follows are 3 graphs showing appreciation broken down by specific areas from our RMLS™ for 147-Lake Oswego/West Linn, 148-SW Portland, 151-Tigard/Tualatin, Wilsonville and Sherwood. I know we are in negative territory here in Portland recently, but we’ve had good appreciation over the long term and we will again. Jerry Johnson of Johnson Gardner forecasters expects “the region will return to the 6% annual growth rate that simmered between 1987 and 2003″.
Also since 1980, the OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) reports that Oregon saw a record 354.04% appreciation and a 5-year appreciation rate of 55.62% (granted that included the “boom” years).
John Galbraith further stated “In economics, the majority is always wrong”. What am I missing?
*** Update: I guess Cramer just recently changed his “tune”. Thanks to Ron Ares @repdx.com: Cramer is now screaming “BUY real estate!”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJRWVS7AZN ***
Housing Appreciation for RMLS Area 147 - Lake Oswego/West Linn 1993-2007
Housing Appreciation for RMLS Area 148 - SW Portland 1993-2007
Housing Appreciation for RMLS Area 151 - Tigard, Tualatin, Wilsonville, Sherwood 1993-2007
(c)Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Finally, it’s here. We made it. We’re done with 2008. I feel lots of optimism for the New Year, for the economy and for our real estate market. Having been through rough times and recessions before, I for one am ready to get this recession over with. It’s been rough going for lots of people. With a new year brings new hope and new promises. I’m feeling the end has got to be closer than ever. Here’s a recent article from RIS Media that says the same thing.
The other day I wrote a post about Portland being a good bet for housing in 2009. In some past posts I’ve stated I don’t think most economists really know what lies ahead. I’ve written two posts “Has Housing Hit Bottom”, and “The “R” Word (Recession) And The Economy” showing where economists have been wrong. In fact, even BusinessWeek is now saying that most economists got it wrong in 2008! Personally, I feel all predictions should be taken with a “grain of salt”. Real estate is local and what happens in Portland is like predicting the weather, it depends upon where you live and local conditions at that particular time.
Oregon
The Sunday Oregonian recently had this to say in their Real Estate section (reprinted in part):
SIGNS OF HOPE: New year brings optimism for local real estate market
Sunday, December 28, 2008
By JOHN KIRKLAND, The Oregonian
New Year’s Eve can be bittersweet: a mix of nostalgia for the year ending with uncertainty about the year ahead.
But can anyone feel nostalgic about what’s happened in the economy — particularly real estate and real estate lending — over the last four months? Please, don’t raise your hands all at once.
The coming year is starting to look pretty good by comparison, according to professionals in the Portland real estate sector. While no one is saying that all the sector’s ills will be cured during the next 12 months, most are saying that the worst has already happened in terms of declining home prices and excessively tight credit. They’re looking ahead with optimism.
Looking at the glass half full
Portland home prices have been falling since July 2007, and the consensus is they’ll bottom out and start returning to an upswing sometime in 2009, perhaps in the third or fourth quarter according Jerry Johnson of Johnson Gardner, a Portland real estate consultant. Then, prices will likely follow the 6 percent annual growth trend they were on from 1987 to 2003, and will return to the 2007 peak sometime in 2012.
Homeowners might worry about the continued slip in home prices in the first half of 2009, but State Economist Tom Potiowsky is urging Oregonians to count their blessings. “We’re not going to see the 30 percent price dips like they’ve had in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami and some of the metro areas of California,” he said.
The softer landing in the Portland metro is due to a number of factors, Potiowsky said, including its urban growth boundary, which prevents sprawl and thus helps maintain home prices, and the fact that Oregon did not have the same level of subprime lending that other places did, reducing our exposure to foreclosures.
According to Johnson’s figures, average Portland prices will have declined only about 12 percent from their peak by the time they bottom out next year. Also bear in mind that prices rose much faster than the local average between 2004 and 2007, so the recent decline is more of a return to normal following a boom-distorted run-up.
It makes sense: prices are down and interest rates are at a 40-year low. In some ways, real estate professionals are looking at this as one of the best times in the last decade to get into a new home.
Also sweetening the pot is the recently enacted First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, allowing buyers who bought their first home on or after April 9, 2008, to get as much as $7,500. The tax credit works like an interest-free loan, and must be paid back over a 15-year period. The credit expires June 30, 2009, so buyers need to act within the next six months to take advantage of it.
Tom Skaar, head of Pacific Western Homes, said the National Association of Home Builders is lobbying to make the tax credit a better deal than it already is. The organization wants it to apply to any home buyer, not just first-timers. He’s hoping the industry could get a significant shot in the arm with the next stimulus package, is happy that rates are dropping, and is expecting the liquidity problems to start fading away.
“I’m not prepared to say we’ve found bottom, but we’re awfully close,” said Skaar, 2009 president of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland.
Several high-profile Portland-area builders declared bankruptcy or went out of business in the last six months. The challenge for the industry is to weather the current skittishness in the market and to concentrate on building the kind of product people want to buy.
“Builders will be looking to build at the under-$400,000 level. That’s the sweet spot for buyers,” he said.
Homebuilding and home buying will resume at healthy levels once the public starts feeling more confident. In that sense, politics may be one of the biggest factors of all in setting the stage for a more prosperous 2009. Said Potiowsky, to the extent that people will feel more confident under the new Obama administration, that will go a long way in getting us out of this recession.”
As far as the Portland real estate market is concerned, I feel there is a lot of pent-up demand. Sellers want to sell as shown by our large inventory of homes for sale and buyers want to buy but are unsure of their jobs and don’t think we’ve reached bottom. In my “Has Housing Hit Bottom” post, I stated that I feel you need to make the best decisions you can for your family regardless of what economists say or whether housing has hit bottom or not. If you wait for housing to hit bottom, you will have missed some excellent buying opportunities because no one, absolutely no one, knows when or if that has happened.
NationalCity Economics still states that the Pacific Northwest is the only area that is overvalued. Sellers still aren’t pricing their homes to sell as our inventory clearly shows. We have too many houses on the market for sale that need to be cleared out. Builders hopefully will re-think the size of houses they are building. The” McMansions” on small lots are passe’ and new homes need to become more affordable. I recently read on the National Association of Home Builder’s website that builders are considering constructing houses geared to the Baby Boomers. I’ve been preaching about that in many of my posts. Finally, perhaps, we will see the smaller, affordable, quality single-family houses. I can only hope in 2009 that will start happening. 
There are some good financing programs available especially for first-time buyers along with the first-time buyer tax credit and that market will only become stronger as we go into 2009. There will be even more financing options available in the future. Interest rates are extremely low and despite the many naysayers, I still feel now is a great time to buy. A recent posting on Donald Trump’s blog said “Real Estate is Not Dead” encourages people to buy. We have the inventory and rates are at low, historic levels. Once our new President takes office, there will be more confidence in our financial system.
Through all this many of us Realtors® have survived and some haven’t. I’m still listing and selling real estate full-time and I’m still here to do more business in 2009. Our Board of Realtors® hasn’t indicated how many Realtors® have left the industry, but I’ve been told around 2,000 have left in Portland alone. Nationally I’ve read 20% of real estate agents have quit the business. The survivors are left, the survivors who know how to market your property to get it sold. The survivors who weren’t the “order takers” during the “hot” market time of the last five years. We’re still here selling real estate full-time. We’re experienced, knowledgeable, we know the neighborhoods and know how to get the job done. We’re still here and hope to be able to work for you soon. Experience counts. Knowledge counts. Education counts. Hire the agent who has all those things to offer you and more. We’re ready to be your Realtor® in 2009.
Thank you for your continued support and readership. 2009 will be a much better year than last year, I just know it. My best wishes to you for a healthy, prosperous and successful year. Happy New Year.
***So what do you think? Weigh in and give your opinion on what 2009 will hold in store for us here in Portland, Oregon. I will publish comments in an up-coming post. Email me with your responses at bettyjung@remax.net***
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Recently, I started reading about the depression era because of the economic time period we are in. Like many 
Americans it seems as if recessions, downturns, etc. creep upon us every 10 years or so and I felt we should somehow be able to control that. However, after reading more, that’s exactly what happens. Recessions are a normal part of the capitalist business cycle. Recessions wash out excesses in the system by shaking out inefficient companies, thus clearing the way for new competitors, and they work to keep supply and demand in sync over the long term. There were panic years in 1825, 1837, 1857, 1893, 1907, 1913, 1920 and 1929. The world-wide depression that began in 1929 produced effects upon our nation comparable to those of a major war. In the past 50 years, we’ve had recessions (or recession-like economic downturns) in 1969-70, 1973-75, 1980-82, mid-late 1980s, 1990-91 and 2001. In my post “The R Word And The Economy”, I wrote about all the different recessionary periods we’ve had.
Ben Bernanke, I’ve read, is a student of the depression-time period. Yet after reading about it, we aren’t, in my opinion, doing enough now or even doing what was done then to stop the depression.
It’s been interesting to read what has been said about the depression:
“A significant development of the depression years and later of World War II and postwar periods was the large growth of government corporations and credit agencies. Essentially these instruments were used for operations that were business in character such as lending, investing and buying and selling, but which could not be carried out by private business because of their risk or their special relation to the public interest. In attacking the varied financial problems created by the depression, the federal government made large loans and investments, directly and through governmental corporations and agencies; and it guaranteed a large volume of obligations issued by governmental corporations. Through the establishment of the government-owned Home Owners Loan corporation and Federal Farm Mortgage corporation, the government provided facilities for the emergency refinancing of mortgages on homes and farms. These corporations together with the federal land banks, the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Savings and Loan system and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance corporation, operated to stem the flood of foreclosures on farms and homes and to reduce rates of interest on mortgage loans.“
“Throughout this time period, the treasury maintained a low interest policy and secured a substantial part of its financial requirements through notes and other short-term securities. Individual and corporation income taxes were raised and a new excess profits tax on corporate income was enacted” (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
One of the first things President Roosevelt did was to increase Federal funds for unemployment relief, work relief, and grants to states for the construction of public works (i.e. infrastructure). I recently heard on TV that Oregon’s Governor Kulongoski is expecting and waiting for that state relief to initiate public works programs and repair of our infrastructure here in Oregon to put people back to work. In the early ’90s, public works projects were either put on hold or stopped in Oregon. Now, we have failing bridges, roads in a state of disrepair, schools falling apart, etc. because we didn’t continue those public works programs.
But what about housing? In one of my posts, I wrote an “Open Letter To Congress”. I had high hopes for Ben, Hank and Congress when this all started that the housing crisis would be resolved. We had 9,128 foreclosures a day during the month of October alone. Foreclosures are at the heart of our financial crisis and until something is done about foreclosures, the problems will continue to persist. What led us into this recession will take us out and I don’t feel the trio of top guns – Ben, Hank and Congress – have done enough to handle the foreclosure problem.
Yes, the government recently added another $800 billion to the bailout bonanza:
- $600B to purchase mortgage-backed securities from government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Banks.
- A $200B Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) aimed at shoring up the market for consumer-related asset-backed securities.
In my opinion, the above is still too little and too late. Where have they been? I had already started writing this post when I read an interesting article in Business Week saying the same thing.
Also, the Center for Policy and Economic Research recently stated:
“The Case-Shiller 20-city house price index showed an accelerated rate of price decline in September. The index fell by 1.9 percent for the month. It has fallen at a 14.9 percent annual rate over the last quarter. The index has dropped 17.4 percent over the last year and is now down 22.1 percent from its peak in May of 2006, a fall of almost 30 percent after adjusting for inflation. This would imply a loss in housing wealth of almost $6 trillion.
It is important to realize the extent to which these data lag the current situation. The September data are an average of the contracted prices for houses sold in August, September, and October. Since there is typically a six to eight week period between when a contract is signed and when it is sold, the data in the Case-Shiller index are based on contracts that were signed primarily in the months of June, July, and August.
The sharp fall-off in the economy that began in September and October would not be reflected yet in these data. If house prices continued to fall at the 1.9 percent monthly rate reported for September, then the price of houses contracted today would already be 7.5 percent lower than the numbers the index shows for September. Of course, if the September-October plunge affected house prices, then the decline over this period would be even larger.
Perhaps the most disturbing item in the new data was the continued price decline in cities without bubbles. It would be useful for the federal government to seek to stabilize house prices in such markets. Unfortunately, there has been no public discussion in Washington policy circles about a housing policy that distinguishes between deflating bubble markets and markets where there is no bubble or the bubble has already deflated. It would be a pointless waste of taxpayer dollars to try to stabilize prices in the former markets, while stabilizing house prices in the latter markets will be essential to the economic stability of these areas.
Policymakers in Washington managed to completely miss the bubble as it grew to enormous levels. Remarkably, even as the bubble’s collapse is throwing the economy into the worst recession in 70 years, they somehow still can’t see the bubble.”
Now that we have a new economic team coming in January, I hope the number of foreclosures will get reduced, loans modified, and assistance provided to homeowners. Ben, Hank and Congress haven’t done enough to resolve the housing crisis. We need some hope, confidence and promises that we will come out of this housing crisis soon. Here’s a different take on that familiar quote: “It’s housing, stupid!”
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Image from Microsoft Office
Over the years I’ve met many interesting people. One such person was a therapist. She seemed to have everything under control, at least professionally. Her personal life was less than perfect and one that you would not have wanted. She had every kind of trauma in her life one can imagine, only worse. Yet, no one ever suspected she’d have anything less than a perfect life. People just thought she’d have her life in good order because she counselled others on putting their lives in good order. Perception is everything!
Early in my career, trainers used to say “act as if”. In other words, act as if you’re successful because then people would perceive you as such. How people perceive you in business is “everything”, they said.
Many people think I am of Asian descent. If you read my post ”Deutscher Stammtisch“, you know I’m not. However, when my blonde, blue-eyed daughter was born, the hospital sent me Japanese baby boy pictures thinking I must have given birth to him because of my name. After many years, I still receive literature from the Japanese-American Society and, someone in my neighborhood thinking I must be Asian, puts literature written in Chinese at my door on a regular basis. “Perception”.
Twice I actually sold a condo and a house because people perceived me to be Asian. On one occasion, I met a potential customer at a local restaurant, walked in and to her surprise said, “Well, you’re not Asian!”. Well, “No, did I say I was Asian”? I wound up selling her a house. Another time, a couple took the time and effort to call off a newspaper ad, set up an appointment with me and said they had originally called me because they thought I was Asian. I sold them a condo. There’s that saying again: “Perception is everything”!
While in Hawaii recently, the Desk Clerk at my hotel got into a “friendly” argument with me about how to pronounce my name. Insisting it was Asian, and me disagreeing it wasn’t, I finally asked if she had ever heard of Carl Jung. Inasmuch as she hadn’t, I rested my case.
The Thesaurus describes perception as:
perception
noun
- The condition of being aware: awareness, cognizance, consciousness, sense.
- That which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity: concept, conception, idea, image, notion, thought.
During the 1980s recession I was struggling selling real estate and financially strapped, I had just purchased a brand new expensive car (not a smart decision). A California buyer met me at a house he wanted to see and immediately said that I must be very successful because of the kind of car I was driving. If only he really knew the financial condition I was in. It was really only his perception of me!
“Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.”
- Phaedrus
Be careful how you look at things or how you perceive a situation or a person because it may only be your “thought or notion” and may not be the case at all…it may only be your perception.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
. On the nightly news I saw where Dr. Susan Love appeared asking for volunteers to assist in cancer research. She said that they have made great strides in treating breast cancer but not in finding what causes the cancer at the outset.
Going on line I signed up at Army of Women as a volunteer. Inasmuch as I don’t have nor have I ever had cancer, yet know many women who have, I felt compelled because I have been so blessed.
There are many ways you can assist as a volunteer.
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Register as a volunteer with the Love/Avon Army of Women. By registering, you are indicating your interest in learning about active research studies in need of volunteers.
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You will receive email updates from the Love/Avon Army of Women announcing new research studies looking for volunteers just like you. The email will detail the research project and who and what the researchers need. If you fit the criteria and you’d like to participate, all you need to do is reply to the email and let them know you’ve accepted our “Call to Action.”
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If you accept the Call to Action, you will be contacted by an Army of Women staff member, who will make sure you meet the study criteria and answer any questions you might have about study participation. You will never be pressured to take part in any study. The decision to take part is yours — and yours alone.
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If you meet the study criteria and are interested in taking part, the Army of Women staff member will let you know what you need to do next.
This is a revolutionary movement to bring women and researchers together to eradicate breast cancer. As a proud Army of Women member, you will regularly receive emails that announce new research studies as well as other Army of Women activities.
The Army is dedicated to representing ALL women in research so that the research results will apply to ALL women. This means they need you to help recruit women of all ages, ethnicities, sizes, and shapes. They need women who have had breast cancer and women who have not. They need African American women, Asian women, white women, Latinas, and lesbians to be involved.
Here’s what the website for the Army of Women wrote to help spread the word so that it reaches their goal of one million women:
- Emailing an invitation to your friends and family members to join the Army.
Send an email today! - Inviting your church, school, professional organization, social group, or sorority, to join the Army. Go to http://www.armyofwomen.org for more information about group affiliations.
- Using their “Spread the Word” feature to let friends or family members know about information on their site that might interest them.
- Forwarding emails you receive from the Army to family members and friends.
- Talking to your friends and family members about the Army and the studies you can take part in.
- Linking to www.armyofwomen.org from your social networking page, website, or blog.
Consider this an invitation to eradicate cancer. I feel strongly that there needs to be excellent treatment for cancer victims but a cure needs to be found to eradicate it as well. I’ve made my commitment, what about you.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
I’ve read so many blog posts, news stories and websites that have either in the past predicted or are now predicting that housi
ng would reach bottom in 2006, 2007, 2008 and now the latest information is that it will reach bottom in the summer of 2009. My head is spinning from all these predictions. I am sure we will be hearing completely new predictions as this financial mess is sorted out.
Alan Greenspan famously declared the worst was over back in November of 2006. The National Association of Realtors® called the bottom a few times starting in May of 2006. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine believed housing prices nationally would bottom out in 2008, and stated that the recovery for housing markets would be slow (gee – where’s that new information?). Plenty of other economists and real estate analysts have attempted to do the same - and of course they’ve all been wrong.
Economy.com’s chief economist Mark Zandi, Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) economist Charlie Himmelberg, S&P managing director David Blitzer and S&P senior economist Beth Ann Bovino have all agreed and stated that home prices would stabilize sometime during the summer of 2009. According to Robert Shiller, of S&P/Case-Shiller fame, he has amended his chart (above) and says the bottom now will be in 2011.
Problem is, no one really knows for sure when the bottom is or will be. If we had listened to some of the reports above, you and I, would have been wrong. They’re supposed to be the “experts” the “economists” who are in the know. What do they really know? Why would anyone rely on them to predict when housing will hit bottom? When inventory levels are at an equal level for both buyers and sellers with 5-6 months of available homes for sale, and sales increase after 2-3 months and continue to go up, only then will we know that we had reached bottom.
The American public is hungry for information. They, and I want positive news and I can almost feel and hear it from the readers of my blog. It isn’t because of any comments I’m receiving, but I hear it in the panic on Wall Street, I hear it in the news, and I hear it on the streets. I can also see it in how people are searching on the internet and then somehow finding my blog. The words they are using to search for information from the web leads me to think this way.
The Old Rule Books Aren’t Working
Today I read an article that even the “so-called” experts say this financial crisis isn’t following the “rule” books, they don’t know what to think and they don’t know how to react. If these experts don’t know, what’s the general public to think. In my blog post “The R Word and the Economy”, I alluded to the fact that long-ago I’d given up relying on what any economist had to say. They’ve been wrong. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. It’s not because I know something more, it’s not because I know they are wrong and I know better, it’s only because I see whatever they are doing isn’t working.
With all the financial markets in turmoil, your guess and their guess is just as good as my guess! This global meltdown should give you some clues that no one really knows. Apparently no one saw this coming and when there was doomsday no one knew what to do. How can these economists, with their charts, their predictions, and their guess-timates, give credence to whether there’s been a bottom? Honestly, what do they really know? They certainly didn’t know enough to ward off this mess we’re in. They have all at length told us where they thought housing and the economy was and they were all wrong.
There are many readers of my blog and other blogs who don’t believe in the “Buy Now” commercial in today’s financial climate. I believe there’s a problem with that belief. Actually, it goes back to what got us here in the first place. Housing was never intended to be your ATM machine. It has always been to raise families, build memories, having a place to call your own. Somewhere it seems most of America has lost what housing really is and should be. Unless it is a really good buy, there are those who won’t invest. I understand wanting to make a good investment in the decision-making process. I understand you don’t want to lose money. However, real estate, over the long term has always been a good investment. Yes, it goes up and yes values go down. If you try to analyze it down to the penny, you will never buy and you might not be making a good decision for you and your family for the long-term.
There have been times when I’ve sold houses of my own when the economy was good and also when the economy wasn’t good. I’ve lost money and I’ve made money. Somehow, it has always balanced out. During my 33-year career of selling real estate, I’ve seen lots of recessions and financial meltdowns. I’ve sold thousands upon thousands of houses and you don’t always make money. You should buy the best house you can and the best house you can afford to buy.
In Europe, houses are passed down through generations. In many cases, several generations all live in the same house. You don’t buy a house in Europe with cabinets, appliances, toilets. You get an empty shell. Recently I was showing houses to German clients who asked whether all that came with the houses here. Understanding why they asked, they were pleasantly surprised how much we get when we buy a house here in the U.S. Being born in Germany, I still have family there. My family has lived in the same home for generations.
Times are tough right now, no denying that. However, I hope this financial turmoil brings us back to the things that are really important such as making a home, raising a family, saving money, not getting into credit card debt, not having to beat the Jones’ by out purchasing them and buying bigger, better, more! It isn’t about making the quick buck, it isn’t about getting “rich” buying and selling real estate. A house is a place to hang your hat, to feel the warmth of a fire, to grow flowers, to watch the kids playing in the backyard. Those are the things you can’t put a value on because they are priceless.
Sometimes the best rule is that you need to do what’s good for you and your family, when you want and how you want, regardless of what the so-called “experts” are saying because, you know what, no one really knows for sure!
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
I’ve rewritten this post 4 times and started writing it the day Freddie and Fannie got bailed 
out by Uncle Sam and since then the financial world has been unraveling.
If you haven’t noticed, typically what you won’t find here at my blog is what everyone else is talking about that day. If there’s a story going ’round, you probably won’t find it here because I feel it’s getting enough coverage on other blogs and in the media elsewhere. In fact, I read quite a few local blogs. The other day I went to one blog and then on to the next and they both were reporting the exact same thing. Their words were even the same.
Recently I read an article on Yahoo Finance that got me fuming! What really struck me was the greed, actually the tremendous greed, by the Wall Streeters and the likes of Fannie and Freddie, who lowered their standards dramatically, matching a decline fueled by Wall Street banks that backed the now-defunct sub-prime lending industry. It boils down to a whole lot of greed and arrogance. They took on extreme risk with other people’s capital. The companies also took advantage of the perception on Wall Street that the government would stand behind them in a time of crisis, as is now the case.
They’re now saying they didn’t see it coming. They didn’t see it coming? What a lame excuse that is, what business were they supposed to be in? They didn’t see these massive losses coming? If large companies, banks, and Government can’t control their money, how is the average citizen supposed to handle theirs; yet, who is always the one left to bail them out? Wall Streeters are the ones with the big bucks but it’s the little guy who winds up paying the price.
Now I find out as a result of the Government’s buy out or rescue if you will of Fannie and Freddie, both CEO’s have earned $14 and $14.5 million in salaries last year and have exit contracts giving them another $9 and $14 million respectively as severance pay. SEVERANCE PAY?!…they should go to jail. They should be held accountable for mismanagement of funds and for the tremendous losses that were generated.
What really gets me mad is the ripple effect it has been having on the rest of us who have paid their bills, those who haven’t used or abused loans, those who are now suffering along with the rest of the U.S. and for that matter, the entire world, because of those greedy people on Wall Street and Fannie and Freddie. Not only are we suffering while they walk away with millions, but the taxpayer gets to foot yet another bill because the government is now bailing them out. Isn’t anyone mad? I’m furious, aren’t you? Where’s the outrage???
Recently I saw where both presidential candidates agree the CEO’s shouldn’t get severance pay either! CLICK HERE to read. Don’t misunderstand me, of course I want to see the economy moving again, of course I want the housing market to pick up; and, I don’t want the economy or financial markets to collapse. But at what expense? Haven’t we the citizens paid a high enough price already? Shouldn’t those CEO’s be held accountable? I don’t feel they should be given severance pay. Am I the only one that feels this way? No more government bailouts; no more rewarding CEO’s for poor performance with severance pay.
Families have been destroyed, lives have been shaken and lost all around the world over their greed. I firmly believe, like some other economists have stated, this economy, the housing market, and the financial markets need to work themselves out on their own without a lot of government intervention!!!
OK I’m done ranting.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Picture from Microsoft Office
When I saw ”The World’s Billionaires” list recently, I was surprised by the fact there were only 4 from the United States out of the 25 top billionaires in the world. Mexico had 1, India had 4, Sweden had 1, Russia had 7, Germany had 2, Hong Kong 2, France 1, Saudi Arabia 1, and Spain 2.
How much money would make you feel rich? Ideas on wealth vary according to personal income. The less you make, the less you feel it necessary to be “rich”. Those that make around $30,000 according to a Gallup Poll, felt that $74,000 a year would constitute wealth. Yet those making $50,000 think making $100,000 would qualify them as being rich. The poll said most people who responded felt that $120,000 a year would mean they are rich.
“Rich” in Oregon means having a yearly income of $109,000 and that income is the top 1/5 of all Oregon families. In Connecticut $144,000 would be considered “rich”. While in Washington D.C. you’d be rich if you earned $157,000 (Source: the Gallup Poll).
Measures of wealth based on income are simply inaccurate. Those with high net worth often have little wage income but are rich in assets and in income from investments.
Our Presidential candidates calling for higher taxes on the wealthy are only referring to the top 4% of wage earners, or those earning $200,000 or more per year before taxes. Representatives of every political persuasion believe that the tax policies toward the wealthy are the answer to all of the country’s problems, whether we deny them tax cuts, tax their estates when they die, tax their favorite cigars, their windfall profits or their capital gains.
There’s a TV show that I sometimes catch on CNBC called “High Net Worth“. Frankly, I watch it as a source of entertainment because it is incredible what the “mega-rich” spend their money on. It disgusts me and makes me laugh all at the same time.
So, what does rich mean to you? Having no debt? Being able to buy all the toys you want? Sending the kids to college or owning your home free and clear? Being rich in health? In today’s financial climate, many people are not feeling rich at all. And, most certainly, being rich means different things to different people.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a Blog at WordPress.
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Betty Jung
Disturbing Comment On My Blog – Graff
December 15, 2009 in Commentary, Oregon, Portland | Tags: All About Portland Oregon Real Estate, Betty Jung, www bettyjung.com | 4 comments
This is the picture the reader refers to below. It is a picture I purchased and is copyrighted.
I’ve written several articles now about graffiti and my dislike for it. Recently, I received a comment on one of those posts that disturbed me. I’d like to know if it is disturbing to you as well?
Here’s what the reader had to say:
Apparently from this reader, I gather that he and other graffiti artists feel it is ok, or they should be allowed to deface public property. My comment to the reader was that it’s not ok to deface property. If a graffiti artist wants to paint on anything they should do so on property they own and not anyone else’s, public or private.
Where do they get this belief? My feeling is that they have no respect for other people’s property let alone their own. It bothers me that they feel this way, but I’m not out to change the world or their view. It starts earlier and elsewhere. What is being taught at home and in our schools? Not only did I not like this comment but it also didn’t “open” my mind as the reader suggests. Did it open yours?
(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
Portland