Hillsboro’s Proposal for Community Center

A community center in the Hillsboro area has been on the City Council’s top priority list for a few years. Hillsboro Parks and Recreation has proposed a 91,000 square foot space located near 53rd Avenue, that will feature a recreational pool, two courts, and ample community space. This will be a great recreational space for Hillsboro and Orenco neighborhoods. For more information on funding, timeline and features of the proposed community center CLICK HERE

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Bethany Library is Getting Bigger!

The Central Bethany Development is planning on expanding the Bethany Village area in the next couple of years and is setting aside nearly 10,000 square feet of space for the Bethany Library to expand. This will be a great addition and resource for Bethany residents! To see more about the Library’s plans to fundraise as well as more information on the Central Bethany Development CLICK HERE

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Oregon School Performance Ratings

The Oregonian has come up with a 5 tier rating system for the 1,200 schools in the state of Oregon. The rating system is primarily based off of year-to-year improvements to individual student’s math and  reading scores. They also take a look at graduation rates and state wide test scores. Check out the ratings and see where your schools rate.

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Portland’s Fastest Selling Neighborhoods

The Portland Business Journal takes a look at the twenty five fastest-selling neighborhoods in the greater Portland area. This article takes a look at the average amount of days on the market before a home is sold for each neighborhood. They found that the entire Portland area only had an average of 82.5 days on the market in 2013 and isn’t showing signs of slowing down.  Click here to see if your neighborhood made the top 25 list! 

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Hillsboro School District Boundary Proposal

Here’s a recent article in the Oregonian that talks about the Hillsboro school district’s proposal of a boundary adjustment. The proposal estimates 950 new students will be added to the Hillsboro school district due to several current and new residential projects. The meeting was held at the Orenco Elementary School on February 18th. For more information check out this link.

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School Locators..a great tool!

For those of you who are planning to buy a home in the portland area (or moving from out of state) I found some great school locator links.

For portland, the website below gives information on what school your child will attend when you enter a home address in the portland school district: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/departments/enrollment-transfer/6478.htm

For the Beaverton school district, they do not quite have a locator site like the portland school district, but instead a file that lists each street address. Users will have to manually search for the home address they are putting an offer on and cross-check that with the school their child would go to. Use this document for reference.

It is the same for Hillsboro school district, check out the following link. It has a map of the district with all the schools highlighted.

 

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Are good schools influencing Real Estate Prices?

We strive to give the best to our children, be it healthy food, a safe environment where they can thrive or education in the best schools and universities. Over the years, I have  noticed that there are smaller pockets of optimistic home price increases around some of the better school districts in the portland metro areas (certainly my area of expertise…Bethany). This could be due to a growing trend among many home buyers to buy their next home near some of the better school districts.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

When I started in the business, I discovered that a large percentage of my buyer clients considered the proximity to Findley Elementary, Jacob Wismer or Bethany Elementary (all in the Bethany Area) to be the primary motivation to buy a home in Bethany. Who could blame them…Test scores for Findley ElementaryJacob Wismer and Bethany Elementary test scores are testament to this trend. These and many such good schools in the Beaverton, Hillsboro and Portland metro area are influencing home buyers to buy close to better school districts.

I have also realized that re-sale values for homes in these areas is great. The good schools seem to create a buzz that in turn brings in more families towards these areas, thereby creating a shortage of homes sometimes.

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Fluoride or no Fluoride..

To someone moving in from out of state, this may be a bit of a shock.

English: Aerated water from a tap.(Photocredit :Wikipedia)

Portland recently became the largest city in the country without fluoridating its water supply. This was after San Jose (CA) decided to add fouride to its water.

This has been a controversial issue in Portland for quite some time now. Portland’s City Council unanimously voted Wednesday morning to add fluoride to the city’s water supply.

Check out the detailed article here.

Some areas like Tualatin and parts of washington county (like Bethany) are serviced by Tualatin valley Water District (TVWD) already add fluoride to the water. Check out the district serviced by TVWD here.

 

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New parking Garage near Orenco Station

The City of Hillsboro just approved the construction of a five-story parking garage for Intel. The fact that more jobs are coming to Oregon (courtesy Intel) is a very good thing, but it remains to be seen how this development will affect the residents of Orenco Station. I certainly believe that the Orenco Station home prices may increase if Intel hires additional workforce for the new factory (Fingers crossed).

Previously Intel had not been quite open with the Orenco Station residents on the construction of the garage. Since then Intel seems to have been more proactive in responding to the petitions and needs of the Orenco Station neighborhood.

Check out the latest article published related to this development.

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Are we out of the Real Estate slump in Portland?

What a way to start Blogging on my new website. It could not have been better than sharing with all of you that the Portland Real Estate Market seems to be moving in the positive direction. 

The 7.8% increase in the median sale price in July 2012 compared to the same month in 2011 should light up all our faces!

Not just the sale prices, but the number of new listings also went up compared to July 2011. June saw more listings compared to July but that is expected (due to the start of the summer season)

What I also find most interesting from this report is that the TMT (Total Market Time) sees more of a downward trend than expected which is great for us Portlanders!

Check out the full article here …

 

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