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Weekend Events -June 15/16th

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This weekend marks the end of both Portland’s beer week and Pride. We plan on making it to most of these events this weekend, so it will be a packed and fun filled time!

First up we have the Beer and Cheese Festival at Culmination Brewing. This is a collaboration between Culmination and Chizu/Cheese Bar owner, Steve Jones! they have 10 different beers all expertly paired with cheese. The event is Saturday from 1-4. You can find more info about the specific beers and cheese here. The sold some advance tickets, but tickets are available at the door as well. Maybe we will see you in there!

If you don’t want to sit around and eat cheese this weekend. There is the Woodlawn block party hosted by Breakside brewing. There will be live music, food from Tamale Boy, lots of BBQ, games, vendors, and more beer! This event ruins all day Saturday!

Von Ebert on Glendoveer

Lastly on the beer roster we have Von Ebert’s Crushin Crispies event. This is one we will definitely be going to! Here is a list of all the breweries serving lagers at this awesome event! Breakside Brewery, Wayfinder Beer, pFriem Family Brewers, Ex Novo Brewing, Arch Rock Brewing Company, Heater Allen Brewing, Occidental Brewing Company, 54-40 Brewing Co, Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen, Upright Brewing, Grains of Wrath and Von Ebert Brewing! There will also be brats, wings, and hummus plates available! Tickets are $10 and sold at the door!

All week there have been incredible pride events and this Sunday is no exception! There are 2 stages down on the waterfront and a huge block party in front of Scandals downtown. There is also a great parade through NW and SW Portland that you should go and check out. If you want to see a full list of performers you can click here. We will be walking down in the festival on the waterfront and can’t wait to see you there!

  • Culmination Brewing – 2117 NE Oregon st. 
    • June 15th 1-4 PM
  • Breakside Brewery – 820 NE Dekum 
    • June 15th 12-8 PM
  • Von Ebert Brewery – 14021 NE Glisan
    • June 15th 12-9 PM
  • Portland Pride Festival – SW Waterfront
    • Parade – June 16th – 11AM
    • Waterfront Main Stage – 12:30 -7 PM
  • Portland Pride Block Party *21+*- 1125 SW Harvey Milk st.
    • June 16th – 12PM

How to Sell and Buy at the Same Time

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Many people need to sell their existing home before they are able to buy the one they want next, but how is it done?? I’ll run you through three ways we can make this happen (without you having to move twice) in the video below.

No time for the full video? No problem. Read on below!

1 – Write a Contingent Offer

If you find your dream home before your home sells, we can write a contingent offer on it. This means that your offer is contingent upon the sale of your existing home. However, contingent offers aren’t as strong as non-contingent offers, so if we are competing, the likelihood of the contingent offer being accepted is much less.

2 – Ask for Rentback

If you want to accept an offer and then find your perfect house, you can ask the potential buyers of your home for rentback. In this situation, you continue through the sale and then the new owners ‘rent it back’ to you for a specified period of time. This frees up your finances and gives you some extra time to find that perfect spot.

3 – ‘Subject to Finding a Suitable Property’

In this method, we would accept an offer with a contract clause that states that the offer is being accepted only if/when you find your new home. This one gives you as the seller the most flexibility, but is the most daunting option for the buyer, as they have no guarantee of your motivation to find something new.

As always, if you would like to chat about any of these options in more detail, we would be happy to sit down with you!

Ruby Jewel

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This week’s featured spot is the delectable Ruby Jewel! We are here to tell you that this is the best ice cream in Portland. They have amazing flavors that change regularly, they use only locally sourced ingredients, and you can get an ice cream sandwich, inside a COOKIE!!!!!

I don’t dislike the other ice cream shops, which shall not be named, but Ruby Jewel gives you classic flavors with a small twist that only makes them taste better. A current favorite is the Peanut Butter Dream. It is peanut butter ice cream, with peanut butter cups and swirls of chocolate. It is truly to die for. I would recommend getting it inside of some chocolate chip cookies. Some of their other offerings include The vegan Jewel which is made from chocolate coconut ice cream and a gluten-free cookie and the Pride-Which made from cereal milk ice cream, rainbow cookies, and rainbow sprinkles. They will donate 10% of sales to Q Center if you buy this cookie sandwich.

Since its first opening in Portland, Ruby Jewel has grown in popularity throughout the city. They currently have 3 locations that you can step into to create your own delicious treat!
1650 NW 23rd Ave
3713 N Mississippi Ave.
428 SW 12th Ave
If none of these locations is close enough to home, don’t worry! You can now find their ice cream sandwiches pre-made in most of our local grocery stores! You’re never too far away from the best Ice cream in Portland! Check out all the current flavors Here.

Do you have a place that you think we need to check out? Let us know in the comments!

Palomar

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This week we went and checked out the cuban cocktail bar Palomar! We must be feeling a sunny theme with all the rain we have ben having as this is our second decidedly “Miami” themed location. The decor is pink and teal and certainly makes you wish you were sitting on the beach in Miami drinking one of their fabulous daiquiris!

They feature a rotating flavor of frozen daiquiri everyday, and this isn’t your mama’s frozen cocktail. It’s just boozy enough so you know it has good rum in it, but just sweet enough to be sure you keep on sipping. They also have an extensive bar and many cocktails that stray away from rum.

They sell delicious empanadas, plantains, and a variety of other cuban food staples. The servers and bartenders are all warm, friendly, and go out of their way to make sure you are satisfied! I highly recommend checking this place out I promise you will not be disappointed! If you want to check out the menu, click here

Do you have somewhere you think we need to check out? Tell us in the comments!

Tacos

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May 5th is Cinco De Mayo so naturally I am going to focus on Tacos! 

I love mexican food, more than any other style of food, I would happily eat it everyday! I especially like tacos, they are so simple, but so delicious. This was an incredibly difficult topic for me to research *wink wink* but now you can enjoy the fruits of my labor! 

There are 5 taco places that really stand out to me, of course there are many many more, but I can vouch for all of these. In no particular order, here are the places you should definitely check out this week! 

  • Xico – 3715 SE Division – They have an awesome back patio, amazing margaritas, and fantastic food, everything on the menu is worth eating and while they don’t always strictly have tacos on the menu, the carnitas is a build your own taco plate and to die for! 
  • Taqueria Nueve – 727 SE Washington – They also have an amazing patio and so many taco choices you will need to try them all! They really focus on keeping things authentic and it shows! 
  • Nuestra Cocina – 2135 SE division – really cute restaurant that is a Portland staple. They have homemade tortillas instead of chips and really incredible sangria. They don’t always have tacos on the list either, but many of the entree’s come with tortillas to build your own tacos! 
  • Mi Mero Mole – 32 NW 5th – this Mexico City inspired eatery has tons of choices for your tacos. They focus on guisados, which are home style dishes like stews and stir-frys. Put that all together and you get some amazing food! 
  • Portland Mercado – 7238 SE Foster – This list wouldn’t be complete without the Mercado. There are so many delicious carts here, by Tierra del Sol wins for their tacos. Lots of choices, simple and delicious, and affordable! You truly cannot go wrong. 

Let me know which places you end up trying and which ones are your favorite!! 

Portland Market Action – February 2019

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It’s statistics time! February’s stats came in right where I expected them to. We saw a slight softening in median home price, slightly less homes come onto the market, and slightly less inventory. This is all very typical for the end of winter here in Portland. Here is a quick glance at what the market is doing. Keep reading if you want a more in depth take!

The first thing you likely see on my graphic is that the median sales price is down nearly $15,000 in one month. That may seem like prices are tanking, but the average sales price actually went up by just over $6,000. There is such a difference in these prices because of what is happening in the lower price ranges. There were quite a few “fixers” listed in February that are really dragging the median price down. If you look at the homes that are selling throughout the Portland area, it is hard to find anything under $400,000.

The days on market dropped by only 1 day. 75 days seems like a long time to be sitting on the market, but if you are in a “hot” neighborhood and the home is move in ready under $500,000 or so, the homes are still going pending in a matter of days. Pricing is still really important in this market because buyers are well educated on the market and know when something is priced well.

March has been off to a super strong start and I expect that the average sales price will go up, inventory will go down, and we will see a ton of new listings. Subscribe to the blog to stay up to date with all the latests stats and for fun things to do around town!

January Market Update

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The January market stats are in! Everyone knows I am not much of a statistics girl, but I love these ones. They come in halfway through the next month so it allows me to reflect on whether the trends I was feeling were taking place across the metro area, or just in localized neighborhoods. For January, my market predictions were pretty accurate! The simplified version for those of you not wanting to read on: There are lots more listings, prices are still normalizing, and the market is still leaning toward a seller’s market.

For everyone wanting to get a bit more in-depth, here is my breakdown: We saw the median home price drop just slightly from December, which is something we expect after the holiday season. Almost every year between October and January we see prices fall. Seasonality effects even the strongest markets and this is certainly not a sign that the market is crashing. Despite this slight drop, we had a huge surge of new listings come on the market, more than double what we had in December. There are likely many reasons for this big push but my guess for the biggest reason is that sellers are scared. The media has been stating over and over that we are in for a crash, another recession is imminent, and housing is doomed!! Well, the good news is that nothing that drastic is going to happen. If you have been a buyer, or known a buyer in the last 3-4 years, you know that everyone has been hoping the market would slow down, pricing would stop skyrocketing, and that multiple offers would be a thing of the past. The good news is we all got what we hoped for! I find the best analogy for this is that the market is slowing like a car, we were going 100 miles an hour and now we are going 60. We are still moving forward, just not accelerating. The bad news is, we are on our way into the spring market, and things are going to pick up quickly again.

The average days on market is the most surprising number for me. 76 seems like an exceptionally long time for something to sit on the market, especially when we are seeing so many homes sell on the 3rd day. Truthfully, this number should be much lower, it is skewed primarily by homes that are overpriced with sellers who aren’t willing to negotiate. I’m looking at you, home that needs to be torn down but is listed over 600k! If a home is priced well, “pinterest perfect,” and in a neighborhood close in on the east side, expect it to be pending by the end of its first weekend with multiple offers.

I anticipate we will be in a seller’s market through the rest of our busy season and then we will see the market slow through the end of the year. We may even have a bit of time where we shift into a buyer’s market right around the end of summer. If you are thinking of buying, I would still recommend doing it now. Interest rates are low, but expected to climb, and they affect your affordability more than a slight increase in home prices. If you have questions about affordability, talk to your lender, they have lots of info and stats for you!