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Moving up in market means moving quickly

CHOICES • Properties with right amenities stay hot

By Connie Pickett

The Portland Tribune, Jun 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

CONNIE PICKETT / PORTLAND TRIBUNE

In search of more space, Dave and Heidi Moore and daughter Stella moved up from a Beaumont-Wilshire bungalow to a four-square home in Southeast Portland’s Colonial Heights.

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Dave and Heidi Moore loved their Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood in Northeast Portland.

But with one toddler and dreams of expanding their family in the future, the couple decided to take the appreciation from the sale of their two-bedroom bungalow and move up in the area housing market.

Their biggest desire was more space. “Every room feels about 3 feet too small. We wanted something roomier,” said Dave Moore, 34, who owns a software development company with several partners.

They eventually found a three-bedroom, two-bath, four-square home in Colonial Heights in Southeast Portland with large rooms, a roomy front porch complete with swing and extensive original woodwork for $565,000.

The kitchen has been remodeled with modern appliances, cabinets and concrete countertops. “It has a lot of neat architecture,” Moore said. The house is close to shops and parks, another key feature for the young family.

Finding the home was hard, however.

“That was probably one of the most frustrating things. Good homes went to faster, more powerful buyers,” he said.

Even though Portland’s real estate appreciation rate has slowed down from the last few heady years, many move-up and luxury buyers still are finding they have to move quickly to find the next house of their dreams.

Real estate agents and home builders say move-up (between $500,000 and $800,000) and luxury (between $800,000 and $1.5 million) homes that are properly priced and in good condition with the amenities people are looking for still are selling quickly.

Greg Sorber, a 33-year-old freelance writer who specializes in technology writing, is looking to move up from his three-bedroom, two-bath home in downtown Portland just south of Portland State University. But, he said ruefully, “it’s amazing what you can’t get for $750,000. … Those we’ve liked have gone in a day. People are waiting to pounce.”

He and his girlfriend have very specific desires: a close-in, four-bedroom home with a small yard and a “man land,” which he describes as a place he can go with his boombox and play poker with his buddies.

Kathy Hall, an agent with Hasson Realty, described the current market as more balanced than the “crazy market” of 2005. The good thing about that, she said, is that buyers have more choices across the board and more time to evaluate them.

However, she agrees with Sorber and Moore that well-priced homes in good shape still are flying out of the inventory. Those that aren’t priced right or that need updating are sitting a little longer on the market than they may have in recent years.