Portland is over (Detroit: for sale, home, living)

[bler144]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

I agree with you but I don't want to get in trouble for hijacking a thread. We should start a new one- which city/ metro should Portland look to as an economic model?

That is a very good question. I don't have an easy answer for that.

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

which city/ metro should Portland look to as an economic model?

Amsterdam

[lilmisstata]

What a lot of you probably don't realize is that people like me, that have lived in LA and grown up in Hollywood and then moved to the Suburbs of the San Fernando Valley moan about how bad it it here.

We all moan about how horrible it has become and how it is too expensive to live anywhere decent, neighborhoods have changed and become overpriced, etc, etc. It's kinda funny to sit back and read your posts.

Only here in LA, people complain about how the San Fernando Valley has turned into Mexico, the schools have gone from bad to worse, decent middle class neighborhoods start at about $500K and only go higher from there unless you completely live in "the hood". Venice beach, once considered a poorer beach community has a 1 room guest house selling for $1.5 million.

Public transportation? HA! We have the worst, you HAVE to have a car to live in LA and we have the #1 worst smog in the entire country. We are lucky to get 1 bus every hour on most streets and our subway rail system is kind of a joke.

School participation?? You are lucky if you have teachers who care enough to have a conference with you, let alone work with you to develop your child, in my son's high school it was predominantly Latinos at about 75-80% and many could care less about going to college and it seems that most teachers were very content with just playing movies in class or really not caring when a student did want or need help. So most families that really care turn to private schools like me.

Not to mention that MOST people that have come here are not from here!!! Ohhhhh boo-hooo....people are moving to Portland and ruining it. LA in the 70's was really cool too. Imagine living in a city where a MAJORITY of the people who move here want to be discovered, work in the film industry or some sort of entertainment. It attracts a lot of beautiful but superficial people that flock here from all across the world.

Not to mention that people just LOVE the California sunshine....they love it soooooo much, that all of the people who come here and the traffic that is created due to our poor infrastructure and car heavy dependance cause enough smog and greenhouse gasses to create abnormally hotter than usual climate and subsequently a "drought" that seems to have started 20 years ago and only keeps getting worse. We are running out of water and therefore our Water and Power bill (or I should say mine) is often $1800 every 2 months in the Summer time....which is between June and Oct if not longer. I won't doubt if LA runs out of water completely since we get our water brought in from other areas and those areas are running out thanks to us.

You sound like grandparents complaining that they use to go to the movies for 10 Cents and buy candy for a penny. The house that I grew up in cost us $110K and now it is about $750-$800k and that is in the suburbs. My own house, that I will be selling to move to Portland, is about $600k and I live in mediocre neighborhood in the suburbs with bad schools and ugly strip malls.

If any city is overrated it is LA and I don't want any part of it. My husband and I make about $150k and and live like we are the working poor here in LA.

To someone like me...Portland is green, charming, quirky. You can find these big beautiful Foursquare PDX homes that have so much character and history. I walk thru Sullivan's Gulch and people are growing veggies in the front yard and moss is covering the trees. It's just breathtaking. I feel like I am a refugee, escaping LA and trying to go to a place that is a lil slower, smaller, cleaner, and friendlier. But then I read here how bitterly hated Californians are. At least you all have someone to blame and hate. In LA people come here from ALL over so we can't pinpoint 1 state to hate. I guess we hate everyone which is why we aren't the friendliest.

[AndyAMG]

bler144s OP did not strike me as a deep question it was more of a comical musing half based in truth.

What I'm trying to say is if the the thread is hijacked nothing is really lost. At the end of the day it's 1s and 0s anyway.

Portland will never look to another city as model for anything.

[pdwpdx]

Ha! Just wait until you find out how much one of those "big, beautiful four-square houses in Sullivan's Gulch" cost!

[pdwpdx]

Not quite a foursquare (I think) but you get the point:

2015 NE Halsey St, Portland, OR 97232 | MLS #15406495 | Zillow

[bler144]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

bler144s OP did not strike me as a deep question it was more of a comical musing half based in truth.

Hey! That's not fair, I was...oh wait, no you're exactly right.

Originally Posted by lilmisstata

To someone like me...Portland is green, charming, quirky. You can find these big beautiful Foursquare PDX homes that have so much character and history. I walk thru Sullivan's Gulch and people are growing veggies in the front yard and moss is covering the trees. It's just breathtaking. I feel like I am a refugee, escaping LA and trying to go to a place that is a lil slower, smaller, cleaner, and friendlier. But then I read here how bitterly hated Californians are. At least you all have someone to blame and hate. In LA people come here from ALL over so we can't pinpoint 1 state to hate. I guess we hate everyone which is why we aren't the friendliest.

I wouldn't dispute your post in and of itself, but I think you miss the fact that Portlanders look at LA/SF and says, "Dear God, don't let us be like them." We want your horrible reality to be the lessen we learn from.

Not that we likely will.

[Familyman6]

Originally Posted by pdwpdx

Not quite a foursquare (I think) but you get the point:

2015 NE Halsey St, Portland, OR 97232 | MLS #15406495 | Zillow

Why on earth would anyone pay that kind of money for that house?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

I agree.

But, it IS a 6 bedroom house on a 7000ft lot.
Even though it was built in 1905, I am betting that for the money they are asking it's probably in good shape.
It has four fireplaces.
It has an ADU unit that could help pay for it.

It's classic Portland.
Plus, somebody with more cash than brains will come along and buy it.

I really don't like what looks to be a gigantic apartment house behind it though.

I see that it last sold in 2001 for $67,500.
That seemed to me to be fairly cheap for 2001, but then I looked at the birdseye view and it's not in the greatest neighborhood, at least it really wasn't back then.
I guess times are changing.

Maybe it was a dump that got totally remodeled when that neighborhood started to gentrify.
Somebody is going to get a great return on that one if they get what they are asking for it!

(I wouldn't buy it though!)

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by pdwpdx

Not quite a foursquare (I think) but you get the point:

2015 NE Halsey St, Portland, OR 97232 | MLS #15406495 | Zillow

Originally Posted by Familyman6

Why on earth would anyone pay that kind of money for that house?

Well for 4,681 sq ft and 6 bedrooms, you'd expect to pay a lot anywhere for an older vintage home. It's actually almost a bargain in this market.