Nan Wimmers

Have you heard about Oregon's New FREE E-Cycle Program...
As of January 1, 2009 the State of Oregon has started a program to recycle unwanted computers, monitors, and TV's. This does not include speakers, keyboards, printers, scanners, or other electrical devices.
The local drop off sites are at The Dalles Disposal and Hood River Disposal.
This sounds to be a great program!!!

Here is the official link to the program for more information:
http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/ecycle/index.htm

What a great time to buy a home in The Dalles, Oregon! Look at these deals that closed in January:

1500 E 14^th ( Bank Owned)
Original Asking Price:$144,900, reduced to $119,90012/1/2008
Closed Price: $71,000
Days on the Real Estate Market 105

325 E 11^th The Dalles, OR ( Bank Owned)
Original Asking Price:$168,500, reduced to $147,90012/15/08
Closed Price: $150,000 (includes buyers closing costs)
Days on the Real Estate Market 89

953 Heritage Loop, The Dalles (chenowith area)
Original Asking Price:$187,500, reduced to $150,000 12/10/08
Closed Price: $151,400
Days on the Real Estate Market 182

1510 W 12th, The Dalles, OR
Original Asking Price:$163,900
Closed Price: $157,900
Days on the Real Estate Market 43

These real estate sales are from The Dalles real estate sales that a REALTOR was involved in but do not include Unrepresented sellers in The Dalles real estate market. The statistics are provided to help you understand how the market is moving in your neighborhood and what locations and prices are seeing success. To learn more about pricing your home and marketing it correctly in The Dalles Oregon, Please give us a call! Nan and Becky @ Columbia Gorge Real Estate

Mid-Columbia Medical Center (MCMC) has entered a three-way partnership to build a new 59,000-square-foot, three-story riverfront medical building at the Lone Pine Village.
The new building will house a range of wellness programs that have previously been scattered around town and at the hospital.
"This will dramatically expand our existing services and add new medical services," said Dwayne Francis, chief executive officer of MCMC.
Among the programs that will move to the new Lone Pine building are:outpatient rehabilitation - physical, occupational and speech therapies,· cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, medical symptom reduction, living healthy with diabetes, the four-bed sleep center, and the Center for Mind Body Medicine.

The Lone Pine building is MCMC's first new construction since the Celilo Cancer Center was built in 2001. The building will be about half again as large as the Medical Office Building, which currently houses the Center for Mind-Body Medicine and other programs that will be moving to Lone Pine Village.
MCMC's partners in the venture are Lone Pine Village itself, whose developer is Robert Gilham, and Integrity Structures, a Vancouver, Wash., owned by third-generation The Dalles native Gabe Duus.
The medical building fits well with the mixed-use philosophy of Lone Pine Village, Gilham said.
"We see this as a mixed use, live-work-play community," Gilham said.
Duus has been closely involved in the design of the building, inside and out.
"We're making sure it works for MCMC," he said. "To last, it has to be easy to use and efficient for a long period of time. We're real close to that right now."
The partners are working with Johnson Architects of Seattle, but have not yet settled on a design.
Construction is due to start soon.
"We're probably two months out from breaking ground, if everything goes as planned," Duus said.
Completion is targeted for fall of 2009.

Flagstone Expansion:

A plan to add a three-story addition to the Flagstone Assisted Living facility 40-foot high building is well underway. The plan calls for the addition of 17 new independent senior living apartments. It would be put on the site between the current buildings and Columbia View Drive and would be 18,768 square feet is size.

He said the new wing would not be attached to the current facility. All of the units in the new addition would have their own kitchens and most of the people who would live there could live pretty independently.

MillCreek Point Expansion:A huge building is getting closer to completion... anyone know how many new units will be in the expansion?

and a new facility coming soon-

When you sell a stock, you owe taxes on your gain - the difference between what you paid for the stock and what you sold it for. The same holds true when selling a home (or a second home), but there are some special considerations.

How to Calculate Gain
In real estate, capital gains are based not on what you paid for the home, but on its adjusted cost basis. To calculate, follow these steps:

1. Purchase price: _______________________

The purchase price of the home is the sale price, not the amount of money you actually contributed at closing.


2. Total adjustments: _______________________

To calculate this, add the following:

• Cost of the purchase - including transfer fees, attorney fees, and inspections, but not points you paid on your mortgage.
• Cost of sale - including inspections, attorney fees, real estate commission, and money you spent to fix up your home just prior to sale.
• Cost of improvements - including room additions, deck, etc. Note here that improvements do not include repairing or replacing something already there, such as putting on a new roof or buying a new furnace.

3. Your home's adjusted cost basis: _______________________

The total of your purchase price and adjustments is the adjusted cost basis of your home.

4. Your capital gain: _______________________

Subtract the adjusted cost basis from the amount your home sells for to get your capital gain.

A Special Real Estate Exemption for Capital Gains
Since 1997, up to $250,000 in capital gains ($500,000 for a married couple) on the sale of a home is exempt from taxation if you meet the following criteria:

• You have lived in the home as your principal residence for two out of the last five years.
  
• You have not sold or exchanged another home during the two years preceding the sale.
  
• You meet what the IRS calls "unforeseen circumstances," such as job loss, divorce, or family medical emergency.

http://www.lizshomes.com/capital_gains_sellers.pdf

By ELROY KING
of The Chronicle

An application to build a 150,000-square-foot Wal Mart store on two lots of newly created subdivision at the west end of town got unanimous approval from The Dalles City Planning Commission Thursday night.
The commission also approved a resolution making their approval official. Commissioner Ron Ahlberg made both motions. Commissioner Chris Zukin seconded the first and commissioner Dean Wilcox seconded the resolution. All seven commissioners were present.
After the vote, when it was time for staff comments, Senior Planner Dick Gassman informed them that their approval of the five-lot subdivision approved on Jan. 9 has been appealed to the city council. Gassman said that issue may come before the council at its Feb. 9 meeting.
The proposed Wal-Mart store will go on two of the five lots created with the approval of the subdivision.
In contrast to early meetings on the two applications, both from PacLand, which drew capacity crowds first at city hall and later at the county courthouse and Civic Auditorium, fewer than 30 people from the public showed up at the latest meeting. There was no public testimony and the crowd included people who had spoken both for and against the applications at earlier meetings.
Commission deliberation centered around two issues, neither of them ones that had raised most of the concerns from opponents during the public testimony process, mainly traffic, Riverfront Trail access and water runoff issues. The commissioners aired concerns about two of the 16 conditions listed in the original staff reports, and ended up modifying both of them.
Ahlberg raised concerns with a condition that required only 15
bicycle stalls for the project, where, based on the size of the store, 45 would normally have been required. The applicant had been given an exemption setting the lower requirement and after some discussion the requirement for bike stalls was set at 25, subject to a later review after which the applicant may be asked to put in more. His motion passed 6-1, with Wilcox, who had made a motion not to change the original condition of 15, voting "no." Wilcox's motion did not get a second.
The landscaping concern was raised by Commissioner Benjamin Huey, who wanted landscaping added to the western side of the building (the part which will be nearest to I-84) to screen it from a residential area south of West Sixth on the other side of I-84. He noted that the landscaping requirements called for screening elsewhere on the property.
After some discussion, which included Chairman Bruce Lavier pointing out that the applicant likely wanted the project to be seen from I-84, a motion to modify the condition on landscaping passed 4-3.
Gassman opened the discussion in the hearing by updating the commission on the traffic studies relating to the project. He said that under an agreement with ODOT based on an earlier traffic study, the first 25 acres could be developed without modifications to the Chenowith interchange. Later in the meeting he noted that further commercial development on the remaining lots in the new subdivision might not take place if interchange improvements became too costly.
Much of the meeting was devoted to a summarization by City Attorney Gene Parker on the finding of facts and conclusions of law for the Wal Mart site plan review. The 41-page document included 97 findings of fact on issues that had been raised either by the applicant or the opponents.
In most of the cases, Parker's conclusion what that the criteria had been meet and in some cases his conclusion was that some issues were not applicable.
It contained several sections, on the LUDO (land use and development ordinance), including application review processes, zone district regulations, general regulations, parking standards, physical and environmental constrains and improvements required with development; other applicable review criteria and comprehensive plan provisions.
The criteria in the documents covered such issues as traffic impacts, landscaping, permitted uses, design standards, pedestrian access, parking, screening, street trees, general requirements, access standards, parking standards, location and use of motor vehicle parking, parking in mixed use development, fleet motor vehicle parking; location, surfacing and curb cuts; internal circulation, landscaping requirements along public right-of-way and interior parking lots, accessible parking, passenger drop off and loading zone; driveways, aisles, clearance, draining and cross access, parking clusters, garbage collections, stalls and isle dimensions, bicycle parking and location, paving and surfacing of bicycle and parking areas,, minimum and maximum parking requirements, erosion and slope failure, cuts and fills, phased development, waiver of remonstrance, trail linkage, street improvement requirements, public utility extensions, public facility capacities, arrangement of site elements, lighting and others.