About Portland's Overlook

With the fall of creative financing and option of home buying becoming less available to a larger piece of our demographic, some people are clinging to the idea of co-housing or shared living communities.

One such community is happing just down the street. The Daybreak Cohousing Community has ‘broken ground' on a new project. When I say broken, I mean dismantled a great set of ‘horse shoe apartments' circa 1943 (that were in decent condition and rather iconic to the neighborhood in my eyes) in preparation for their new fancy building.

Knowing my past experiences with roommates, I'm sure that this would never be my calling. But I am fascinated in the Daybreak community's plight. First off (and perhaps unfairly and incorrectly), I think of people that want to participate in commune-style living to be hippies... suns of the earth... tree huggers... And yet they've taken these perfectly fine buildings and re-purposed them into modern day condo-like hipster housing. (When I use the words ‘dismantle' and ‘re-purpose' I do mean that they are consciously re-using as much of the original structure as possible to build their ideal community).

What made the original apartments so charming was the huge maple tree that sat in the middle of the horse shoe. Other than severely trimming the tree back to make way for construction, they've thus far managed to save it. In fact, it might be bad karma to take the old tree to the ground now after they had their ground-breaking ceremony under the tree and adorned it with Tibetan prayer flags.

I would imagine that this project is created for both social and financial endeavors. To become fulfilled by creating a community within a community while sharing the costs.... And they might save quite a bit of money on this venture. There appear to be 16 families participating in the community and if they keep their building budget under $2,000,000 they stand to save $75,000 to $200,000 on a ‘similar' (a term loosely used under the circumstances) condo. Hey, this could be the new wave. Now reselling their space in the community when they decide to move on might be another story all together.

Today I took a few moments to find some properties in my own neighborhood where there is still money to be made in the art of ‘flipping'.

I singled out a few properties in the area where some investment gurus have made some minor to major changes and are still coming out ahead even in this debatable housing market slump.

This property was sold for $240,000 9/07 and is now pending at $350,000 (as of 5/08).

Before

After

This property was sold for $220,000 7/07 and again for $346,500 1/08.

Before

After

This property was sold for $230,000 6/07 and again for $374,800 2/08.

Before

After

This property was sold for $220,000 7/07 and again for $390,000 11/07

Before (this property sold in '0' days, so don't blame the Realtor for not taking photos :-) )

After

This property was sold for $306,000 1/08 and is now an active listing at $410,000

Before

After

I wanted to demonstrate a few of things with this post:

• The market is not as bad as everyone may think
• Interior pictures are important to the appraiser, buyer and other agents
• A coat of paint and some staging never hurt the sale

Update 7/11/2008

I couldn't resist adding this house now that it's finally active on the market. The transformation is incredible (sold for $229,000 listed for $449,900):

Before: After:

Every day I walk my neighborhood and mostly admire, sometimes dislike the architecture. No matter what I feel about the outward appearance of the house, the entire grouping makes up the neighborhood that I love to live in. With the collage of houses, come the residents that share my admiration.

The decades have morphed the neighborhood appeal into a mishmash of styles, sizes and designs. The ebb and flow of economics have determined how large or small each new home will be. It also determined when it made more sense to rejuvanate or tear down and rebuild a dilapidated structure.

Like many inner-Portland neighborhoods, my neighborhood was mainly built up in the 1920s when bungalow and craftsman houses of that decade were built to keep the older farm houses (usually one per block) company in a growing city.

There is a sprinkling of 1930s houses, but keeping with the historic tradition of the rest of Portland area (and much of the US), the Depression put a large halt to that decade's construction, which often consisted of Tudor style bungalows.

The 1940s brought on a new housing frenzy, although it seemed to miss much of my immediate neighborhood (which was running out of lots by then), houses were frantically being built in surrounding neighborhoods wherever they may fit. In 1948, the Vanport Flood wiped out a blue collar port "city" located at the bottom of the bluff (now Swan Island) and modest houses were built throughout the area to house dislocated residents.

The 1950s continued with modest housing in the area. It was the first version of tract housing that we still see today. Sadly, some of the character was bred out of these houses and the basements started disappearing, but they're sturdy little structures all the same.

For the most part, houses kept their modesty until the 1990's rolled around and the neighborhood started gentrifying (I'm still torn as to whether this is a good thing or not). Now new houses over 2,500 square feet (above ground) are being built (this may seem small to many McMansion dwellers out there, but around here, we seem to think that's more than adequate) and restaurants and small shops are starting to call the arterial streets home.

The block where I live is like a box of chocolates... My block is home to the turn of the century corner house, next to the 1920s house across the street from the 1930s house, kitty corner to the 1980s house which is right next to the 1950s house. At the end of the block are restaurants, an apartment building and new Townhouses.

The group of people that this collaboration attracts is as colorful as the history of the houses and the stories they tell. Houses vary so much in size and condition that we live next to lawyers and doctors on one side, teachers on the other and renters across the street. I love that. I appreciate that everyone has a different idea of what their houses and landscapes should look like. Even ‘twin houses' that you find side by side that were built in the early 1900s have since lost their likeness due to the care that they've been given through the years.

If you are at all interested in historical Portland architecture, please check out this book at Powells (sure, you can order it off of Amazon.com, but wouldn't you rather peruse Powells for hours on end?).