The Avenue Lofts are named for the cobblestone street that extends into the building as stone corridor. Built in 1923 as the Meier & Frank Warehouse and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, each loft owner is given a historic tax benefit which allows for more autonomy and versatility.
Some of the lofts have 18-foot tall windows and 26-foot tall ceilings. Although the majority is traditional one-level units, there are also eight townhouses and 17 two-story penthouses. In addition, each loft will offer the following amenities:
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Living in one of the 937 Condos will enable you to help our planet and your finances. When completed in the fall of 2008, this 16-story building will use cutting- edge technologies in sustainable living providing loft owners with lower heating and water bills.

The 16-story building inhabits the a half block site at Glisan Street between NW Ninth and NW 10th avenues. Two levels of parking spaces will lie underneath the structure while retail stores and restaurants occupy the ground floor; above will be 217 units of beautifully designed open-spaced lofts.

The second floor podium will contain 4,000 square foot living vegetated ecosystem and a 130 foot long storm water “flow-thru planter” that will purify the water running from the tower’s roof. Stormwater will reach the podium level flow-thru planter through downspout within the building.

The 937 Condos is vying for a Gold rating for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council for environmentally sustainable construction. Other green benefits provided are:

• Architecture that maximizes sunlight
• LEED Gold-rated appliances
• High efficiency heating and cooling systems
• LEED Gold compliant windows
• Dual flush toilets
• Externally-vented kitchens
• In addition, 75 percent of the debris from the demolished building the 927 Condos replaced will be recycled into the new structure.

Inside each loft unit will boast twice the amount of glass as other Pearl District lofts; the windows will be eight feet high and two to ten feet wide. Oversized walk-in showers and deep soaking tubs will grace every master bath. Master bedrooms feature expansive windows, sizable closets and lighting, and are separated from the great room with oversized doors. Who said sustainability couldn’t be luxurious?

See Also: Everything you wanted to know about the Pearl District’s condos and lofts…

So it’s been a long time coming, but here are the current real estate stats for the Pearl District. This will become a regular post (usually by the 5th of the month) to show what is currently active, pending, and sold in our neighborhood. As a side note, Active = Active Listings, Pending = Listings under contract, and Sold = Listings that have sold and title has changed hands in the month prior.

There are a few things we can gather from the data. Probably the most important is the absorption rate. To figure this out, we take the number of active listings and divide that by the number of homes that have sold in the month before. (We use sold data and not pending data because pending listings don’t always close) We can break it down by building, but more often than not, there is not enough of a sample size to get accurate results. So for the Pearl District as a whole we have 316 active listings and 19 that sold in April. 316/19 = 16.63 months of inventory. In case you are wondering, that’s a lot!

By the way, all data is pulled from the RMLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Click the building name to see the sales trends for each building.
Click here to see the 5 year trends for the Pearl District.

The Pearl: A Gem Inside A Shell

Showcasing the city’s top galleries, restaurants, boutiques, and loft condominiums, the Pearl District has grown from a crusty, industrial ugly duckling into a chic, urbane swan.

Formerly known as the Northwest Triangle, the area was once littered with manufacturing warehouses and railroad classification yards. In the late 1980s, developers began purchasing the area’s old buildings and converting them into lofts and offices. Artists, designers, and other creative types were the first to discover the gems in inside the rough n’ tough exteriors, and eventually Thomas Augustine, owner of the Augustine Gallery, was originated the term “Pearl District.”

In the last 15 years, the Peal has experienced an urban renaissance like no other. Forward thinking urban planners have: traded in the viaduct and diesel trains for clean, convenient streetcars, large sidewalks, and bicycle lanes; replaced rundown storage facilities with modern Portland landmarks like Powell’s City Books, the largest independent bookstore in the country; and converted dilapidated warehouses into loft condominiums sporting high ceilings, large windows, and gourmet kitchens.

Many of these lofts are “green buildings” meeting the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. Builders of the condominiums use recycled materials, certified wood, and low VOC-interior finishes and paints. It’s no wonder that Popular Science Magazine named Portland, OR as the country’s greenest city.

Outside the lofts lie innovative public parks including Jamison Square, which is built around a fountain and man made waterfalls and Tanner Springs Park which features wetlands, walking trails, and a creek.

It’s hard to imagine what Capt. John Couch had in mind for the area when he plotted its borders in 1850, but no doubt he’d be amazed what can be seen today.

See Also: Everything you wanted to know about the Pearl District’s condos and lofts…

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It’s been a while since my last post. I was busy getting myself a new camera! This is by far my favorite shot so far. It’s a shot of the Metropolitan from the North. The park in the front is Tanner Springs Park.

Coming up in the next few weeks I will have “Residential Transaction Study” results for most of the buildings in the Pearl. Also a lot more great photos.

There is a misconception out there that only the rich live and own in the Pearl. Well that is simply not true. I ran a search for units in the Pearl District that would be suitable for first time buyers. I set the max price at $250,000 to see what would pop up. There were nine units, from two separate developments. One being the Lexis and the other is for the McCormick Pier condos.

Four units in the Lexis ranging from $189,900 to $249,900. That seems like a good spread until you notice the spread on square footage is 527 square feet to 566 square feet. And the 566 square feet isn’t even the expensive unit.
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Last month, in Portland’s Pearl District, there were 18 total closed transactions. The average and median sales prices were $175,000 apart. What numbers do you really need to know?

With 18 closed sales in February, the average sales price was $778,152. But that number can be misleading. A better representation would be the median sales price. The median sales price is arrived by taking the middle sales value of all the condos sold. When using the average sales price, having one or two multi-million dollar properties could distort your numbers. For example, lets say there were only three sales in the month of February. One in the Lexis sells for $200,000, another one for $300,000 and the last one in the Casey sells for $1.6 million. The average sales price would then be $700,000. But is that really representative of the market? The median sales price takes the middle value of all the units sold. So in our example, the median sales price would be $300,000.
So down to the real numbers:
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Since the RMLS market action 10 days away, I couldn’t wait to see the stats for the Pearl District. I did a search for each building in the Pearl and came up with these stats. I will compare these to the overall condo market when those stats come out from RMLS on the 15th.

Some interesting things to note were how many active listings we actually have compared to what is pending and what went sold in February. If there are 207 listings and only 37 pending listings that would give us an absorption rate of about 5 months. Keep in mind though that with many of these pending or closed sales the rates may be thrown off with extended close dates. Case in point would be 937 Condominiums. They currently have 28 listings and only 1 unit pending. Obviously since the project is not yet completed, it would be unfair to say that they have 28 months of active inventory. Read the rest of this entry »

Buying a condo or loft in the Pearl District looks easy from the outside. The truth is, it is easy. It’s also complicated. If you have ever bought a property before, you know what all goes into it. The easiest part of the process is finding listings. You can go almost anywhere to do this. In fact, there are people who are using our buyer’s search program who will never use me to help them buy their next home. That’s ok by me. Information yearns to be free. The only reason we require an email address from you is to send you the listings that you request. Yeah, I will try to get in touch with you. But if you are not ready, let me know. I’ll let you come to me.

Before we set off on actually walking in to your next home, we need to figure out your Master Plan. I’m not just saying this. Buying your first, second, or even third home is a BIG deal. You need to plan for it. What do you think would have happened over the last few years if those now in foreclosure had started off with a plan that looked 10 years in to the future? Once you know where you are going, we can begin your search for your next home.

But what exactly does the process look like? Read the rest of this entry »