When Swap Shop and Roost board members and [...]]]>

Regular Friday gym time 3-5pm, followed by bouncy castle night with the castle gifted to us by the Engs in full swing in the gym from 6:30 on.

Important [...]]]> Our first of two great Brazilian parties in April, that will help Leticia George fundraise for a great cause, will be happening Friday April 2.

Regular Friday gym time 3-5pm, followed by bouncy castle night with the castle gifted to us by the Engs in full swing in the gym from 6:30 on.

Important to know: Usually our food service stops at 7 but Leticia plans to serve until 8:30 (or until all her food is gone) for everyone who’s hungry for:

• Adult plate of Feijoada (black bean stew with pork) + rice + brazilian style salad: $5
• Adult place of “veggie” Feijoada (black beans only) + rice + brazilian style salad: $4
• Child plate of Feijoada (black bean stew with pork) + rice + brazilian style salad: $3
• Child plate of “veggie” Feijoada (black beans only) + rice + brazilian style salad: $2
• Pão de queijo (yummy “cheese rolls”, you don’t really know what they are until you try them and get hooked! an they are gluten free): $2
• Brazilian style salad only: $2
• Dessert: Brigadeiro or Beijinho (chocolate or coconut “truffles” – and yes, you will want more than one!): $2
• Juice: $1

All the food is fresh and being cooked today and tomorrow. She has shopped locally and will be incorporating organic ingredients.

Here’s Leticia’s fundraising story . . . come support her and enjoy a great meal too.

“Noite Brasileira!! Come one, come all, the Brazilian night is back and so is yummy food with a new twist: you will be eating to support a wonderful cause! I am training to complete a Triathlon (GULP!) in June as a member of the The Leukemia &Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training. In exchange for all the guidance we have from couches to participate in this endurance event, we raise funds to help the LLS stop Cancer from taking more lives. Every four minutes someone new is diagnosed with blood cancer, every 10 minutes someone dies. In the US only, more than 1,500 people a day were expected to die of cancer in 2009. The most common cancer in children is leukemia and it causes more deaths than any other cancer among children. All proceeds raised from our participation on this challenge will support LLS’s programs of research (to find a CURE!), patient aid, public and professional education and community service. That being said, I NEED your help to meet my monetary goal of $3400 for the LLS. So how can you help? Come to the swap shop to enjoy some yummy Brazilian food, bring your friends! All the profit from that night will go to my fundraising. Please check my website to get the full story and if you can’t make to dinner (but I really hope you do!), you can donate there as well.

A great way to think of Scott Buntin’s very, very local business -  ASAP Mac and PC Services – is to just refer to him as our “community brother-in-law.“ Not everyone has relatives in town to watch our kids or that brother-in-law or neighbor just down the street that knows all about computers.  [...]]]>

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Whether you are seriously in the market for a new home or just dreaming and planning for the future — we are lucky to have very knowledgeable inner southeast real estate agents: Jarrett [...]]]> Spring is in the air and that means home buying and selling is picking up even in this down economy.

Whether you are seriously in the market for a new home or just dreaming and planning for the future — we are lucky to have very knowledgeable inner southeast real estate agents: Jarrett Altman and Tracy Dau of Neighborhood Works Realty as Roost sponsors to keep us all in the loop on what’s happening in our part of Portland.

Every quarter I ask Tracy and Jarrett for an update on homes selling in our neighborhood and a bit of education on what we would all like to know to make the best of our funky old inner Southeast rentals and owned homes.

If this is your year for jumping into home ownership or selling what you have and buying a new home, the first time home buyer and current home buyer tax credits are in effect as long as there is an offer made and accepted by April 30th. As I well know from buying my own home last year, offers go back and forth for a while with counter offers and inspections and other life events. Tracy, who was fabulous working with me and the seller’s agent for my 3 bedroom 2 bath on Yamhill, recommends using the next three weeks to get all your ducks in a row to start making those first offers so you can be well within the deadline.

Under the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit, as long as a written binding contract to purchase is in effect on April 30, 2010, the purchaser will have until July 1, 2010 to close. Happy house hunting if this is the right time for you.

For those of us still trying to decide if renting or owning makes more sense, Jarrett forwarded me this piece of regional good news: According to Forbes Magazine, Portland is listed as the 8th best city in the nation where it is smarter to buy than rent. To rank the cities, Forbes computed the premium to buy–the spread between what you would spend to rent and what you would pay for a mortgage–and then identified locales where economists predict home prices will go up the most over the next five years. Apparently, in our last housing bubble you would have been paying a 62% premium to go from renting to buying in Portland but in the third quarter of 2009, that premium shrank for to “only” 46%. At the same time, Moody’s Economy.com gives Portland a projected home price jump of 19% over the next five years because of our tight urban growth boundaries are giving the homes we already have more value.

Whether rental and purchase prices are going up or down or sideways, the bottom line for most of us it how much will the home I want cost?

Tracy compiled this list for us from homes that have closed within the last 6 months in the Sunnyside Environmental School district boundaries:

Current fixers are selling in the $320,000 range. Two examples of this are – 2414 SE Madison Street listed at $319,000. The house is 958 sqft above grade with 958 in a semi-finished basement, with 5 bdrms 2 bath’s with tiny yard, and off-street parking. The second example is 4020 SE Belmont Street. The house is listed for $340,000 and is 4 bedroom 2 bath and bank owned.

Medium size homes in that are three bedroom two baths are selling around $450,000. Two examples – 3642 SE Morrison Street which is currently active at $449,900. This house has 1463 finished sqft and is 3/2 bath. Another house that has sold is 1327 SE 32nd Place which listed for $459,00 and sold for $436,000. This house also had detached garage and driveway and both homes sit on quiet streets in the heart of Sunnyside.

Remodeled homes with new systems updated kitchens and bathrooms are selling in the upper $400,000 – $600,000 range. Two examples that have recently sold are: 3717 SE Yamhill Street which was listed for $475,000 and sold for $474,200. This house has 1464 sqft finished on the main two floors with a partially finished basement. The house has NO garage nor driveway. Second example is 1309 SE 32nd Place which listed for $575,000 and sold for $550,000. This house has approx. 2400 sqft of finished space with 3 bedrooms and 2.1 bathrooms. A driveway and decent size yard with deck and lawn.

Tracy and Jarrett’s generous offer to all of us still stands — call with your basic house questions any time. Even if you aren’t buying or selling a house, you can really help yourself (and indirectly Tracy, Jarrett and other agents too) by checking in with someone like them before tearing down a wall, responding to the city’s fix it letter, or slapping on a coat of paint.

With their own kids to raise and real estate careers to navigate in a challenging market, Tracy and Jarrett wouldn’t be able to drop everything to spend a big chunk of their day with you if you aren’t in the market right now to buy or sell, but you’d be amazed by the knowledge they can share in a 5-10 minute phone conversation or a quick stop by your house on their way to the next client.

As I said the first time I posted about Tracy and Jarrett, as the years go on, sharing the kind of inner South east neighborhood knowledge they have from being day to day in the market is going to help all of us have more success with purchases, rentals, remodels and renovations. Now, that’s how Neighborhood Works!

To reach Jarrett Altman (mom of 3 year old Justine): jarrettneighborhood-workscom  jarrettneighborhood-workscom   (503) 407-4200.

To reach Tracy Dau (mom of 2 year old Lander and 6 year old Olivia): (971) 275-0387 tdaujunocom  tdaujunocom  

To read more about all our Roost sponsors (and to find that number or address you need when you can’t find the original post), check out the Sponsors page. Our growing list of great neighborhood businesses are in business card size banners along the left side of the home page with links to the posts and their own web sites.