Streets of Dreams Goes Urban This Year


Updated: 6/12/09

Apparently, the Street of Dreams will come with a free Streetcar pass this year…

Updated: 3/26/09

The folks at the Homebuilders Association were kind enough to pass along their press release. Here’s an excerpt:

“Dream homes come in different shapes, sizes and styles,” said 2009 HBA President Tom Skaar. “This year’s Street of Dreams focuses on the height of urban living in one of Portland’s residential jewels. It will bring tens of thousands of people to the area’s galleries, breweries, unique restaurants and shops. In essence, the Street of Dreams in The Pearl will give people an authentically Portland experience and invite them to see all the wonderful things the city has to offer.”

The 2009 Street of Dreams will also feature a significant increase in its emphasis on sustainability. Most of the homes will meet LEED standards and have other sustainable site development and construction practices that exceed current code. Eco-friendliness and energy efficiency will also be showcased in the condos interiors, and sustainable practices will be incorporated into the show’s production, marketing and operations. This emphasis demonstrates the HBA’s commitment to being more earth-friendly in all its shows and events.

Original Post: 3/23/09

The local “Street of Dreams” real estate extravaganza, which is generally focused on a suburban development, will be in the Pearl District this year, along the Streetcar line.

The stated reason is that the suburban projects are not getting built due to lending conditions.

But I can’t help but think it’s easier to afford your Dream Home if you don’t also have to make those payments on the Lexus…


17 responses to “Streets of Dreams Goes Urban This Year”

  1. People will never give up wasteful habits, this is America!
    Street of dreams, like you can find fulfillment in a house.

  2. a c Says: People will never give up wasteful habits, this is America!
    jk:
    1. Why should they – this is not a third world country.
    2. Who gave you the authority to tell others how they should live? (You are not GWB)

    a c Says: Street of dreams, like you can find fulfillment in a house.
    jk: Especially an overpriced rat cage in the “Pearl”. But that is what Portland’s progressive government promotes with millions of dollars taken from basic services like police, fire and schools.

    Thanks
    JK

  3. i see jim is mad because the homebuilders chose to showcase the “american dream” in the city instead of the suburbs.

    the times are changing

  4. To have little is to possess.
    To have plenty is to be perplexed.

    Lao-tzu (604 BC – 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu

  5. jk: Especially an overpriced rat cage in the “Pearl”. But that is what Portland’s progressive government promotes with millions of dollars taken from basic services like police, fire and schools.

    Why do you hate capitalism? The fact that people were willing to pay for “overpriced” homes in the Pearl would tend to indicate that the property was highly desirable, not that it was a “rat cage”. Have you ever been in any of those condos? “Rat cage”? I’m guessing you haven’t.

  6. Guess what brought the world-wide recession, Mr. Karlock?

    People who can’t afford a house shouldn’t be given one, nor should they be given a false hope that there is some so-called “American Dream” based purely on materialistic greed.

    I know people who have saved a TON of money by living in downtown (or close to it) renting apartments, who have been unaffected by the recession and the housing crisis.

  7. carless in PDX wrote: renting apartments, who have been unaffected by the recession and the housing crisis.

    It has nothing to do with apartments downtown, it’s because many apartment complexes converted to condos in the last decade so the property owners could sell out.

    The remaining apartment complexes have seen record occupancies, which resulted in higher rents. Meanwhile over in condo land, condos (even in downtown Portland) have seen increasing foreclosures, and a number of condo projects have become apartment complexes or were outright cancelled. Those condo buildings that are wrapping up construction are finding it difficult to attract buyers.

    I’m going to be closing on a house in two weeks (outside of Portland), in which the monthly mortgage payment will be LESS than the rental cost of a two-bedroom apartment complex that is finishing construction just one block from my downtown worksite. Yes, I’ll have to commute to work on the bus, but most of my mortgage cost I’ll recoup as a tax break at the end of the year; plus I’ll have room to spread out, my own little “green space” with tall trees and grass and a safe place for my son to play, within walking distance to my son’s daycare and elementary school (it should be noted that the daycare center nearest my work charges nearly twice that of my current daycare center which will now be walking distance from my home). Meanwhile, a quick search at Portland Public Schools’ website shows that if I moved to the apartments by my work, my son’s elementary school would be TWO MILES away and would require either a bus-bus or a streetcar-bus ride.

    Oh, and my new suburban home…will be minutes away for my wife to commute as well, along with a dozen restaurants within a 10 minute walk. And I’ll now be able to walk to an express bus stop.

  8. As someone who has owned houses and lived in apartments and raised a family, I continue to find it bizarre that some people don’t realize that there is a time and a place for everything. With kids, it helps a lot (especially when they reach adolescence) to have room, and a house works pretty well for that. A mortgage is a great tax break (although mortgage interest is valid whether it’s a house or a condo), kids are a great tax break — and both of them are fulltime projects. Houses always need something done, and a lot of people really enjoy spending every weekend doing yard work or maintenance or building something or figuring out how to pay for another project . . . and at some point it might be a relief (it was for me) to let go of all that work.

    And suburb vs exurb vs country vs urban life . . . there is no absolute value. It’s nice to have options. Me, personally? The suburbs make me gag. I love the diversity and options of what passes for “urban” here in Portland; I love living within minutes of my job and I love watching someone else clean the gutters and weed the shrubbery.

    There are conflicting reports about occupancy rates and rental costs in the last few quarters. One report has the vacancy rate jump from 4.6% to 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Another report shows a vacancy rate of 4%. It’s fairly well established that a lot of units originally intended for the condo market are now being offered as apartments (quite the opposite than what we’ve seen for the last few years).

    Moving from a rental to a house 15 years ago, I was amazed at the savings from a mortgage and the tax deduction of the mortgage interest. As the Portland housing market rose, it was easy to roll equity back into improvements and at the time it never occurred to me that all this work cost money (and time) because rising values appeared to make this a wash. For people who don’t mind, or enjoy, spending their free time on house projects, this seems like win-win. These days, I get a lot of joy watching the lines at Home Depot on weekends; it makes my time on the balcony, wiggling my toes and reading a book all that more sweet.

  9. Street of Dreams Goes Urban? I think it is an idea whose time has come. I’ll speak from the vantage point of one who has been involved in myriad sorts of construction projects—from ghetto rehab to historic preservation to Fortune 500 offices.

    For the last three decades American homebuyers have been on a Romantic Fantasy. Having been bored by ‘ticky-tacky’ suburban boxes they opted, instead, for homes that hearkened back to yesteryear. I guess they could imagine themselves as little barons in their new English Tudor or a throwback to Charles Dickens in their neo-Victorian residence. This got out of hand, with the overly large, and frequently poorly rendered, revival styles we came to call “McMansions.”

    So what’s wrong with something completely new? Those McMansions, and other sprawling homes exposed to the Northwest weather can be a real pain to keep up. The leaves plug the gutters; the nice turf gets weeds; the shrubs need trimming; the paint deteriorates; moss grows on the roof.

    In the urban condo, most of these exterior maintenance problems are solved. They are in a neighborhood with lots of different things to see and do–within reasonable walking distance. There’s no great danger of falling off a ladder while changing the Christmas lights. (I suppose one could imbibe too much and fall off the balcony??) And they are significantly smaller and take up much less landspace than the McMansions.

    What I would like to see, however, is for these to be affordable. From experience I know that there is nothing extraordinarily complex in these units. Most of the materials are very standardized—and really not very far above run of the mill items. Sure the kitchen cabinets may have a fancier veneer face–but they are still composite wood products underneath. Plus a lot of the labor of construction has been reduced by using modular components—such as windowwalls and brick masonry units or metal exterior panels. Really, they’re pretty simple from a construction standpoint. Plus in a low rise building—even with a glass exterior–there are ways of constructing the framework and concrete floors in a labor saving way.

  10. Erik, congrats on the house. As a single guy I don’t really need what you need, and I hope you understand that. I think the problem that’s starting to be recognized is that in San Diego, for example, you pretty much have to rent a house rather than an apartment, no matter what.

  11. Dave, thanks for the kind words.

    I have no problem with someone who chooses to live downtown – in fact there was a time I would have loved to live in a downtown condo. (Remember the movie Big? For many years my secret wish was to buy the old Bits & Pieces warehouse just off of I-405 that was vacant/for sale for so many years until it was finally redeveloped just a couple years ago – just so I could have the entire top floor!)

    As my life has changed (and I’ve lived in apartment complexes for many years) I’ve learned to hate living that close to people who have no respect for others, and dealing with landlord/property managers who don’t care. Yes, it’s nice to call someone when something breaks, but it can also be frustrating.

    Ron Swaren wrote: Those McMansions, and other sprawling homes

    While I agree that McMansions are pathetic, they are such a small percentage of homes. It’s just that Metro’s land-use policies have driven up land prices in Portland that in the last couple of decades that is all that has been built in the Portland metro area. Prior to moving to Montana in 2000, I was dismayed that the only house I could buy was a townhome. In Montana I purchased a new, modest ranch home, just over 1500 square feet – a little larger than I needed but it was hardly fancy or over-the-top. I came back to Oregon a few years later…and the home I’m buying is about 1200 square feet.

    Hardly a McMansion.

  12. Metro’s land-use policies have driven up land prices

    But you have to remember that land is just a portion of the cost of a property/building. Overall, part of the problem is that the Portland area has been a popular place, attracting people from wealthier areas who can pay more for housing. And Montana’s economy is probably much different than Portland’s.

    In addition, it should be noted that it’s more expensive to provide services like streets, transit, water, sewer, electricity, telephone, cable television, garbage pickup, recycling pickup, mail pickup/delivery, package pickup/delivery, food delivery, police, fire protection, etc when people are more spread out since it takes more infrastructure (and also travel time) to reach the same amount of people, and that means more infrastructure to maintain.

    Ideally, people living in less-dense areas would have to pay the additional costs to takes to serve them, and then those who still want to could freely do so without burdening society, but sadly that isn’t the case.

  13. Yet another scheme to sell off all those unsold condos and bring customers to the businesses barely getting by in a high end district that would not be able to afford itself without massive taxpayer subsidies.

  14. Yet another scheme to sell off all those unsold condos and bring customers to the businesses barely getting by in a high end district that would not be able to afford itself without massive taxpayer subsidies.

    Yes, it replaces the scheme in prior years to self off McMansions in high-end suburbs that could not have been built without massive taxpayer subsidies in roads and sewers.

  15. Yes, it replaces the scheme in prior years to self off McMansions in high-end suburbs that could not have been built without massive taxpayer subsidies in roads and sewers.

    I forgot that the Pearl doesn’t have any roads or sewers.

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