Portland, Oregon – Portland Oregon real estate agent David Somerville says young families are being drawn to Downtown Portland’s condos and lofts by low prices, good neighborhoods, and close proximity to jobs.

Somerville, who has been selling Portland real estate for over ten years, says the trend of younger buyers coming into the downtown is welcomed by Portland employers and property owners alike, and has helped to revitalize downtown neighborhoods.

“The current housing market is providing some great opportunities for younger buyers to get into Portland condos and lofts at pretty amazing prices.”

He says there are certain neighborhoods, like the Pearl District, that are particularly sought after by younger home buyers.

“The Pearl District has a lot of things going for it as a place to live downtown. There are plenty of restaurants, nearby employers, parks, grocery stores, and other shopping, all within walking or biking distance. Walkscore.com rates the area near 100.”

While Somerville encourages first time home buyers to get preapproved for a loan before setting out to visit properties, they can search for available Portland homes for free on www.maxwellsinclair.com.

For more information, contact:

David Somerville
Portland Real Estate
5 Centerpointe Dr. Suite 150
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
503-789-7633

http://www.maxwellsinclair.com

Portland, OR – Oregon real estate agent David Somerville, a REALTOR® who is an expert in Portland home values, has released the top five metro areas in his Portland Home Appreciation Report to help those following the market to understand trends in real estate market activity.

Somerville says the report, which is designed to be helpful to Portland real estate professionals but accessible to the average homebuyer, gives a broad overview of market health broken down by regions.

“I cover the twelve major Portland metro areas, including NW Portland and Washington County, Milwaukie and Clackamas, Lake Oswego and West Linn, NE Portland, Tigard and Wilsonville, Oregon City and Canby, North Portland, Beaverton and Aloha, West Portland, Hillsboro and Forest Grove, SE Portland.”

He says that the report is a very objective presentation of market information designed to help potential Portland home buyers make informed decisions about where and when to buy real estate in Portland neighborhoods.

“I just look at the facts of the market and report to my readers what the trends look like for the price of Portland real estate. Many home buyers have come to appreciate the actionable information in these reports.”
Top Five Metro Portland Areas

1. NW Portland / Washington County
2. Milwaukie / Clackamas
3. Lake Oswego / West Linn
4. NE Portland
5. Tigard / Wilsonville

The areas are ranked according to the amount of appreciation Portland homes experienced for each region during the previous year. NW Portland and Washington County experienced an 8.70% decrease in property values from a year ago, while Milwaukie and Clackamas experiencing a 9.50% decline. Lake Oswego and West Linn fell 9.8%, NE Portland fell 10.2%, and Tigard and Wilsonville fell 10.3%.

The full report can be viewed at http://www.maxwellsinclair.com/blog/tag/home-appreciation-report/

Search for Portland Homes on the Apple iPhone

Portland, Oregon – David Somerville, a Portland, Oregon area REALTOR® covering real estate in Portland, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Tigard, has launched an iPhone application to make it more convenient for buyers to search for Portland homes from their mobile phones.

The app, which is available for download in iTunes or from Somerville’s website, http://www.maxwellsinclair.com, is offered free of charge to home buyers to search Portland’s real estate listings by entering activation code 2370. He says users just need an iPhone and an iTunes account, and they can be browsing — and bookmarking — available real estate listings fast.

Somerville says that searching for Portland homes is made significantly easier with this new technology.

“The iPhone is naturally a perfect tool to search for homes online, because the browsing experience on the small screen is so near the desktop experience. The ability to take it with you when you’re out driving around Portland neighborhoods makes it very useful.”

The application makes this browsing experience even easier, because it provides an easy to use tool to help buyers drill down with detailed search criteria to find the perfect property.

With half of all mobile web browsing performed on the iPhone, he says it made sense to offer this application first to reach the most home buyers. But he said that plans are underway to offer more mobile real estate search applications to search for Portland homes on other mobile operating systems like Android and Blackberry.

“We’re very excited about this new tool to offer our clients. Purchasing a home can be a difficult process without the right tools and experienced, friendly people to make it happen. This is just one more way we’ve tried to use technology to make the home buying process a little easier — and more enjoyable — for our clients.”

Portland, OR – As a Portland Oregon real estate agent, David Somerville has a lot of advanced tools at his fingertips for finding Portland real estate such as foreclosures, downtown condos, luxury properties, and waterfront properties. What Portland home buyers may not know is that many of those tools are available for free to his website visitors on his top-rated real estate search website, giving users a wide variety of choices in how they search for Portland homes.

According to Somerville, the website offers a huge advantage to Portland home buyers because of the wealth of free real estate listing and market information provided.

“We’ve gone overboard providing market data and neighborhood information for Portland real estate. Our goal was to make as much information available to homebuyers as possible, and from the feedback we get from the site, I can tell that people are really finding it a convenient way to find their next home. ”

“We’re confident the site will prove to be a huge time saver for Portland homebuyers.”
He says that the map search is a popular feature, but there are many other methods available on the site to search for Oregon real estate, such as by school, neighborhood, or housing type.

“Some users prefer the visual nature of the map search, because you can see clearly where properties are in relation to other landmarks in Portland. Others prefer the advanced real estate search tool, which is an amazingly powerful real estate search engine that is normally only accessible to a Portland Realtor or real estate broker.”

He says the site provides thousands of different ways for Portland first time homebuyers and existing homeowners to find a Portland home to meet their family’s needs. Somerville suggests that visitors spend some time trying out the site to get familiar with it.

“The more you use the free search tools, the more you are likely to find new ways to uncover the types of properties you are looking for. One of the best ways to search is to just select a zip code in the Basic Search form.”

But the most convenient feature, perhaps, is the new listing alert that’s built into the site. Once a user creates an account, searches can be saved and automatic email alerts set up to let them know when new listings come on the market that match their search criteria.

Somerville recommends that anyone relocating to the Portland area take advantage of the free information and search tools provided. “If you are in the market for Portland homes, we suggest trying out the site early in your quest for the perfect home,” Somerville says. “We’re confident the site will prove to be a huge time saver for Portland homebuyers.”

For more information:

David Somerville, REALTOR®
(503) 789-7633

http://www.maxwellsinclair.com

http://www.maxwellsinclair.com/blog