By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, August 26, 2021
If there is one part of the Portland market that’s not hot right now, it’s condos downtown and in the Pearl District. The Covid buying frenzy really focused on detached single family homes with yards. Communal living where you have to walk into an enclosed building and then take an elevator to your front door was the exact opposite of what the majority of buyers have wanted over the last year and a half. So for those folks who DO want to own a condo in the Pearl, the neighborhood is a pool full of fat oysters where buyers can take a while to look around be picky about what type of unit they want.
My buyer Gene moved up to Portland from southern California and had been renting an apartment in the Pearl. He loved the neighborhood and how convenient it was to walk to anything and everything, and decided he wanted to purchase a Pearl condo for his first home. Gene loves to get out of town so having a dedicated parking spot was important, as was having as much of an unobstructed view out the window as possible. He was really attracted to the Edge Lofts at NW 14th and Kearney, and the higher the floor the better. We were able to score a fabulous 1 bedroom condo with views for days on the 10th floor. The previous owner spent a fortune upgrading the original blah kitchen into a masterpiece full of counter space and cupboards, all while leaving plenty of space in the living room/dining room/kitchen area. Interest rates are so dirt cheap right now that if you can afford the monthly payment, financially you are better off long term borrowing as much as 95% to get a conventional loan and investing whatever else you planned to use towards a down payment in so many other investments that on average pay greater than 3% annual return. For every $5,000 a buyer borrows, it’s about $21 a month, or equivalent to giving up one coffee a week at a coffee spot. The condo had been sitting on the market for 6 months and had a couple of price reductions. Holding onto as much cash as possible after closing made the most sense to Gene, so instead of asking for another price reduction, we asked for seller paid closing costs, which the sellers were happy to do. Inspection went great, appraisal came in at value and less then a month after we put in the offer, Gene got keys to his very own slice of Pearl paradise.
Alyssa Isenstein Krueger
Broker | OR
She/Her
I am living the dream. Working as a real estate broker in my home town brings this native Portland gal joy beyond measure. Check Out My Reviews! I took the round-about-road towards this career...
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