The relatively large number of Portland cheap houses for sale has contributed to the inclusion of the city in a Forbes list of the best cities for home borrowers.
Forbes recently ranked Portland as the10th best U.S. city for prospective home buyers because of its lower mortgage rates and lower rates of residential mortgage defaults and foreclosures. Forbes used figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which supervises mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
According to the study of Forbes, the average residential mortgage rate in Portland is 5.03 percent. The percentage of mortgages delinquent by more than three months in January 2009 was 1.82 percent, which increased to 3.63 percent in January this year. Additionally, the percentage of houses that entered list of foreclosed homes in January 2009 was one percent, which climbed up slightly to 1.86 percent in January this year.
In the housing index compiled by Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller, the number of Portland cheap houses for sale was enough to push down the price index of Portland by 0.5 percent in January compared to December 2009. Portland and fellow Northwest city Seattle ranked second and third in a listing of cities with the biggest price index declines in January. Chicago posted the biggest index drop at 0.8 percent.
According to Portland housing market analyst Jerry Johnson, Portland and Seattle are exhibiting significant price declines only now because the impact of the foreclosure crisis was delayed in the Northwest. Analysts even contended previously that the Northwest would be able to escape the foreclosure storm.
Portland was affected eventually largely because of record loss of jobs in the construction sector, based on employment figures from the Associated General Contractors. In 2009, Portland lost 9,100 constructions jobs and the loss continued in January 2010, with a decline of 18 percent in construction employment over the 12-month period.
Ken Simonson, chief economist of AGC, said that it is difficult to think of recovery in the housing sector when there are a lot of jobless construction workers. All in all, the state of Oregon lost a total of 15,000 construction jobs in 2009.
With more than 34,000 Oregon homes in default and in foreclosure in 2009, it is not surprising that there are a lot of cheap houses in Oregon. The Portland metro area also posted more than 20,000 foreclosures in 2009, so the number of available Portland cheap houses for sale is enough to entice investors and home buyers.
John Cutts has been educated in the finer points of the foreclosure market over 5 years.
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