Shelli's & Susan's Guide to Portland

Let us Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood

Welcome to our website about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It's our way of helping you become acquainted with the neighborhoods and communities of the Portland metro area and to inform you about the Portland area housing market. Your comments and suggestions about the website are always welcome. 

If you have questions or if you're interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact us online or call Shelli at (503) 497-5061 or Susan at (503) 497-2984.

Shelli Gowdy — Real Estate Broker
Susan Marthens —  Principal Real Estate Broker/CRS GRI

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New Listings in the Five County Metro Area

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New Listings by Area in the City of Portland

Northwest Portland  ♦  Southwest Portland  ♦   Southeast Portland ♦   Northeast Portland  ♦  North Portland  ♦  All Areas

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Homes for Sale by Community in the Portland Metro Area

Beaverton  ♦  Dunthorpe  ♦  Happy Valley  ♦  Lake Oswego  ♦  Milwaukie  ♦  Portland  ♦  Sherwood  ♦  Tigard  ♦  Tualatin  ♦  West Linn

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Homes

Small hydroponic system bring fresh air and greenery into your home  

8 April — The company Aqua Design Innovations has recently released the so-called EcoQube Air, which is a small hydroponics green house, perfect for those wishing to bring a little greenery into their apartment or office, which goes beyond just owning a plant. EcoQube Air also offers light therapy and provides oxygen. EcoQube Air is a soil-less hydroponic system, which features a dual-stage air filtration system. It measures 8 inches by 16 inches (20.3 cm by 40.6 cm) and requires almost no maintenance. It will start to work as soon as it’s plugged in. The designers also claim that the system can act as a “light therapy” device, which can help re-sync the owner’s natural circadian rhythm. If you live a busy, connected life than you’re constantly exposed to bright lights, so this could benefit you.  Read more... 

Old House Revival Tour is this weekend

7 April — The Old House Revival Tour highlights projects in the kitchen, and beyond. Visit a world where Portlanders showcase how they pay respect to the past of our older homes, while gently molding them to meet today's needs. There are eight homes on the tour this year, representing a variety of home styles, eras and historic preservation approaches. Homeowners and contractors will provide ideas and information on how you can restore spaces lost to previous remodels, create new spaces that are sensitive to the architecture of the home, or preserve original building materials.  Read more...

Portland continues to hit elite residential real estate heights

8 April — Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County ranked among the nation’s five hottest single-family markets, according to a new report released Thursday by Ten-X. Fort Lauderdale dropped from second to fifth place this year in Ten-X’s Top Single-Family Housing Markets Report for Spring 2016. Palm Beach County rose a few spots to land at No. 4. Seattle and Portland remained in first and second place, respectively, and Nashville was No. 3.  Read more...

News  

Oregon vs. Oracle: Legal war gets personal as company goes on the attack

8 April — It's come to this in the long, bitter legal fight between Oracle Corp. and the state of Oregon over the botched Cover Oregon healthcare website. The software company is seeking contempt sanctions against the state for allegedly leaking confidential Oracle documents to the press in direct violation of a court order. Oracle claims the state tipped off a reporter about how to remove redactions in state documents hiding snippets of damaging Oracle internal emails. The contempt battle is just one front in a furious legal brawl stemming from the spectacular failure of Cover Oregon, on which Oracle was the primary contractor.  Read more...

Rents fall, protests continue

8 April — Portland rents went down last month for the first time in years, according to a recent survey. But don't tell that to the dozens of activists who temporarily disrupted a Multnomah County Commission meeting Thursday morning to demand a freeze on evictions and rent increases. “The most recent homeless are families. They’re people with full time jobs, they’re people with children who have no other options but to sleep in a tent on the street because there’s no vacancy and the rents are too high,” says Jamey Duhamel, who showed up at the meeting as part of a protest organized by Portland Tenants United. Ironically, the protest happened the same day that ABODO national rent tracking firm released a survey saying the average rent for a one-bedroom Portland apartment fell from $1,303 in March to $1,216 in April.  Read more...

Why Portland's not such a bad place to find a new job

8 April —  In 2015, U.S. private-sector salaries grew an average of 2.6 percent. So says Headlight Data, which used recently released non-agricultural employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of course, if you live in Portland, your check grew by more than that. The Rose City logged an increase of 6.5 percent, ranking third nationally among large metro areas, or spots with 1 million or more residents. That ranks behind Columbus and Virginia Beach.  Read more...

The military's Oregon-built drone ship is headed to California

8 April — Sea Hunter, we hardly knew ye. The military's new made-in-Oregon drone ship, designed to spend months at sea without any human crew, could be spotted in recent weeks cruising the Willamette and Columbia rivers, occasionally spending time at a highly visible dock near Tilikum Crossing. But after a christening ceremony Thursday morning, Sea Hunter will set sail for San Diego for two years of sea trials to see whether it can live up to the dream of a completely unmanned naval ship. Portland-based Vigor Industrial built the prototype for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's research and development arm. The project is called ACTUV, pronounced "active" and short for Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel.  Read more...

Tearing down the walls

8 April — When Roger Shepherd came up with the idea for the West Linn Historical Society’s latest initiative, he was inspired in part by the “Gallery Without Walls” art exhibition in neighboring Lake Oswego. But he doesn’t want to give them too much credit, and indeed the historical society’s new “History Without Walls” program is very much its own entity. The idea is to encourage residents to experience local history beyond the staid confines of a museum — to bring life to history through “events, activities and online resources.””Looking at historical societies across the country, the majority do have a museum they operate, and that’s pretty much all they have time and resources to do,” Shepherd said. “The West Linn Historical Society — without having a museum, it frees us up to present and bring history to the community in a lot of different ways.”  Read more... 

Study:  30,000 young Northwestern people neither in school, nor employed 

7 April — More than 30,000 young people living in the Portland and Southwest Washington areas are neither in school, nor employed — according to a new study. That number is equivalent to the populations of Newport, Sandy and Damascus combined. “People are looking at this and saying: ‘Wow. That’s a lot of people,’” said Andrew McGough of Portland’s Workforce Development. The study looked at 16 to 24-year-olds. It found 28 percent of them aren’t employed or in school. Eleven percent are Hispanic, 13 percent are white and 23 percent are black.  Read more...

Election 2016:  Voter resources

6 April — This year, four of the state’s top offices are on the ballot, including the governorship. The Portland mayoral race has seen more than a dozen candidates. Congressional seats and spots in the state legislature are up for grabs. Oh, and there’s a presidential race, too, if you haven’t heard. OPB  has a list of resources to get you through the 2016 election.  Read more...