Located in the center of Forest Heights Neighborhood this park features trails, a pond, and some very nice picnic areas and play structures.  Have a quick look.  This is a great place to spend the afternoon.

If you have never been up the Columbia River Gorge to Maryhill and seen Stonehenge I suggest you do so.  This is a 90 minute drive from Portland stright up I-84 and there is a lot to do there including the MaryHill Museum and the replica of Stone Henge.  This is a great day trip to hit here in Portland.  You will also want to visit Mary Hill Winery and Amphi Theatre and Horsethief lake while you are in the area.  Check out the pics here.

Check out this great footage of Multnomah Falls in Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge.  This is Video I shot again with my Nokia N-95 Telephone.  If you dream of living in Oregon where you can Snow Ski or go to the Beach within just a few minutes than you will want to give this a look.  Call us at 503-799-8383 when your ready to reserve your piece of the Oregon Dream or if you are looking for help in any Real Estate Matters.

One of Portland Oregon’s best Custom New Home Builders is Olsen Homes.  You will definitely want to take a quick view of these tremendous new homes just minutes to down town Portland.  These classic homes have all the upgrades and a are located on NW Old Quarry Road in Washington County.  Just a short walk to the new Bonny Slope Beaverton Elementary School.  Large Lots, Custom features, in a lush green setting with Southerly Exposure and Views.  Check out the Video we just shot including two young Deer that visited the site while we help it Open in May of 2008!  We have two homes from the $700’s and one lot left to sell.  Hurry and get yours now!

This is a must see for the whole family! If your in Portland and want to see a great Exhibit come and see the awesome Exhibit of Chinese Dinosaurs! Man are the Enormous! There is so much to do at OMSI..Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This year in 2008 there are some great shows at the Planetarium and we caught an awesome IMAX show on the Rain Forest in South America as well as there is a super show on The Grand Canyon! We even bought a scale model Solar home for a science project at the Gift Shop! OMSI is right in Downtown Portland on the East bank of the Williamete River. Check them out at www.omsi.edu .

If you are looking for a great spot to spread out and enjoy your day you will want to check out Arbor Ridge Park in the Arbor Ridge Neighborhood.  This is just South on Laidlaw from the corner of West Union and Laidlaw Roads in Bethany Oregon.  There are a few benches and tables, a nice old school band stand, a large Court for shooting hoops, and a kid splay structire with swings.  You could bring the bikes or ride them there through the extensive trail system that connects all of Bethany!  This is one of the reasons I live here.  This is a really liveable place.  Attched here to you will see three Videos Clips I caught in late April of 2008 on my video phone.  You will see us looking in on a gorgeous Mallard Drake along the bike/ped path, the park itself, and take a ride on a section of the trails.  These are open trails to the entire Bethany Community and one of the reasons that the 800 unit Arbor Ridge Project is so popular!  Homes form $25oK to $500K.  Call us of course if you want a personal tour.  Dirk at 503-799-8383.

I stopped the other day for a quick look at Cedar Mill Park at the Corner of 102nd and Cornell Road next to the Cedar Mill School.  This is a park that I have passed by many times but have never spent any time at.  I arrived in late April to find the Tennis Courts hoping and that there was an awesome stand of second growth Doug Firs bustling with tree squirrels!  There were several picnic tables and huge open areas for throwing the ball or playing with a Frisbee.  I could see this was a favorite of the locals…..but the parking lot was pretty empty.  This is a cool stop if you are looking for a place to picnic or meet a friend.  No playground but plenty kid friendly!

 Check out the field of Daisies I was in.  This is a neat thing for sure.  Watch my mini broadcast from my new Video Phone!  Look for mor eloacl broadcasts as I am doing a series here at NW Home Center on Neighborhood Parks for oyur enjoyment!  Ciao.

By Inman News, Monday, March 10, 2008.

 

RE/MAX Real Estate’s remax.com Web site hopped into second place among the most popular real estate industry Web sites in February, up from its fourth-place ranking in January, Web metrics company Hitwise reported Friday, and real estate marketing company HomeGain bumped from second place in January to fifth place in February.

Century 21 Real Estate’s century21.com and MSN Real Estate’s realestate.msn.com Web sites had the largest jump in ranking among the top-20 real estate category sites, Hitwise reported, based on the total number of unique visitors. Century21.com moved from 16th on the list in January to 10th on the list in February, while realestate.msn.com climbed from 18th in January to 11th in February.

Realtor.com continued its reign at the top of the list, with 5.16 percent of the market share of all unique visitors to real estate sties. But that market share had fallen compared to its 9.08 percent market share in January. Second-place remax.com had 2.61 percent of the market share in February, followed by Yahoo Real Estate’s realestate.yahoo.com at 2.35 percent, Zillow.com at 2.34 percent and HomeGain.com with 2.32 percent.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s hud.gov Web site sank from 10th on the list in January to 14th on the list in February, and Homes.com dropped from 14th in January to 17th in February.

About 24.1 percent of all visits to real estate Web sites went to the top-10 sites in that category in February, compared to 27.4 percent in January.

Hitwise reported that real estate site 21online.com joined the top-100 rankings in February, in 87th place, and Cincinnati.com also joined the list, rising from 110th in January to 95th in February. Rentals.realtor.com moved from 34th in January to 153rd place in the rankings in February, while RedWeek.com moved from 99th in January to 107th in February.

“Realtor.com” was the most popular search term for the four-week period ending Feb. 23, Hitwise reported, followed by “remax,” “real estate,” “zillow.com,” “zillow,” “apartments,” “homes for sale,” “realtor.com,” “century21,” and “realtor,” in that order.

Among the fastest-moving Web sites tracked by Hitwise for the four months ending in February: RogerFazendin.com, up 266 places; SonoranGMAC.com, up 180 places; SignOnSanDiego.com, up 161 places; HomeInsight.com, up 146 places; Myazland.com, up 129 places; PruCalifornia.com, up 113 places; RealEstateForeclosures.net, up 85 places, CapeMay.FNISMLS.com, up 58 places; and CarlsonRE.com, up 39 places.

Good News for Buyers and Sellers: March 6, 2008I know you’ve all been waiting for some relief to our current market conditions, and it arrived today: the new FHA and Fannie Mae- Freddie Mac conforming loan limits have been released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. To find out the new limits in your area, simply click on this link: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm, which will take you to the “mortgage limits” page at the HUD web site. On that page, enter your state and county information, chose the type of loan from the “Limit Type” drop-down box (FHA Forward, Fannie/Freddie or HECM). [Note: FHA Forward is what HUD is calling the temporary FHA loan limit.] Then click the “send” button at the bottom of the page. On the results page, you’ll see the new loan limit for the type of loan you selected for your area. You can also find a county-by-county listing of the new FHA and Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac loan limits at REALTOR.org by following this link:
http://www.realtor.org/GAPublic.nsf/files/chart_hud_loan_limits_08.pdf/$FILE/chart_hud_loan_limits_08.pdf The new loan limits for FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now calculated at 125 percent of the HUD published median prices, with a floor of $271,050 and $417,000, respectively, not to exceed $729,750.We expect the impact of these loan limit increases on the housing market to be significant because of the infusion of capital into the mortgage market, which should result in lower interest rates across the board. In addition, there will be a direct impact on high-cost areas that previously required borrowers to take out costlier jumbo mortgages.

An economic impact study conducted by NAR in January 2008 estimated that increasing the GSEs’ conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated, housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points.

HUD was mandated in the Economic Stimulus Act to publish new loan limits within 30 days of the bill’s signing by President Bush on February 13. This is going to stimulate the lower end and in many Communities that crucial move up market that allows the log jam of home equity to get moving once again. I strongly urge any of you that may have been denied access to credit to come back to the table and meet with us and one of our preferred Lenders to get things moving again.

There has never been a better time to buy in recent memory. Rates are Great and now we have this new Loan Limit increase and access to funds! Prices…well prices are off the hook and we have some awesome buys for people right now!

Call us and lets take advantage of this Market together!

Best wishes;

Dirk Knudsen

Re\Max Metro

503-799-8383

This past Sunday was like any other Sunday in Winter in Oregon.  Kind of a dreary, slow moving morning.  I had to work at Noon and so that short span of time I have from 9-11 Am is tough to get much done that allows me and the kids any Fun!  But the sky cleared and as I peered out from my morning 3rd cup I remembered Forest Park.   The Nations second largest City Park was less than a 5 minute drive form my home here in Bethany, Oregon.  My youngest son was out the door even before I could say “Lets go for a hike….”.  And so out we went.

A canteen of water and a PBJ sandwich in hand we hit the car.  A short drive up through the magical mile that is Germantown Road and we were in the deep canopy of Douglas Fir Trees that dominate the Tualatin Mountains.  We went into the west part fo the Park off of NW Skyline and NW Germantown Road and parked at the West trail head extension of the Wildwood trail.  The air was crisp, the the sky blue, the trail well blazed and off we went.  My companion and I than proceeded to spend 2 very special hours together winding our way through a series of steep ravines and valleys under majestic Fir, Cedar, Hundred Year Old Maple which were just starting to wake up from their Winter Nap.   We found stream beds and side trails…saw some birds and squirrels and just had a great time.  This was a lot of fun and also a very easy Hike.  If you have not seen Forest Park or been in it ….you simply must.  It is right above the City of Portland and it stretches for miles to the West.  One of the best parks in America.  We had a great time and Lunch at the trails end never tasted so good.  Just a quick trip and we had a great time.  Here are the pics of that most fun day trip: