Mortgage Rates are Falling!

Mortgage Rates have fallen to the lowest rate in the last 39 years, according to CNBC. For a 30-year fixed, the rate has lowered to 4.69%. If you add this to the glut of listings and the great bargains that are out there, this summer might be a great time to get into your new home.

Search the Portland MLS with Your iPhone

It’s happened to all of us. You’re out driving around and you see a house for sale, but all of the fliers are gone. You’re dying to know how many bedrooms and bathrooms, and what the price is, but you don’t feel like calling the Realtor.

The solution is here. Now all you need to do is get out your iPhone and type in the address and all of the information about the house in now at your fingertips. What a great Tool! You can do all kinds of searches for listings, including condos, townhouses, and even foreclosures. And you can search for home in Portland, Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Clackamas – any city in the Portland Metro Area. This is a must have if you are buying a home in the near future.

There really is an app for everything.

To get your MLS iPhone app, just click on the iPhone in the sidebar to your right, download the app, and enter the code 6788.

Portland Ranked Greenest U.S. City

The Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area ranked No. 1 among 43 U.S. metro areas in a report on America’s “green cities.”

The “Green Cities Index” ranks metro areas on a variety of environmental factors, including traffic congestion, transit use, water quality, carbon emissions, LEED-certified projects and number of “green” jobs.

The index was compiled by the Business Courier of Cincinnati, which is owned by American City Business Journals, the parent company of the Portland Business Journal.

The index draws on data from a variety of government and research agencies.

For the index, the paper evaluated the 40 markets in which American City Business Journals publishes newspapers, plus Los Angeles, where the company operates a business-news Web site, and Indianapolis and Cleveland.

The index looked at such variables as commuting habits of residents, travel time and fuel use, and air and water quality.

Second on the Green Cities list was the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., area. Honolulu ranked third. Austin, Texas, and Boston rounded out the top five.

The Portland region received high rankings for having the second most LEED-certified building projects in the country and for having minimal sprawl — Portland ranked fourth in the sprawl index behind San Francisco, Boston and Honolulu.

Portland’s poorest showing came in the ranking for commute travel time, where it came in 21st. At 19th, Austin was the only metro area in the green top five with a better travel-time ranking.

The city with the No. 1 travel time ranking was Wichita, Kan. Not surprisingly, Witchita ranked No. 43 for use of public transportation. Portland ranked eighth for public use.

via Portland ranked greenest U.S. city – Portland Business Journal:.

Hillsdale Farmers’ Market Rocks!

Just got back from a little outing to the Hillsdale Farmers’ Market. It’s just a short walk from where I live and it is such a nice morning that we had to go. I’ll tell you, I never regret going there. They have such a fantastic variety of fruits and vegetables, salmon, lamb, and even some hot stew and bagels. We are definitely stocked up for the week.

And not only are we getting some fresh, locally grown produce, but we are buying from local farmers, which helps our local economy. In these hard times, I think it should be on everyone’s minds to shop from local merchants and to support our community!

The Hillsdale Farmers’ Market is open 10am – 2pm every other Sunday during the winter and every Sunday in the summer. It is located in the Rieke Elementary  School parking lot, right next to Wilson High School.

For more details, go to their website at www.hillsdalefarmersmarket.com.

See you at the market!

Why Won’t the Bank Do My Loan Modification?

If you got your home loan from Indymac Bank and are hoping to get a Loan Modification from them, you need to look at this video:

The IndyMac Slap in the Face

It’s an eye opening look at why OneWest (they took over IndyMac’s assets) might not have any desire or motivation to do your loan mod and help you stay in your home.

This may not be true for all banks. Take this video with a grain of salt. Some banks are doing right by their customers.

Take a look, and make sure your volume isn’t turned up too high, these guys have had way too much coffee!