One of our favorite things about the Portland Real Estate market is how near homes for sale in Portland are to neighborhood resources like supermarkets, cafes, and libraries. The Multnomah County Library system is one of the best in the world, no question, and every neighborhood has its own branch connected to the main library system. It’s the best of both worlds, really, because you can have a “local” small-town-feel library in your neighborhood connected to the huge catalog of books, movies, and music resources of one of the largest library systems in the country, with over two million books and other library materials. This is how it works: with a Multnomah County Library Card, you have access to every book and media resource in the MCL system – if it’s not in your “home” library, you can request any item to be shipped to your local branch, or even to your home, in a few days. Most popular books are held by the library in multiple copies, so you can usually find what you’re looking for really quickly. If all copies of a book you’d like are checked out, you simply place a “hold” on the book, either online or at the library, and you’ll get an email or phone call telling you when you can pick it up! Best of all, it’s all free. While we here at the McDonald Group Real Estate blog love love LOVE our local Portland bookstores like Powell’s, it’s so fun to be able to walk into a library and pick out anything you want, without paying a dime. You can get new bestsellers, amazing cookbooks, classic television series, graphic novels, and a wide variety of childrens’ books, all within blocks of your home.

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