The Portland Development Commission has released their first draft of a new downtown urban renewal district including large sections of the South Park Blocks near Portland State University, and areas around PGE Park and downtown. The proposed area also includes most of the Con-way Inc. freight transport company site in Northwest Portland and the current location of Lincoln High School.
Archive for the ‘Taxes’ Category
New Downtown Portland Urban Renewal Area Proposed
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010Own a home that you rent out? Congress is voting this week on a tax…..
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
Congress is voting this week on a real estate tax that could effect you!
Home Buyer Tax Credit – Officially Extended!
Friday, November 6th, 2009President Obama signed the $24 Billion stimulus plan
into law today which included the home buyer tax credit extension. Notice I did not say “First time home buyer”? That’s because it’s not just an extension of the existing credit, it’s also an expansion to include move up or repeat home buyers as well.
$8,000 tax credit as a down payment? Sort of…read the fine print
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009We just wanted to post on this real quick to clarify the recent news of the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment. 
HUD released this pre-maturely a few weeks back before realizing it broke their own rules, they revised / re-worded it and re-released it and now it’s official, you can use the $8,000 tax credit towards a down payment, closing costs or rate buy down. HOWEVER (notice, that’s a big however), whatever down payment is required for your particular loan program must come from your own funds not the $8,000 credit. In other words if you’re using FHA you still need to come up with the 3.5% down on your own, the tax credit cannot be used for that, but you can say put 7% down instead and that extra 3.5% can come from the tax credit.
Property tax revenue generation going too far?
Thursday, May 28th, 2009We’ve seen these homes many times throughout Portland but today we came across this one, again, and figured it was time to say something. 
I will absolutely not claim to know what the deal is behind this particular home and I certainly will not mention where it is, however we see this frequently, tall skinny homes squeezed into what once was a 1/4 acre or 1/2 acre lot that the city of Portland allowed to be split. While we have no problem recognizing the need to do some infill projects to avoid sprawl, what we cannot understand is the complete dis-regard for property owners and property values by allowing something like this to be erected and squeezed right in between these two homes.
Having to Sell Your Home as a Short Sale? Phantom Tax Beware!
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
If you are needing to sell your home “short” (a short sale) there is always the question as to whether you will have to pay taxes on the difference of what it sells for and what you owed… when the bank forgives the difference it is often referred to as a “phantom” income in that you never see it but it’s there when the bank forgives it so that the home can be sold.
High property taxes not accurate in this down market? Fix it!
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009In this depreciating market we commonly see homes with say a $500K assessed tax value when the home
has dipped quite a bit, say to $450K and while this difference in a tax bill isn’t massive, in areas that have been hit hard like Happy Valley the difference is often huge. One of the homes we recently sold in Happy Valley had a tax assesed value of $750K, we bought it for $450K, that is a difference of thousands of dollars in property taxes. So, what can you do about it? APPEAL IT. (more…)