Infill developers went nuts here two years ago, AFTER the bubble burst. On my 1/4 mile street alone three developers have: The first bought and tore down a nice ranch home on a ‘double lot’ and stuck two McMansions on his lots (next door to me), but has only sold one after two years. The second developer bought a small home on a large lot, tore it down last summer, then couldn’t fund the spec house. The lot is for sale, with no house. The third developer bought a house at the end of the street with 3 point something acres. He’s being foreclosed on… asking price is about 200k below what he paid for the house and lot A YEAR AND A HALF AGO. 615k.
Up on the main road, just north of Marylhurst University, there were four million dollar new, spec ‘infill’ homes for sale. Two sold, one hasn’t…. the third is a 1.3 million dollar foreclosure. About 50 yards south of that mess, another infill developer has cleared two lots, but can’t fund the homes. Those lots are for sale, too.
Oh, and that idiot that bought the McMansion next to me? Paid 740k. For that money, you could buy a river view, and a big lot, 200 yards down the street. He has no yard, pavement everywhere, but at least he has a shop. Oh, and he’s a mortgage broker, so he’ll probably last about one more year.
Portland area is sure ‘different’ from the rest of the ‘housing crises’ areas. Many here still haven’t bought a clue!
These of course don’t show up in the ‘statistics’ … but they’re real.

The triple disaster of falling home values, rising fuel and rising unemployment, will continue to drag housing down for some time to come.

Pointing out a few areas that are fairing better than others does little to provide solace to those in foreclosure, and only serves as a distraction from may well be the worst years since 1929.