How To Prevent Winter Weather Damage

Frigid temperatures, snow and ice can wreak havoc on water pipes and tax heating systems. Ensure all your home’s internal systems are “go” for winter safety and efficiency. Use these winter weather prep tips for inside and outside of your home. You’ll be glad to have taken these measures to safeguard your house. 

Winter weather prep for the outside of your home.

• Clean out the gutters. Remove leaves, sticks and other debris from gutters, so melting snow and ice can flow freely. This can prevent ice damming, which is what happens when water is unable to drain through the gutters and instead seeps into the house causing water to drip from the ceiling and walls.

• Install gutter guards. Gutter guards prevent debris from entering the gutter and interfering with the flow of water away from the house and into the ground.

• Trim trees and remove dead branches. Ice, snow and, wind could cause weak trees or branches to break free and damage your home or car, or injure someone walking by your property.

• Repair steps and handrails. Broken stairs and banisters can become lethal when covered with snow and ice.
  

Winter weather prep for the inside of your home

• Add extra insulation to attics, basements and crawl spaces. If too much heat escapes through the attic, it can cause snow or ice to melt on the roof. Water then can refreeze, leading to more ice build-up—and may even lead to ice dams that can damage your roof. Well-insulated basements and crawl spaces will also help protect pipes. Consider insulating garages and other unfinished areas to keep pipes from freezing.

• Provide a reliable backup power source. In the event of a power outage, continuous power will keep you warm and help to prevent frozen pipes, or a frozen battery operated sump-pump. Consider purchasing a portable power generator to ensure safety—and be sure to follow all guidelines for safe operation.

• Have your heating system serviced. Furnaces, boilers and chimneys should be serviced at least once a year to prevent fire and smoke damage.

• Check pipes closely for the presence of cracks and leaks. Have any compromised pipe repaired immediately.

• Protect pipes in attics and crawl spaces with insulation or plug-in heating cable. Be sure to purchase UL®-listed models of heating cables with built-in thermostats; these will turn on the heat on when it is needed. When using the cables, always follow manufacturers instructions closely.

• Install an emergency pressure release valve in your plumbing system. This will protect the system against increased pressure caused by freezing pipes and can help prevent your pipes from bursting.

• Move combustible items away from near any heat sources that you’ll likely be using.This includes fireplaces, wood stoves and space heaters.

• Install or check smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Not only do residential fires increase in the winter, but so does carbon monoxide poisoning—so regularly check that your detectors are in working condition.

• Know where your pipes are located and learn how to shut the water off. If your pipes freeze, speed is critical. The quicker you shut off water or direct your plumber to the problem, the better your chance of preventing major damage.

• Hire a licensed contractor to look for structural damage. If damage is found, have all necessary repairs performed as soon as possible.

• Take steps to prevent flooding. Your licensed contractor can also advise you about measures to prevent flooding from melted snow and ice runoff. Plastic coatings for internal basement walls, sump pumps and other improvements can prevent water damage to your home and belongings.

• Consider insuring yourself for a sewer backup. Flooding related to melting snow can overburden sewer systems. Raw sewage backed up into the drains in your home can cause thousands of dollars in damage to floors, walls, furniture and electrical systems. 

What the 2018 Portland Market Means for You

Home prices are up in Portland, but so are wages and new jobs. As homes and real estate increase in value, and Portland loosens the rules to allow for a variety of housing development, we may see a flood of new homes (or at least apartments) on the market. Does all of this mean that the real estate market in the City of Roses is getting more, or less affordable for the average home buyer? Should you sell your home now, or wait?

Portland Home Values Up in 2018
Let’s start by looking at the most recent RMLS data. One sign of an affordable housing market is an abundance of homes on the market. When demand outstrips supply, prices tend to go up, and this has been happening at a breathtaking pace for the past several years in Portland. In 2017, however, the Portland housing market loosened up a bit, and the real estate market did not appreciate that much, only around 7%. The Portland real estate market forecast for 2018 is even cooler, estimated price appreciations are at around 5%.
With the release of the first RMLS report of 2018, we’re seeing a new surge of homes on the market, a sign that homeowners are responding to higher-than-ever home values in Portland. Last year, the median home price in Portland was $350,000; in the first month of 2018 it climbed to $390,000. As sellers added homes to the available pool, inventory also went up, to 2.2 months.
In January 2018, over 2,400 new homes came on the market, which was 12% more than January 2017. It was also a great improvement on December 2017, when only 1,617 homes came on the market.

New Portland Jobs, Better Wages
It seems that Portland’s climbing home values have cooled the real estate market – but how much is too much? It’s hard to say when buyers will turn elsewhere, and as long as Portland has the wage and job growth to keep up, that day may never fully come.
In fact, wages in Oregon have been increasing at a relatively strong rate in recent years. And, according to Oregon state economist Josh Lehner, our manufacturing-based economy is well positioned to keep adding jobs and increasing wages through the coming decades. That’s because Portland’s manufacturing economy is centered around aerospace, metals and semiconductors — products that aren’t going away anytime soon.
Speaking of the future, the Portland area has gained the nickname “Silicon Forest” because of how strongly it has embraced the technology sector. In fact, part of Portland’s Central City 2035 plan is to encourage the development of an “Innovation Quadrant” between OMSI, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland State University and Portland Community College, providing space where researchers and entrepreneurs can collaborate. These innovations, the city believes, will eventually attract more high-paying tech and research jobs.

Adding to Housing Availability
Good incomes are not enough to keep housing affordable – the homes must be there in the first place. Fortunately, the real estate market is not the only place that homes come from. Portland-area developers are also building new houses, mostly as infill in existing urban areas, according to a recent report from Metro.
New homes going in to replace old ones (while keeping an eye on historic preservation where possible) is a good sign that Portland’s building and development rules are finally lining up with the city’s need for housing. According to the Metro article, from about the 1950s on, code restrictions limited new structures to two types: Large multifamily units (apartment buildings), or single-family homes. This created the “missing middle” for housing that we’ve discussed on this blog before. Today, over 70% of the Portland metro area’s housing stock is single-family units, an option that today is unaffordable to a lot of young families in Portland.
Over the last ten years, infill rules have loosened a bit, encouraging the development of additional dwelling units (ADUs), duplexes, triplexes, cottage-style lots (where several small homes share a lot) and other back-to-the-future structures. Now Portland neighborhoods are more likely to be a mixture of single family homes and buildings that host two, three, four or more families.
Of course, every city must grow over time, and Portland is poised to do so. Over the past 20 years, the urban growth boundary has slowly expanded to include 42 square miles around the edges of the city. Metro points out that this area would encompass two Beavertons, or 420 Oregon Zoos!
New housing developments have sprouted up in these 42 square miles. One need only visit the Villebois community in Wilsonville or Washington County’s North Bethany area to observe that these modern suburbs bear little resemblance to the cookie-cutter developments that surround other US cities. Instead, these communities host micro town centers, where residents can go shopping, eat out, take care of medical and family needs, all without traveling more than a mile or two.
With new homes being added in Portland’s older neighborhoods as well as its brand-new ones, housing shortages may not be so severe in the coming years. While Portland will remain a popular place to buy a home, we may see affordability numbers start to even out across income levels.

Other Factors Impacting Portland Housing Affordability
Housing affordability is impacted by hundreds of factors, from mortgage rates to the cost of home insurance. In any given situation, the availability and cost of public transportation, school tuition, food and home maintenance costs can affect housing affordability as well.
Some of these costs are difficult to factor in, but last year Zillow released a report on the “hidden costs” of housing that attempts to cover the basics. The average American homeowner, the report found, spends close to $10,000 a year on the everyday expenses that come along with owning a home.

Most significant were:
- Average cost of $2,110 per year in property taxes
- Average cost of $2,953 annually in utility costs
- Average cost of $1000 annually for homeowners insurance.
- “Optional” but popular homeownership costs including landscaping, cleaning and maintenance. These can add up to $3,000 to the typical U.S. homeowner’s annual costs.

Fun fact: Portland ranked second highest nationally for the cost of those “optional” services. For house cleaning, lawn maintenance/landscaping, carpet cleaning, gutter cleaning, pressure washing and HVAC maintenance, Portland homeowners are spending an average of $3,674 per year, second only to Seattle. Obviously, this is a hit to housing affordability in the city. The good news is, a lot of these projects can be done by homeowners for a lot less. The other good news is that due to the moderate climate, average utility costs in Portland are much lower than the national average.

(Housing Affordability: 2018 Portland Market)

10 Ways to Winterize Your PNW Home

We were fortunate to have a nice, extended summer here in the Pacific Northwest, but over the next few weeks, fall will definitely be in full swing. With the long summer and short fall, it leaves only a little time to get your home prepared for winter. The cold weather will be here before you know it! Here are some winter-proofing tips to take care of your home this winter. 

1. If you use wood heat, you need to clean your chimney and inspect it for any damages that could cause a fire. You can also hire a service to take care of this task if you are not comfortable doing so. It is a fairly simple task that involves sticking a long brush down the length of the chimney.

2. Take care of any gaps around your windows and doors. You can buy self-sticking insulation strips that will seal the area or use caulking. Both are very easy fixes and fairly inexpensive.

3. If you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, please consider buying one. If you use gas heat, these are important safety devices that will ensure your family is not exposed to toxic levels of carbon monoxide caused by a plugged flue or gas leak.

4. Replace the batteries in your smoke detectors. Space heaters and wood stoves are some of the main causes of home fires. You want to make sure your detectors are in good working order this winter when space heaters and wood stoves are going to be used often.

5. Fall is a great time to flush your water heart. This will help extend the life of the water heater and make it more energy efficient. When it is cold out, hot showers are going to be in high demand!

6. Switch your ceiling fan to spin clockwise, which will force the hot air that rises to the ceiling back down into your living space.

7. Replace the filters in your furnace. This will make the furnace more energy efficient and prevent breakdowns in the middle of a cold snap.

8. Purchase draft guards for doors that lead to the outdoors. These help block out those cold breezes that waft in from under the door.

9. Consider adding a layer of insulation to your attic and crawl space. This can help keep your home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

10. If you have a fireplace that you don’t use, buy a chimney balloon that will stop cold drafts from coming down the chimney and chilling your room.