Oregon passes new STATE WIDE rent controls
It's done.... Oregon today became the first and ONLY state in the USA to pass STATE WIDE rent controls. The new law which took effect immediately today when signed create significant restrictions on property owners. The law while not quite as bad as it looks has some specific rules and many unintended consequences, one of which (speaking as a top Realtor for over 30 years) that I see coming is property owners selling their single family home rentals, and with our prices as high as they are the buyer most likely will purchase for their own use, not as a rental. Therefore there will be fewer rentals, which will mean higher rents. Property owners, be sure to check and see where your rents are in comparaison to market rents. If you get behind and then see increased expenses such as higher taxes, garbage rates, water/sewer etc, you may not be ever able to recouperate those fees unless you keep your rents now at near market rate. You can check out the post link here which goes over all the rules in Oregon senate bill 608.
Here it is again, the Portland Business Journal's hottest neighborhoods for 2018. This also includes the Vancouver, Washington area and it's local communities. 
The Portland area real estate market sure changed in January of this year! New listings were more than double those in December, 2018 and up 22.6% over January of 2018. As of January 31st there were 3,048 new listings. Also Pending sales surged 27.9% ahead of December, with 2,311 offers accepted by sellers. For Closed Sales, there were only 1,451 which was down 21.4% over December and 10.9% over January of last year. 
