A 50-year mortgage would reduce monthly payments by approximately $350 on a $575,000 loan (the median sale price in PDX currently) compared to a 30-year term, helping buyers stretch their budgets, but slowing equity growth.

I plugged in $575k w/ 10% down into a mortgage calculator to see the monthly payment and the life of the loan costs and ⬇️

My take: About the worst idea since Gus Van Zant decided to remake Psycho shot-for-shot (ironically, I’m watching this as I type, haha)…

There are variables, maybe there will be cheaper buy-down options, or something yet to be considered/stated, but in a vacuum, saving your monthly payment is its only saving grace…And even if it somehow wasn’t a bad idea, it’s totally symptomatic of an overinflated economy, in which ideas like this continue to prop. I wrote a whole diatribe on why it’s a bad in the first draft, but it’s supposed to be anecdotes (aware this is not an actual anecdote, but using it as a broad euphemism for short) and not exposés, so I’ll leave it at that…

I love my parents, my friends’ parents, and the word boomer, so please no intended offense, but facts are facts, and here are the graphs:

My Take: Our generation is getting hosed, and Gen Z is going to be fire-hosed. There is a litany of policies, politics, and (corporate) entities creating this suppression, and they/their demographic (boomers) are the beneficiaries.

Anecdotes. I think of the reason I wanted to start this, and the use of the main tagline: ‘An Anecdotal Real Estate Read’ (which, I’m not in love with, so may come back to that later) is that anecdotes, more than training, test taking, continuing education, etc., have informed my career more than anything else has. Someone mentions a roof problem, I have a categorical reference catalog of 50-126 experiences about roof anatomy and its operators. I can use my own home, bought my first year and change of doing real estate, wherein we got it inspected, the inspector said no plywood underneath, the roof would also have to be replaced soon, and I think my overarching sentiment was; no big deal, despite the implications made plain by the inspector and report PDF to back it up. Flash forward to circa 2023, the roof needs to be replaced and in the middle of my roofer shedding the shingle with a ping-pong table-sized hole in my roof he uses as illustration and reminder as to the lack of ply, I’m left with the option of using my tent tarps indefinitly for shelter or spending another $6k-$8k—the more precise numberis now buried deep in my subconscious, festering—and doing it right. And to this day, every time I’m looking at a roof, inspecting, I’m making damn sure it’s there, myopically looking, firstly asking, like there’s nothing more important in the world than “the ply”, and it’s certainly something I will never overlook again.

And while I don’t think it’s necessary to own a home to be a good realtor, it certainly helps relate, and on the job training-wise, all these stories create a precedent that I can lean into and clients can trust. The flipside is, it can be hard to relate, like anything else, unless you’ve been through it. Part of it is not knowing what you don’t know, but on an empathetic level, there’s a detachment that can conflate with objectivity and/or professionalism and ultimately somewhat removes you from direct relation with the subject. But, there was a situation, recently, where I/my family were subject, and it made me feel for my clients on a level I hadn’t before…

As some of you may or may not know, I try to look for homes off-market for my buyers and have a few different ways to do it. Doesn’t usually work out, but if they’re honed in on an area, I can throw some darts, and once in a while, you’ll get something to stick. Recently, I’d gotten a call back from someone interested in selling, and I set up an appointment to go look.

Pulled up to the house in NW and was immediately taken aback by this mid-century marvel shaped like an isoceles triangle. A tri-level, beautiful atrium-like entry, kitchen, living room on the main, three beds, two baths up a floor on the right, just below a family room, and another bed and bath. Vaulted ceilings, updated kitchen and windows, and light for days. I walked in and decided I wanted it for me—thankfully, my clients had moved on from that area, so I certainly felt less conflicted about the potential coveting as the tour progressed…

After walking through, I told the owner, “I sort of want to keep this to myself” half-jokingly, and that I loved it, would be perfect for the fam, etc. He said that’d be great, “we’d love to have a family in here—that’s who should be taking it over next.” To make a long story short, I went home, showed Liz photos, talked it up, she loved it (rare we both are in complete accord on what we want in a house), we went back, walked-through together, hung out at the house for a bit, commiserating, told them we were all in and I’d come back with an offer. About a week later, went out again, presented an offer over coffee, they mulled over it, we texted about the minutiae of the offer, and eventually settled on terms, and it looked like we were going to get a new house! There was one caveat, and that was they had a funeral to go to in Tennessee, and when they got back, we’d put ink to paper and get rolling. But, I had this feeling…

When I was about to meet them initially, we had to reschedule our appointment a week later than first planned because someone in the family had passed away. With now another deferred moment, there was this underlying, looming thing in the background. As much as everything felt like it was in the bag, kismet (as some people say), time is a deal killer, and I inherently knew...

They were due back from the funeral on Sunday and said they’d get back to me that night. Monday went by, Tuesday I got the text I feared I’d get. They decided they weren’t ready to sell, despite having been doing updates the previous months, getting the house ready for sale in 2026. The funeral had hit him hard, and they wouldn’t be ready for a few years.

Liz and I were absolutely crushed, way more than I ever thought I could be about a house. We were visualizing, superimposing our lives in that space for almost a month. Office space, tiki bar, hot tub, basketball hoop, girls in their own rooms, Christmas tree windows, etc. But we were just so excited. It’s all we talked about for a month. It felt like the next logical step in our lives, into a bigger house, a residential area with good schools, and damn the payment!—we deserve this type of thing, energy. And it just got ripped away. And I think we’ve since mostly recovered, but there’s been a whole recalibration, and it took some conscious energy to move past.

Anyway, there’ been a few of those moments with clients, who’ve missed out on “the one,” especially pre-2020 when it was utter insanity with the offers. And did/do they almost always find “the one” after, yes, or at least I think so. You try to be sincere, but come out with some platitude like “there will always be another,” “the next one will be the one,” or whatever, because it’s just what you do and say, but not what you actually feel. Now, I get it. I empathize.

Wanted to relay this one before the New Year: if you got a loan and didn’t put 20% down on a Conventional Loan, you had PMI, and if you purchased before 2020 (potentially after) you likely have less than an 80% LTV (loan-to-value), and if so, you can literally get it removed by just calling your lender. Do it ASAP!! It’s stunning how few people know about this, so if that’s any of you, call your lender and get it removed. It’s easy and will save hundreds every month for the rest of your loan. Government is already stealing enough from us, don’t let them steal more.

There are so many pockets in the city that offer undersold value. A few examples, call it a light top-3:

This is me in Egypt 2010 (whoa). The left picture is one of my ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, and the right is a picture of Ama—I called him Ama Llama to make fun of him—who loved wrestling, who every time I’d get back from a long day of teaching would be waiting for me, wanting to do literal WWF wrestling moves. It was the best learning experience of my whole life and continues to contextualize it to this day.

Bonus: Read The Innocents Abroad (quote source) by Mark Twain. If not the best, the OG travelogue that absolutely hilarious, even today

Till next time,