Share this article! Mortgage help on the way Oregon will receive $88 million in federal mortgage aid to help struggling homeowners. The funds are reserved for states with high unemployment. A total of $600 million in aid funds will be distributed to Oregon, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio. “Oregon is number one … Read more
Mortgage help on the way
Oregon will receive $88 million in federal mortgage aid to help struggling homeowners.
The funds are reserved for states with high unemployment. A total of $600 million in aid funds will be distributed to Oregon, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.
“Oregon is number one for homelessness and number two or three for hunger. We’ve been one of the top contenders for unemployment. In terms of foreclosure starts, we’re in the top third of states,” said Lisa Joyce, spokeswoman for the Oregon Housing and Community Services agency, “So knowing that we are economically distressed was not a surprise.”
The federal government is leaving it to the states to decide exactly who will get the help and how it will be delivered, said Diana Farrell, deputy director of the National Economic Council. So the number of Oregonians who will get mortgage relief through the program is not yet known.
Read the full story at The Register-Guard.
PDX home prices dip
Portland home prices fell .5 percent from December to January in seasonally adjusted figures, according to The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index.
Portland’s slight drop is the third-biggest in the major U.S. market, while other parts of the country reported small gains.
The Northwest price declines came despite a slightly more upbeat showing in other metro markets, especially in California. Los Angels rose 1.8 percent, San Diego .9 percent and San Francisco .6 percent. The 20-city index was up .3 percent.
On a year-over-year basis, the 10-city index is flat from a year ago and the 20-city index is down just .7 percent in non-seasonally adjusted figures. Those are both the smallest such declines since January 2007.
Read the full story at OregonLive.com.
Nestle fight begins
A proposed Nestle Waters North America bottling plant in Cascade Locks could bring 50 jobs to the city while nearly doubling its property taxes.
But opponents have submitted proposals with 3,700 signatures from Oregonians against the plant.
Opponents, including Food & Water Watch, Columbia Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club, cite local problems, such as increased truck traffic and higher stream temperatures. They also call bottling Oregon spring water a waste of a prime resource.
“The Pacific Northwest has some of the best tap water in the world,” said Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper’s executive director.
Read the full story at OregonLive.com.
Panhandling frustrations
While the one-way streets and limited parking have created some concerns for downtown Portland business owners, panhandling remains one of their top frustrations.
The rising jobless rate and a judge’s ruling last year that declared the city’s “sit-lie” ordinance unconstitutional are among the contributing factors.
“I believe the city could be more proactive in supporting the wishes of the downtown community and the business owners,” said Victoria Taylor, who owns Mercantile Portland on Southwest Alder Street. “All the business owners without a doubt are supportive of any ordinance that prevents people from lounging in front of their stores.”
Like many business owners interviewed for this story, Taylor emphasizes that she sees a difference between those who are homeless because they have no other options and the so-called “road warriors,” a population of young panhandlers that see living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.
Read the full story at OregonLive.com.
MAX pushes out Milwaukie biz
The construction of the new Portland-to-Milwaukie MAX line will force metal-treating company Beaver Heat Treating to move from its current location.
But because of the delicate nature of the company’s furnaces, the move will be more complicated than most.
“We deal with stuff like this all the time,” [said John Baker, real property acquisition manager for TriMet]. “But this is one of the most complicated ones I’ve ever seen.”
Beaver Heat Treating runs 26 furnaces in a 32,000-square-foot building east of Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard. Moving, or even cooling, those furnaces could damage them irreparably, said Tony Moran, the company’s vice president.
Read the full story at the Daily Journal of Commerce.
