When I think of blight, several things come to mind:

1. A rotten tomato.
2. Certain neighborhoods South of the Willamette.
3. Certain neighborhoods North of the Willamette.
3. Two giant cesspools full of rainwater downtown.
4. This blog.

Eugene has a blight problem. People leave stuff everywhere. From Cigarettes to lawn chairs to sailboats (see the last LTE). Not art, junk.

So what should conscientious Eugeneans (all five of us) do to protect the value of our biggest asset, especially in a soft housing market?

Well, that’s for the poll of the week..

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Popularity: 58% [?]

Hello Real Estate Lovers!

I am guest blogging on Eugene-Real-Estate to let you know about the upcoming “BREWHAHA” happening downtown next Tuesday. Get ready for a lively debate over the two land use measures on the ballot:

Measure 20-134: Downtown Urban Renewal Plan

Panelists: Mayor Kitty Piercy and City Council member Bonnie Bettman

Measure 49: Land use measure to fix 37

Panelists: Ashley Miller from “Yes on 49” and Matthew Green-Hite from “Fix Measure 49″

Come on down, enjoy a nice refreshing beverage and hear both sides to make your own decisions.

Popularity: 44% [?]

There’s a rumor going around that Williams-Sonoma and/or a large shoe store will take over the block at 160 Oakway.

Williams-Sonoma stores are often found near PF Chang’s, so Williams-Sonoma does seem likely. According to KMTR, ground will break in Feb. 2008.

According to the Register-Guard, Bello Day Spa will move out to the impressive new Crescent Village in North Eugene.

Popularity: 26% [?]

The unofficial word is that REI is coming to the 29th and Willamette mall, the one that hosts the new Market of Choice, Asada, Ben & Jerry’s, &…

Popularity: 23% [?]

To keep Oregon from enacting Senate Bill 965b in its current form.

In this letter, the association clarifies what this law will mean for mortgage brokers. Mortgage brokers need surety bonds in order to remain in business.

The Surety and Fidelity Association makes it clear via this document that if Oregon Senate Bill 965 passes the House, and the governor signs it into law, that many small mortgage brokers may simply go out of business. For the predatory lenders, good riddance. For the remaining 3,200+ licensed mortgage brokers in the State of Oregon, this bill simply means that unless they work for a bank or large financial institution, the State of Oregon doesn’t care what happens to them. At best 42 legislatures in the House didn’t care on June 14th when they voted to send it to the Elections, Ethics and Rules carried committee.

Given that 60% of all home loans come through mortgage brokers, the House is smart to investigate this law before bringing to a vote. Possibly because the votes aren’t there?

For the very latest, here’s a helpful snippet from the OAMP:

Some of you, and others within the mortgage industry, have advocated “blasting” all members of the House Rules Committee with as many emails as possible, encouraging them NOT to allow SB 965 to be released from the committee, whether it’s in it’s current form, another amended form or it’s original form (as approved by the Senate).

Though that is our hope, our legislative advocate, John McCulley, feels that “jamming their e-mail in boxes” again at this time could possibly backfire, risking alienating some of those on the committee who are already supporting our position and hardening the opposition of those who don’t. He recommends that we send emails ONLY FROM CONSTITUENTS of the seven members of the committee. Those constituents could be our members, or—preferably—consumers who have benefited from the “non-traditional” programs that are the focus of much of the bill.

This sounds like good advice, and not a delay tactic. If somebody reading this post has statistics or case studies about “non-traditional” programs that provided consumers with tangible results, click on the contact form to the left and send those in.

Popularity: 16% [?]

On May 11th the bill moved from the Senate (approved) to the House. The House has issued no recent press releases or posts to indicate status there. The title of the Senate’s Press Release about this bill is:

“SENATE PASSES BILL TO PROTECT HOMEBUYERS
Home Loan Fairness Act will target predatory lending practices, head off mortgage crisis”

What’s unclear is how the State defines “predatory” within the language of the bill.

Several people who own small mortgage brokerages have posted to this blog, noting that what this bill really does is limit working families and formerly at risk renters from ever getting their own home. A secondary effect is to weigh supply and demand in the marketplace of loans so that demand favors large banks and other institutions with far more financial resources at their disposal. These institutions are able to absorb the cost of issuing fewer loans to the public. This could result in less competition between lenders, leading to higher fees and rates for traditional borrowers.

This bill is now in the House. The Legislative Session ends June 29th. If you feel that this bill needs to be ratified carefully before being passed, to determine financial impact to both borrowers (subprime and traditional) and lenders, contact your State representative here.

There have been many comments from lenders. I would like to hear from borrowers who are looking to get into low FICO, no down payment, or stated income only loans. The default rate for these loans is currently anywhere from 12-20%. This means that 80% or more of the people who previously qualified for a loan under these criteria will not have access to a home loan.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Congratulations to the folks over at Trulia for scoring big on another round of funding. $10 million to be precise. They have really been moving fast to push out new tools and better access to information, so I’m not surprised to see venture capital dollars flow in their direction.

I have struggled a bit in integrating their API into this site, but I know with time and patience that will come. Lot’s of patience since Wordpress strips out almost all javascript in posts. There are workarounds, but so far they haven’t worked around for me.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I love Eugene for the way its thought leaders in the local media provoke outrage..in the most laid back, passive-aggressive way imaginable. This can’t be called hypocrisy because hypocrisy requires a carefully constructed image of impermeable resoluteness, something Eugene is not exactly known for.

Or maybe it is. I don’t know..whatever you say man..

So that’s why this article in the Eugene Weekly really makes me laugh. Is there anything left to tap once the Eugene Weekly has tapped the public’s reservoir of rage towards those who have acquired or accomplished more than they? I feel exhausted after reading the Weekly sometimes, like I need a fresh IPA and some banter to bring me back to life.

In its latest, ongoing attempt to reshape public opinion about Downtown projects, the Eugene Weekly stereotypes KWG, the developer behind the most ambitious proposal for West Broadway yet, proposer of “The West End,” as a greedy developer out to bilk the taxpayers of Eugene out of $50 Million.

Does this city really lack the ability to look past stereotypes about developers and consider the facts?

• The best bid will win. Unlike Eugene’s elected leaders, developers and business people face real competition every day. They are not all a bunch of greedy local subsidy raiders. Yes they’re business people who expect a profit commensurate with risk. No they’re not TV caricatures of developers the way the Eugene Weekly likes to portray them. This isn’t The Dukes of Hazzard.
• West Broadway is embarrassing. Downtown is embarrassing. There’s nothing more that can be said here. Sure there are pockets of greatness downtown, but ask the majority of people who live downtown if they think it’s an ideal place to live and they’ll tell you the idealists are holding it hostage.
• About 1,000 construction jobs would be created for a period of about 18 months. Nevermind, Eugene doesn’t need jobs.
• All parking would be underground. That means another great place for the dropouts to smoke a joint or ten.
• Cost is estimated to be over $30M. This is NOT the City’s cost. And nowhere is it stated in the proposal that the City’s cost is $50 million. I challenge the Eugene Weekly to produce facts to support that price, net income from the project and $6M+ in grants from the Federal Brownfield Program.
• KWG is not proposing a “Mall-like Megaproject” as the Eugene Weekly calls it. That’s a complete suspension of the truth. This proposal looks nothing like a “mall” the way Oakway or Valley River Center are malls.

If KWG won the bid for some or all of West Broadway land for sale, 174 rental units over the grocery store (the one Eugene ran out of downtown once already?) would rent to households earning 60% of median income. For Eugene, that means about $29K for a family and $22K for an individual. This sure sounds like mixed-use to me.

KWG built a low income project in Downtown Vancouver called Esther Short Commons. The building won several design awards. Unfortunately, some of the liveability issues surrounding low income housing also leaves very little to the imagination. This isn’t KWG’s problem, this is the city of Vancouver’s problem. Just as it’s the City of Eugene’s problem.

KWG cannot solve the low income housing or downtown development problems for Eugene. Yet maybe if Eugene faced its reckless core more courageously, with more ambition and willingness to innovate, a developer would meet the City halfway.

Then someday the people of Eugene might be proud to say, like citizens of Portland can, that downtown is a fantastic place to live, work, and play.

Popularity: 16% [?]