I have two things on my mind today: Thanksgiving and how much Linda and I are loving writing the PropertyBblotter. I am thinking about Thanksgiving because it is my favorite holiday and because it has been so incredibly gorgeous the last few days. The air is crisp. The sunshine is bright. It just makes me feel grateful to be alive. And somehow those feelings tie into how I feel about the Property Blotter. We have been writing this blog for 20 months. In that time we have had the pleasure of sharing our passion for real estate and for this wonderful town that we live in. We have also been fortunate to have people contact us to get information, and even to buy and to sell homes. We are grateful for our loyal readers and hope that you are enjoying and learning from what we are able to share.
In that light, today I want to take us back to the roots of the Blotter and remind our readers that the name is completely local to Lake Oswego and references the Police Blotter that is published each Thursday in The Lake Oswego Review, the local newspaper. The Review is widely read in LO, both to see photos and hear about our neighbors, and also to get a good chuckle over the varied activities of our local law enforcement. Let’s face it, while LO is not immune to crime, there is quite a bit of time when the good men and women of our police department deal with some pretty funny stuff. So the Police Blotter is in some ways a form of entertainment. I thought I’d take time today to share a bit of the Property Blotter’s namesake. Here, for your reading enjoyment, are actual police activities that were published in the LO Review from a two week period in late September. Enjoy.
9/14/09 1:47 pm A man fell down while walking on a broken sidewalk on Boones Ferry Rd.
9/14/09 4:10 pm An elderly man acted confused at a pizza restaurant.
9/15/09 12:54 pm Police saved a man from being stranded on his roof after his ladder fell down while he was working on it. The ladder was replaced and the man came down.
9/15/09 1:39 pm A caged leopard was observed in a vehicle traveling down Highway 43.
9/15/09 4:47 pm An old lady has been throwing plums at her neighbor.
9/15/09 5 pm An injured pheasant was caught on the side of the road by officers and taken to the Audobon Society.
9/16/09 1:44 pm A woman complained that her neighbor’s garage sale had been going on for far too long.
9/17/09 8:58 pm A short, heavy, suspicious man was advised to leave a super market after he was observed leaning against a wall.
9/18/09 7:48 pm After leaving his scooter on a dock, a man returned to find that it was missing. It turned out the scooter had been thrown into the water by a mentally challenged boy, whose father agreed to pay for a new scooter.
9/19/09 8:41 am A racoon found injured in the middle of the road was taken to a Lake Grove veterinarian.
9/19/09 6:23 pm A person dropped a glass on Lakeview Boulevard, then got out and tried to pick it up.
9/21/09 9:09 am A man in a van has been parking behind a church and sleeping. Church officials hope he will wake up and leave.
9/22/09 1:38 pm A large swarm of yellow jackets was seen a Maple Circle. A beekeeper was notified to respond.
9/24/09 2:16 am A dog cornered a raccoon in a backyard.
9/24/09 7:28 pm A man’s 10-year-old son was screaming about not being able to get on a computer.
9/25/09 11:35 am A dark blue Jeep Liberty was seen driving over yellow lines and onto the sidewalk on Boones Ferry Road. An alternative driver was located to drive the car.
9/25/09 5:03 pm A 15-year-old boy reported a man in an Alden Utilities vest riding a bicycle through his yard. Turns out Alden Utilities is taking a pole inventory.
9/25/09 8:40 pm A suspicious man was going door to door on Albert Circle claiming to be the Kirby Vacuum guy.
9/26/09 1:54 pm A back pack with drug paraphernalia was reportedly found at Our Lady of the Lake. Officers determined the contents were just garbage and disposed of them.
9/26/09 2:41 pm A dead squirrel was removed from Lake Grove Avenue.
9/26/09 10:13 pm A complaint was filed on a loud party at Country Woods Court and Quarry Road. Partiers shut the garage door and turned the music down.
9/26/09 11:59 pm The partying continued on Country Woods Court. Homeowners were warned of a citiation.
We may be just 15 minutes from downtown Portland, but reading the LO Review’s Police Blotter really puts into perspective that LO has the personality of a small town. Our police department has a 100% personal response policy. When you call the police, for whatever issue no matter how small or how large, you will get a police officer who will personally respond. And then the next week, you will see it in the Lake Oswego Review. I love it.
The tax year runs from July 1st to June 30th, but you receive your tax statement in October for payment on November 15th. No wonder people are confused! Not only does the tax year not correspond with the calendar year, but you get your statement at a completely odd time as well. (Is this some sort of a conspiracy?) So when you pay your taxes in November you are paying in arrears back to July 1 and ahead to June 30. You can pay your taxes in one lump sum and receive a discount, or you can pay it in thirds with the final third due in May.
Yes, your property taxes will probably go up this year even though your house value has likely gone down. Right now, this is the most confusing issue about property taxes and is getting a lot of play in the media. This is happening because of the restriction that was placed onto annual tax increases in the mid-1990’s. At that time house values were going up quickly and property taxes were going up at the same pace. This was creating financial hardship because people’s incomes were not keeping pace. A ballot measure was passed that restricted annual tax increases to not more than 3% per year plus any bond measures passed through public vote. Bond measures are those ballot measures that supply funding to build libraries, schools, zoos, etc. Lots of bond measures have been passed in the last 15 years, including an $80,000,000 bond measure that re-built the two High Schools here in Lake Oswego.
Here are a few local events & opportunities currently offered Lake Oswego residents. Wish you were here? We do too! Enjoy:
As with our entire society, the real estate community is rapidly changing due to the expanding availability of computer technology and the Internet. I have found myself musing on this subject because of a telephone call I got yesterday. A gentleman wanted information about a house that I have listed for sale. As I always do when I speak to someone about real estate, I asked him if he was already working with a Realtor. Not that it will make any difference in my answering of his questions, I just want to make sure that he has adequate help and I also don’t want to step onto the toes of any other Realtors. His response to me was that he had 3 different agents helping him, but that he didn’t think any of them were really working for him. This was because all 3 had set up e-mail programs that sent him listing information, but that none of them made the effort to speak to him in person. Hmmmm……
I have a very great fondness for the 
This subject is leading me to a little bit of Oregon history. As you drive around the metro area you’ll see quite a few roads that feature the word ferry in their name: Taylor’s Ferry Rd, Graham’s Ferry Rd, Scholls Ferry Rd. And here in Lake Oswego, Boones Ferry Rd is one of the major streets in town. These roads were conveniently named to lead travelers back in the days before we had bridges across the Willamette River to the many ferries that aided with these crossings. Boones Ferry Road led to the Boones Ferry, which was located where what is now Boones Bridge in Wilsonville (actually the current location of the Boones Bridge across I-5). Boones Ferry was operated by Alphonso Boone, a grandson of Daniel Boone.
According to the latest Market Action Report for the Portland area “Closed sales in the Portland metro area for July 2009 eclipsed last July’s total by 8.6%, marking the first time same-month closed sales have increased since April 2007. Pending sales also grew 8.3%. New listings dropped 25.4% . Comparing July 2009 with June 2009, closed sales increased 11.9% (1,988 v. 1,776) and pending sales were up a slight 0.3% (2,170 v. 2,164). New listings fell 8.2% (3,907 v. 4,257).”
If you have been reading the Propertyblotter for awhile, you know that I am a big supporter of the annual Race for the Cure. I am now a 2-year breast cancer survivor. It’s a club I never wanted to join, but now that I’m in it, I’m doing whatever I can to keep other women (and men too) from having to join.
Breast cancer will strike one in 8 women in her lifetime. My great-grandmother died of breast cancer in 1929, at the age of 48, the same age that I was when I got my diagnosis. Luckily for me, in the 80 years since my great-grandmother died, thousands of people have put time and money into education and finding a cure. I see it as my duty to pay that forward so that future generations don’t have to live in the shadow of this terrible disease.
Even more than inviting you to walk with me, I would like to ask you to consider making a donation. It is such a worthwhile cause. $77 pays for one un-insured or under-insured woman to get a mammogram.
Here in Lake Oswego we are blessed with the long, warm days of summer that come on the heals of the misty and rainy days of May and June. The combination, along with personal commitment to gardening, leads to a rich bounty that is currently at its abundant peak. I don’t know of a better place to see this, in all of its glory, than at the community garden at Luscher Farm.
The community garden is just one part of Luscher Farm, but it is a high-light, for sure.
If you are not a returning gardener, but would like to have a garden plot next summer, I recommend that you call the City of Lake Oswego Parks and Recreation Department on December 1st to find out the date and time that the plots will be distributed. In the past they were given out on a first-come-first-served basis and all plots were gone within an hour or two of being offered. This year they are considering a lottery system, but that decision has not been made. The phone number for Parks and Recreation at the City of Lake Oswego is 503-697-6500.
Luscher Farm is also home to the 
your good health. In the summer shareholders pick up the bounty of the crops on a weekly basis. In the late fall through early spring it is less frequent, but it still happens. I visited the wesite for 47th Avenue Farms and found discriptions of various share options, but no specific pricing. I would imagine that next year’s membership is still being formulated. There is a link to a waiting list as well as for e-mailing to get information. The website is