I’ve been on a soapbox since 1988 (but recently got off it) about baby boomers, the end of the suburbs, the desire of buyers wanting to move closer into town, turning shopping malls into housing, smaller houses for boomers, etc. etc.

Lake Oswego Residents Aging Need Smaller Houses

Lake Oswego for the better part of 2009 and 2010 has had the largest inventory of homes to sell. We currently have 14 months of inventory here in our town. That means if no other houses were listed today, it would still take over a year for all the houses to sell that are on the market for sale now.

In some of my others posts about Lake Oswego, I’ve mentioned that I personally would love to see LO become a pedestrian-only center down at Lake View Village. Richard Sundeleaf designed many of those buildings (Lake Theater for one) after a European village and Lake View Village followed suit. There’s been talk in the City of Lake Oswego that because of the McMansion craze and the tearing down of cottages to make room for those larger homes, the City has become less affordable, it’s lost some of its charm, and there aren’t homes in our core area to accommodate the downsizing of the baby boomers who want to be closer to amenities and continue to live in Lake Oswego. There’s also talk about the City of Lake Oswego looking seriously at its development plan and building codes to make some of these changes in the future. We have an opportunity to make our community better. I feel we’ve already lost an opportunity and vision of what Lake Oswego could and can become.

Brookings Institute Cities And Suburbs In Metro Areas

Recently, the Brookings Institute mentioned all these things that I’ve been saying. Below is part of their report and you can read the rest of it here:

“We’re unlikely, however, to see a real estate recovery based on a continuation of the type of development that has driven the industry for the past few generations: low-density, car-dependent suburbs growing out of cornfields at the edge of metropolitan areas. That’s because there is now a massive oversupply of such suburban fringe development, brought on by decades of policy favoring it—including heavy government subsidies for extending roads, sewers, and utilities into undeveloped land. Houses on the exurban fringe of several large metro areas have typically lost more than twice as much value as metro areas as a whole since the mid-decade peak.

Many of those homes are now priced below the cost of the materials that went into building them, which means that their owners have no financial incentive to invest in their upkeep. Under such conditions, whole neighborhoods swiftly decline and turn into slums. This happened in many inner-city neighborhoods in the 1960s, and we’re seeing evidence of it in many exurban neighborhoods today. The Los Angeles Times reports that in one gated community in Hemet, east of L.A., McMansions with granite countertops and vaulted ceilings are being rented to poor families on Section 8 vouchers; according to the Washington Examiner, similar homes in Germantown, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., are being converted to boarding houses.”

Ultimately, the biggest barrier to affordability is insufficient supply: homes in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods cost too much because there are not enough of them to satisfy the growing market demand. What’s needed, then, is a supply-side solution: build more such neighborhoods.”

Lake Oswego Neighborhoods

Lake Oswego currently has a lot on its plate. It’s considering a trolley or improved bus schedules and routes. It is currently looking at how to use the WEB building that was purchased, an aquatic center in joint ownership with West Linn and Lake Oswego plus many other issues. I sincerely hope, the leaders and future leaders of the city I live and work in, the City of Lake Oswego, look at what is coming down the pipe-line in demographics, how to use our remaining vacant land to benefit that shift in population and how to rebuild our neighborhoods so that the largest population group can benefit and enjoy this wonderful city. My hope is that the City of Lake Oswego does not miss any future opportunities. Guess I’m still on my soapbox!

Interested in purchasing a small home in Lake Oswego? 

Give me a call at 503-804-9685, I know all the Lake Oswego neighborhoods.

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