PORTLAND, Ore. – Following a foreclosure earlier this year, a 60-year-old home in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood of Southeast Portland will be torn down by a Portland developer.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Built in 1955, the one-story home is 912 square feet in size and is constructed on a 5,000-square-foot lot. It is located at 4060 SE Mall St.
On Feb. 13 the county recorded a “sheriff’s deed” property transfer, which generally indicates a foreclosure, into ownership by U.S. Bank Trust for $238,219. That is the most recent property transfer on record.
However, on May 1 the city received an application for demolition of the 1955 home. On that application the listed owner and contractor is Wilde Properties Inc., registered at 3735 SE Clay St.
The applicant is listed as Mike Coyle of permit middleman service Faster Permits, registered at 14335 NW Eagleridge Lane.
Because city or county records have not been updated the sales price is unconfirmed, but Trulia lists a sale recorded April 30 for $235,000, which would be $3,219 less than the foreclosure repossession value, $12,990 less than PortlandMaps’ 2014 real market value estimate for the property and $41,000 less than the Trulia estimate for the property’s market value.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
If the Trulia sales price is accurate, this would be one of several recent properties to be reported on by the Portland Chronicle that have been purchased by a developer for close to or less than market value.
Buyers looking for homes to live in, meanwhile, have recently been reported on by InvestigateWest, which found they are increasingly unable to purchase homes for much higher than market value, losing out to developers paying cash.
No construction permits have been filed by Wilde Properties Inc. The property is zoned R5, meaning there can be one residential unit per 5,000 square feet of land. But its comprehensive plan designation is R2.5, meaning one residence is allowed per 2,500 square feet of property, suggesting there could be multiple new residences constructed on the 5,000-square-foot lot.
In areas where the base zone differs from the Comprehensive Plan designation, the city offers this explanation: “This situation occurs mainly in areas planned for more intensive development but where it has not yet been determined if the area’s public services and infrastructure are adequate to support the level of growth that would be allowed under the Comprehensive Plan map designation.”
The demolition application does not state whether the 35-day delay has been activated, but because the house is a single-family home in a residential neighborhood, it likely has. The city received the application May 1, meaning June 5 would be the last day of a 35-day delay.