Is the Portland area’s regional housing crisis being made better or worse by state and local land use regulations? Gerald Mildner, Ph.D, an associate professor of real estate and finance at Portland State University, and the academic director of the University’s Center for Real Estate, would say, “worse.” According to Dr. Mildner in his paper … Continue Reading
Though your business may be real property, intellectual property issues most likely do or will play a role in your business operations. Intellectual property (IP) includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Here we provide you with the top five areas to take advantage of potential IP rights or where IP issues may arise in … Continue Reading
This post originally appeared on The Northwest Policyholder, Miller Nash Graham & Dunn’s insurance recovery blog. Many Northwest businesses are being impacted by the wildfires close to home, and also by the hurricanes that have or will hit Texas, Florida and other Gulf states. Can commercial insurance help to mitigate losses from these natural disasters? … Continue Reading
Thanks to our friends at HFO Investment Real Estate for this important notice regarding new developments from the Portland Housing Bureau regarding the Affordable Housing Bond. The Portland Housing Bureau released a report written by the Affordable Housing Bond Stakeholder Advisory Group, which lays out a plan for how the money should be spent. The affordable housing … Continue Reading
Miller Nash Graham & Dunn partner June Wiyrick Flores gave a special presentation for HFO Investment Real Estate, discussing estate planning and taxes, highlighting real estate and succession planning for the group. Watch the video of the full presentation below. … Continue Reading
On April 7, 2017, the IRS issued Action on Decision 2017-03, confirming that the IRS would not follow the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Shea Homes, Inc. v. Commissioner, 834 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 2016). The Ninth Circuit’s decision in Shea Homes was widely perceived as a significant, albeit narrow, win for taxpayers engaged in real … Continue Reading
Oregon has a long tradition of narrowing the scope of the property tax exemption afforded to charities operating in the state. This tradition is alive and well in 2017, as the Oregon legislature contemplates imposing an annual reporting requirement on all charities holding or seeking a property tax exemption on their real or personal property. Under … Continue Reading
In a coup for real estate developers, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the U.S. Tax Court’s approval of a real estate developer’s strategy to defer income in Shea Homes, Inc. v. Commissioner, 834 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 2016). The strategy appears fairly narrow, and will likely be the subject of future IRS challenges.… Continue Reading
With Portland weathering one of its top-ten snowstorms of all time earlier this month, one question that landlords and prospective tenants alike are asking is how to plan for snow and ice storms in their leases. … Continue Reading
Portland is quickly joining the ranks of American cities with the most significant construction projects. According to a report Friday from the Seattle Times, Portland now ranks seventh in the nation in the number of construction cranes—just behind San Francisco and Chicago, and ahead of larger cities ranging from Denver and Phoenix to Houston and … Continue Reading
The City of Portland has been struggling for several years to find a permanent location for the Right 2 Dream Too (“R2DToo”) tent camp, currently located at the corner of NW 4th and Burnside. An August 30, 2016, decision by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (“LUBA”) effectively blocks the latest solution. The City … Continue Reading
National numbers released this morning show that home prices rose 5.1 percent year to year nationwide—although, according to The Wall Street Journal, “[p]rice growth did show some sign of slowing in the country’s largest cities.” But is this “slowing” being seen in Portland? It appears not. Housing prices in the Portland area increased 12.6 percent from June … Continue Reading
General contractors and other employers (even some owners) have greater exposure under Oregon’s Employer Liability Law (the “ELL”) to injured workers based on the recent Oregon Supreme Court decision in Yeatts v. Polygon Northwest Co. The ELL imposes liability on all “owners, contractors or subcontractors and other persons having charge of, or responsibility for,” work … Continue Reading
On August 10, 2016, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a decision on an implied easement claim, finding that the lack of evidence regarding the use of the easement before the initial conveyance of the benefited property was not fatal to the claim. Dayton v. Jordan, 280 Or App 236 (2016). In Dayton, the parties own abutting … Continue Reading
By Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP on Posted in Real Estate
Zillow calls Portland the nation’s fourth “hottest” apartment market based upon a combination of new apartments as a percentage of total rentals (just 1.7 percent), the percentage of new apartments rented within three months (72 percent), and apartment rent appreciation over the preceding year (8.6 percent). Not to be outdone, Axiometrics ranks Portland as the … Continue Reading
In the recent Washington Court of Appeals case of Buchheit v. Geiger, property owners tried to prevent a neighbor from crossing over their lakeside lot with an antiharassment order. The neighbor began using the lakeside lot without the owners’ permission, by attaching a floating dock to the lot, storing personal items on it, and walking … Continue Reading
The Oregon Supreme Court issued a decision on February 19, 2016, affirming a decision to dismiss a homeowner’s claim against a builder for defective construction. In Shell v. Schollander Companies, Inc., 350 Or 552 (2016), defendant, a builder, began construction on a “spec” home in 1999. When the home was approximately 95 percent complete, plaintiff … Continue Reading
Continued from Part I . . . These 10 common problem areas can easily be avoided by paying attention to details. 6. Outside the Premises A tenant should think beyond the four walls of the premises and consider whether it needs to use any amenities, such as parking and common-area conference rooms. Unless the lease … Continue Reading
These 10 common problem areas can easily be avoided by paying attention to details. It’s a dangerous world out there. We cannot eliminate all risks. But a well-drafted lease can minimize risk, and a poorly drafted lease can unnecessarily create serious problems for either a landlord or a tenant. Following are instances in which a … Continue Reading
Zillow, a real estate listing and analytics company, recently looked at the “break-even” time horizon for owning a house versus renting in a number of markets across the nation. “Breaking even” means the amount of time it will take for the cost of owning a home to be equal to the cost of renting. The … Continue Reading
We wrote about the Filmore v. Unit Owners Association of Centre Pointe Condominium case in a prior blog post, when the Washington Court of Appeals issued its decision in the case. The court of appeals ruled that, based on the language of the Washington Condominium Act, any amendment to restrict or remove a restriction on leasing condominium units … Continue Reading
Central Oregon’s residential property values rose faster in the mid-2000s’ housing bubble and fell harder in the 2008 crash than those in other Oregon areas. Bend, especially, has been a boom-and-bust kind of town since at least the late 1970s. The bust cycle has ended for Bend once again, and once again housing prices are … Continue Reading
Last year, we wrote about the Gamboa v. Clark case, in which Division III of the Washington State Court of Appeals set a high bar for proving the existence of prescriptive easements. A prescriptive easement arises when one openly and adversely uses the land of another for over ten years, usually for access, to such a degree … Continue Reading
By Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP on Posted in Real Estate
It has been close for a few months, but Seattle house prices and full-on seller’s market are now confirmed in this report from the Puget Sound Business Journal. Prices are now all the way back to the 2006 peak with no indication of slowing down. In the long-term perspective, these gains may not be as extreme … Continue Reading
