Oregon Public Broadcasting

While there’s talk the recession may be over, Oregon’s real estate market is still struggling.

Prices in the Portland metro area are down 13 percent since last year. And while low-end properties are starting to sell, the luxury market is still feeling the pinch. 

In a few minutes, Ethan Lindsey will take a look at the high-end home market in Bend.

But first, Kristian Foden-Vencil visits  a 23-story glass tower in Portland, originally billed as a luxury complex, where dozens of condos are going to auction Sunday at bargain basement prices.

Atwater Place is a beautiful sky-scraper on the banks of the Willamette River.  It's one of a half-dozen towers to go up in the South Waterfront area, as developers build what amounts to acompletely new neighborhood.

Renee Piper is leading the sales at the Atwater and shows off a penthouse on the 22nd floor.

Renee Piper: “And as we walk in we have a kitchen to the left with a very nice deck and oversees the mountain area. And then in the living room and the dining room has wonderful views of the river. It has the east views of the mountains and the north views of the city.  This is $899,000 and all of our homes are totally completed."

A few weeks ago, this condo was on the market for  $1.3 million, so that's a about 30 percent drop.  A couple of floors down, a two-bedroom has dropped 60 percent. One-bedroom apartments start at about $170,000.

But these aren’t really prices. They’re minimum bids. That means when Sunday’s auction starts, the bidding can’t go below those prices. But it can go higher.

A steady stream of people have been signing up to participate in the auction.

But before racing down to claim your slice of the American Dream, you’ll need a cashier's check for $2500; and the ability to write a personal check for three percent of the bid you made.

Renee Piper: “After you have chosen a home, we have Bank of America and Metlife onsite and you do need to be prequalified in order to attend the auction. So that we know they have the ability to close that transaction within 30 days.”

That 30-day limit is important because the investors who built the Atwater have been told by their bank that they need to pay a certain amount of money back by the end of the fourth quarter.

The tower has about 200 condos. Only about a third have already sold, and another 40 are going up for auction.  The rest will stay on the market for conventional buyers.

Piper says an auction is the best way to get a lot of homes sold quickly.

Renee Piper: “It is a way to speed up the process of selling a home. It does create excitement and it does create opportunities for people to get wonderful buys at an auction.”

On the ground floor of the Atwater, there’s a sales office where visitors get information and start a tour.  

Richard Bjelland and his wife are retired. They have a home in Woodburn, but a they're thinking of selling it to buy a condo.

Richard Bjelland: “Last year we bought a town home down in San Diego, so we plan on spending winters down in San Diego and summers in Oregon.”

Bjelland likes the look of the minimum bids, but he says, those aren’t the real prices.

Richard Bjelland: “I think that certainly prices are going to come down from where they initially were and have been on recent sales. But the extent to which they come down has yet to be determined and will be determined on Sunday.”

Not everybody in the neighborhood is happy about the auction.   The lowered minimum bid prices have prompted some grumbling about “cheapening” the neighborhood.

Rod Burke rents in the tower next door.

Rod Burke: “There were a lot of investors who bought a lot of units down here. And they’re having to lower prices, both lease prices and sale prices, to get them to move. So I don’t know if it’s cheapening the neighborhood, I think it was over-inflated to begin with.”

Bidding starts 4 p.m. Sunday.

But buyers need to know that even if they walk off with a condo for 60 percent less than its original price, homeowner association fees haven’t been cut.

Fees for two bedrooms range from $500 to almost $800 a month.