2020... What a ride! Coming into the year, the market on the Coast in Tillamook County was improving nicely, but certainly not dramatically. Then when the reports of the pandemic hit, I was convinced our market would come to a screeching halt. So much for my crystal ball, which went cloudy back in 2006. Anymore, when people ask what I forecast in the marketplace, my eyes just gloss over. Nothing will surprise me anymore. In the early 80's I never would have thought we would see home mortgage interest rates as high as 18%. In the early 90's I never thought we would see interest rates jump again from 9% to 12% and certainly never thought that banks would refuse to honor interest rate locks...but it happened.
Of course, I never thought I would experience a pandemic in my lifetime, and certainly never imagined it would serve to boost the local real estate market in favor of sellers. Buyers have been flocking to the beach, mostly due to Covid and the hope of having a respite in this clean, rural, sparsely populated environment. An escape from the city.
I have stories to tell of multiple offers with buyers doing crazy things to compete and prevail in their efforts to buy a beach house. And now, even LOTS are selling again. For so many years, lots were almost impossible to sell in this county, but now Buyers are finding this a way to get a foot in the door for their bug-out property away from the madness they are experiencing in the urban areas... not just Portland, but everywhere. People want beauty, fresh air, peace and quiet. And that is the perfect description of what Tillamook County has to give.
Check out this beautiful home located in the foothills of the Coast Range, just an hour's drive to Intel in Hillsboro... or if you have your own plane, you can fly from Hillsboro airport to the Tillamook airport near this spacious home on 2 acres: