Ruh roh: Oregonian liberals not too tolerant when it comes to competition with their own purchasing power.
SF Gate: Oregonians are fed up with the rising home prices in Portland and seem to think Californians are to blame. “No Californians” stickers are mysteriously popping up on for sale signs in front homes that are on the market. The stickers resemble a no smoking sign with a silhouette of the Golden State slashed out in red.
Realtor Lori Fenwick told The Oregonian that she learned about the trend when one of her buyers sent her a photo of a sign with one of the stickers. When Fenwick posted image on Facebook. she immediately heard from colleagues who had spotted the same sticker on signs.
“A lot of these homes are going into bidding wars and going over ask price,” Quinn Irvine, of M Realty, a Realtor who has seen the stickers, told The Oregonian. “And a lot of these guys are getting outbid. And I think they’re going around to agents who have properties that have sold over asking price and putting anti-California stickers.”
While bidding wars and cash purchases might be typical in the San Francisco Bay Area, the crazy competitive housing market is new in Portland. The median price for a metro-area home has gone up 10 percent in the past year to $320,000.
Both Fenwick and Irvine told The Oregonian that many of the buyers are from California and often they can pay in cash.
The one-sided Oregon rivalry with California–some would call it misplaced envy of our weather and variety of recreational choices–is nothing new. Back in 1971, Governor Tom McCall famously said “Come visit, don’t stay” in a speech about the tourist industry. It’s thought that he was specifically referring to the Californians moving to the state in droves in search of a better life. Later in the 1970s, “Don’t Californicate Oregon” bumper stickers began appearing.
So much for “welcoming to everyone”…
DCG