If you live in Portland then you can't help but check out the cover of Portland Monthly in the check out line or at the news stand, and the headline this month definitely caught my eye! The whole city seems to constantly wondering about the real estate market, where we are, and what is the next big neighborhood to boom. "Buy Sell Rent Keep?" Those words are constantly going through my head, and I think the accompanying article had some really good points to it. I especially liked the neighborhood stats, in map and list format. http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/real-estate/articles/neighborhoods-by-the-numbers/

All the info they provide, plus more, can also be found at www.portlandmaps.com which I use on a daily basis to check on specific addresses, and neighborhoods. www.pps.k12.or.us is the Portland School district's website, and in addition to lots of info on specific schools, it also has a place to plug in any address and find the schools it is assigned to. Researching a property and a neighborhood is very important, there is a lot more that you need to know to make an educated choice about buying a home. It is also important to find out all the positive and negatives about your home before you put it on the market, not only are you better able to set the price correctly, but you can also have good reasons above and beyond the physical structure for people to buy it.