Urban Renewal Fuels Property Tax Jump
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
In Portland, the property tax has substantially risen as compared to the previous years which are attributed to the Urban Renewal program in the City of Portland. Compared to last year’s statistics, there was a 14.72 percent increase in the property tax of the city.
During recent years, the share of the urban renewal in the city budget has been steadily increasing from 18.9 percent three years ago to where it stands now at 22.24 percent of the property tax levy which is very close to the 23.06 percent allocation for fire and police pension. With 45.3 percent of the property tax collection going to urban renewal and pension for fire and police, roughly 55 percent is left for other services.
Properties sell and they sell really good, especially when prices have almost been halved or a mere fraction of the first time they were listed for sale. This is a common case in today’s fragile
Green homes are becoming the next best thing to our ordinary homes which are slowly being replaced by new developments all over the place and in spite of the recession, people say they are willing to spend a bit more for greener products that impact the environment less. New homes are being built with the latest recycling technologies and more people are demanding nothing less in their new homes. America is now called the thrifty country but people will continue to chose better products that are green and recyclable.
The devastation that hurricane Katrina left behind is still being felt to this day and much of what man has built in the coastal areas of New Orleans were erased from memory by one strong storm. In fact, the hurricane was quite strong but the most damage came from the storm surge which caused levies to burst and overflowed, leaving much of the city in ruins. New technologies that have been developed to withstand such events are being showcased that have been undergoing testing and will be available to the public as soon as costs are brought down to more realistic levels. These
This is the next big thing that the housing market is going to get into, well, after the housing market rebounds that is. The slump is still here and no end is in sight so don’t count on it in the near future. The slump doesn’t mean houses are not being sold, its just that they are not meeting industry set levels for them to matter. Green is the next catch-phrase for the 



