This is a series of blog posts about real estate in Salem Oregon written by Melina Tomson of Tomson Burnham, a small boutique real estate brokerage in Salem Oregon.  The blog has articles about local real estate market conditions from Salem, Keizer, Independence, Monmouth, Dallas, Stayton, Aumsville and Silverton.

The blog covers topics from market conditions to happenings inside the real estate industry that might impact consumers to new technologies that are housing-related.  Community information for home buyers looking to relocate to Salem is also housed in our blog as we discuss our local favorites.

The essence of professional…

In case you didn’t hear…not sure why you would hear all the way here in Salem Oregon…a South Carolina real estate agent was caught on tape trashing a competitor’s real estate signs. A SC real estate agent, Mullen, had been having problems for months with his signs being stolen and vandalized.  Setting up a “sting”…

Scams abound

Forget about the golden rule… I mean Oregon unemployment is at 9.9% and that doesn’t include February’s ugly numbers…Homeless shelters, food banks, churches are being pushed to the extremes with many families struggling to make ends meet. So with all of this cheery news out there, what do we see for troubled folks… Scams…yep here…

Karma missed the boat….

I’m not sure how to feel about this exactly, to tell you the truth…I mean a lot of people here in Salem Oregon are facing losing their homes due to foreclosure.  So you’d think I’d be all happy about a program that can help them get refinanced and stay in their homes… On NYTimes.com, they…

Home on the range?

Bawk…Bawk… As many of you may know, there is currently a ban on having chickens on your property if you live within Salem Oregon city limits.  There has long been a movement to allow people to have chickens on their property. This movement is picking up some steam due to the recent economic woes. Stressing…

Calling all vets

  Oregon vets are fortunate to have a great home loan program here.  The Oregon Department of Veteran’s Affairs…okay, say that 10 times fast…has a wonderful program: the ORVEThome loan program.   I can say this from personal experience, since I had several veteran buyers here in the Salem Oregon area  last year who used…

It happens here too…

It was announced yesterday that Silver Falls Bank failed.  The FDIC closed the bank and Citizens Bank out of Corvallis is purchasing the bank.  Those branches will reopen on Monday as usual except they will be Citizens Banks. We here in Oregon had spent 2007 and 2008 somewhat insulated from the disasters befalling some other…

Tax Credit Update for Home Buyers

$7500…$15,000…$8,000… I didn’t write about the tax credit before because it seemed to change by the hour as to what it would finally look like. Here is what is written in the full summary provided by the House Ways and Means Committee… The 10% tax loan with a maximum of $7500,  from last year,  will…