Letters to the Editor

Re: 'Real estate tax break fuels housing frenzy' (Jan. 20)

Dear Editor:

Julie's Brosterman's comments regarding the housing bubble are tinted by the rose-colored glasses of living in Southern California. As with New Yorkers, L.A.-area residents sometimes forget that the rest of the country doesn't always look the same as it does out their front doors.

So your rents are up in L.A.? That's great, but not here in Portland, Ore...for three years running. We finished 2003 with rents about equal to mid-2000. Yet home prices have appreciated about 15 percent in that time.

I personally track the number of "for rent" ads in the local paper and they are running about 14 percent higher this year than last year at this time. These trends seem to confirm what the Center for Economic and Policy Research says regarding the disconnect between housing appreciation and rent rates...how long can it continue?

Marc Coan
Oregon First
Lake Oswego, Ore.

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