Portland Population hits #23

Portland is in the top 25 now with a showing at 23, for the largest Metropolitan areas in the US.  942 Metros were tallied the top 3 were not surprising.  NY, LA, and Chicago.

Portland is calculated from Beaverton to Gresham, and from Ridgefield, Wa. to Wilsonville.  That's the unscientific way to put it.  I believe they include McMinnville to St Helens as well.  Basically a 5 county area, and the total population was figured at 2.26 Million. 

Most people don't think Portland is that big.  Geographically, it's not a gargantuan sprawling city.  With the last 20 years of smart planning, most of the growth has been done by high density and vertical growth.  In the last decade Portland has slyly moved up this list from around 26 to 23.  More people (mainly the 20 something) move in, rather than move out of the area.  With a net migration that hovers around .9 to 1.7%.  And the 2 states with the highest percentage of our new recipients are the neighbors:  CA and WA. 

With growth, can come problems.  However, Portland makes it's mark with a talented and educated work force.  Companies, feed off this talent, and companies are born from this talent.  The jobs will come.  The traffic will be it's own separate blog for a later date.

When the foreclosure goes wrong.

According to the Oregonian Story on June 29th 2011, a Vernonia woman who fell behind on her mortgage payments, was foreclosed on December 2010.  The first lien holder put the home up for auction and the 2nd lien holder purchased it to protect their interest in the debt collection.  However, the owner wasn't moving out.  She hired an attorney and what they discovered was the first lien holder never had the right to foreclose.  They actually never had a recorded deed of trust. 

Something has been occurring in our industry, where lenders will sell the loans to other banks, and then never officially record the deed transfer in a county record.  They have developed an electronic system to keep track of these transfers.  It's called MERS.  It seemed to be a fine system for them to keep track, but as of late, investigators are uncovering a sloppy mess of disorganization.  The original notes and deeds have been getting lost.  And now, when challenged, if a bank that actually foreclosed on a property, never was truly in possession of the original trust deed of the property, they may have not had the right to foreclose.

As in the case with the Vernonia woman.  A judge just ruled that the bank didn't have the right to take back her house.  But they sold it?  Good thing they didn't sell it to another couple who was trying to move in...  No one knows what is going to happen next.

The editor's note:
Something has to be done to control the banks. This is most important.  However, does a person who defaults on the obligation have the right to have their home back too?  NO.  You don't pay, you cannot stay.  It's that simple.  Do we, as US citizens, let murderers out on on the streets, just because someone accidentally tampered with the evidence?  NO. oh wait...  yes we do.  Good luck fixing this one America.

http://mobile.oregonlive.com/advorg/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=yljDufJC&full=true#display