WASHINGTON, DC - February 12, 2013 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department (OHCS) announced that the U.S. Treasury Department has approved a new pilot program to help underwater homeowners in Oregon’s Multnomah County. This pilot draws elements from Merkley’s Rebuilding American Homeownership proposal released in the summer of 2012

SALEM - January 30, 2013 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Oregon Department of Revenue has started its annual review of participant eligibility for the state’s Senior and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Deferral Program.

EUGENE, OR - January 30, 2013 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, IDX, Inc. announces Brian Tuski has enabled an IDX solution to his real estate website and now hosts a dynamic search function. Regional MLS (RMLS) listings are now easily integrated onto the website he hosts, making thousands of Oregon property listings accessible for agents, brokers and home seekers alike. The Eugene online real estate search will never be the same, thanks to Tuski and his IDX-enabled website.

January 17, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Home Forward and Vitus Group announced today that Home Forward will sell its St. Johns Woods apartment complex in North Portland to Vitus Group, a Seattle-based affordable housing provider with apartment communities in 14 states. Home Forward, the new name for the Housing Authority of Portland, is Oregon's largest affordable housing provider, with nearly 6,500 units of affordable housing in Multnomah County.

EUGENE, OR - January 14, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Portland, Oregon home seekers can now experience an online real estate search comparable to none, with the dynamic IDX synced website hosted by Matt Williams and supported by IDX, Inc. As a member of the Regional MLS (RMLS), Williams has long had access to thousands of area listings. Now, the same ease and accessibility that was once reserved only for agents and brokers is available to clients of Williams, on the IDX enabled website he manages. IDX Broker software allows buyers to utilize the unique tools RMLS and Williams supply to them, forever changing the way home seekers find properties online.

EUGENE, OR - January 11, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- IDX, Inc. announces today that Randy Bowe of Atwater Real Estate has become the latest real estate professional to integrate the innovative IDX Broker software onto his website.

December 14, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- In a good first step toward fairer housing allowances for veterans going to school on the post-9/11 GI bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs is allowing veterans studying at the Oregon Institute of Technology’s Wilsonville satellite campus to receive a housing allowance more in line with their cost of living.

PORTLAND, OR - December 13, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- On Friday, December 7, 2012, Tu Ngoc Tran, 38, of Portland, Oregon, was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy to manufacture or distribute marijuana, two counts of manufacture of marijuana, making a false statement on a loan application, and wire fraud. He was acquitted on two other charges. The five-day jury trial was held in the Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon, with Judge Michael W. Mosman presiding

PORTLAND - December 11, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- On a single night in January, 2012, 633,782 people were homeless in the United States, largely unchanged from the year before. In releasing HUD's latest national estimate of homelessness, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan noted that even during a historic housing and economic downturn, local communities are reporting significant declines in the number of homeless veterans and those experiencing long-term chronic homelessness

December 5, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Oregon lawmakers wrote to the Veterans Administration to object to regulations which shortchange Oregon veterans going to college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. In a letter to VA Director of Education Services Robert Worley, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) along with Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) urged the VA to change the regulations governing how the Post 9-11 GI Bill housing allowance is paid to reflect the cost of living where students actually live and attend classes

Salem, OR - November 21, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Low-income homeowners and renters affected by foreclosure now have access to new a statewide service that provides free legal assistance from an attorney to help address urgent foreclosure issues

PORTLAND - September 24, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded a total of $1,845,629 to 14 Oregon housing authorities to help residents of HUD-assisted and public housing obtain education and skills training to compete in the job market. With the funds, the four housing can hire or retain 33 service coordinators to work directly with the residents to connect to the supportive services that meet their individual needs to become gainfully employed.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 28, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- A while ago, we wrote about the quiet, rural community of Vernonia, Oregon, which had been through its share of hard economic times. After two “500-year floods” in an 11-year period devastated the area, damaging its schools and the community core, the town finally started to rebuild its school last April. More than a year later, residents of Vernonia had reason to celebrate when Former Governor Ted Kulongoski joined United States Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and several other federal- and state-elected officials last week for the ribbon cutting of a new energy efficient K-12 school and community center.

WASHINGTON, DC - July 26, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today offered a new plan to tackle one of the most persistent challenges to the sputtering economy: the massive number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are now worth. In a white paper containing the proposal, called “The 4% Mortgage: Rebuilding American Homeownership,” Merkley laid out a plan to allow underwater homeowners who are current on their mortgages to refinance to a lower interest rate.