Teresa and Marty Strelecky met whereas Mr. Strelecky was within the Navy and stationed in Bremerton, Wash., simply throughout Puget Sound from Seattle. After a stint in Mr. Strelecky’s native Chicago, the couple settled in West Seattle, the place he labored as a lawyer and he or she was a stay-at-home mom to their 4 youngsters, who are actually adults.
“We’re dedicated Pacific Northwesterners,” mentioned Mr. Strelecky, who works at an actual property title insurance coverage agency.
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Nonetheless, the couple, each 73, at all times loved a break from the wet local weather. Beginning in round 2000, they purchased and offered a sequence of second properties alongside the West Coast the place they may really feel hotter and dryer. The latest was in Rancho Mirage, Calif., simply outdoors Palm Springs.
“Within the desert, you lived such as you had been in a suburb and we realized, ‘Wow, what are we doing? We don’t like residing in suburbs that a lot,’” Ms. Strelecky mentioned.
As a substitute, they figured, why not discover one thing nearer to residence that they’d use extra usually?
Final fall, they began searching for a brand new place in Portland, Ore., a three-hour drive from their home in Seattle. They’d hung out within the space, together with from 2014 to 2021, once they owned a hazelnut farm in close by Newberg, Ore.
“They actually had been interested in the walkability, and likewise they actually aligned with a whole lot of the ideology of Portland,” mentioned Francisco Stoller, an area agent with Earnest Actual Property. He had helped the Streleckys purchase the farm in 2014, and the couple employed him once more for this search.
Ultimately they expanded their search to incorporate Seattle, the place Ms. Strelecky grew up and the place three of their youngsters reside domestically.
The Streleckys hoped for a ground-floor unit with two bedrooms and two loos, a restricted variety of stairs and loads of pure mild, shut proximity to public transportation, retailers and eating places. They didn’t need to pay greater than $725,000, however checked out a couple of properties above that quantity to see if a value discount was potential. Ideally, they’d promote the house in Rancho Mirage first, which might enable for an all-cash buy. In any other case, they’d want a mortgage.
This two-bedroom, two-bath nook unit with 2,000 sq. ft was on the second flooring of a 1997 constructing within the Goose Hole neighborhood, west of downtown Portland. The Artwork Deco styling included large home windows with metropolis views, a fuel fire, and balconies off the lounge, eating space and important bed room. The primary bed room had a walk-in closet and an en suite tub, and was related to the second bed room by a set of sliding doorways. The constructing, which supplied a health club and a concierge, was two blocks from a lightweight rail station, offering connections to close by Washington Park, in addition to to Portland Worldwide Airport. The value was $699,000, with month-to-month apartment charges of $2,129 and annual taxes of $11,888.
Simply inside a gated courtyard, this one-bedroom, 1.5-bath townhouse from 1982 lined 1,290 sq. ft over two ranges. An in depth renovation had turned the upstairs right into a lofted studio with a research and added stainless-steel cross beams, giving it an industrial look. The primary flooring was open, with a steel-and-glass island within the kitchen. A small, street-facing patio was off a lounge with a wood-burning fire. The famed Pike Place Market and charming Put up Alley, with its plethora of eating places, had been inside strolling distance, as was a ferry terminal. The value was $799,000 (diminished from $850,000), and included a parking spot. The month-to-month HOA payment was $1,195, and annual taxes had been $7,408.
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