Business News April 2024

kids sitting at table

For those of you with dogs or cats that live in the Cedar Mill area, groomer Jeff Slaughter has more than likely groomed your pets during the past 29 years since his shop, The Muttley Crew, has been in the neighborhood. You may know that he had to close Muttley Crew due to extreme illness for the last part of 2023; to the point his landlords gave him notice to vacate, so the only choice was to close his (and our) beloved The Muttley Crew.

Now with a joyful restart, Jeff and some of his staff are offering grooming services at Barkzone Dog Daycare, Grooming and Boarding, 1815 NW 169th Place, located just off Cornell across from the Krispy Kreme. Eric and Dana Simpson, owners of Barkzone, have integrated Jeff and some of his groomers into their grooming, doggie day care, and boarding shop.

Jeff is grooming Tuesdays and one day on the weekend and is happy to be back with wonderful pets and their owners, and on his way to his recovery!

Please join us for the Cedar Mill Business Association’s monthly networking meeting! In April we will be joined by a representative of the park district to explain the upcoming Levy request on your May ballot. Lunch will be provided. Learn more on the Cedar Mill Business Association website

kids sitting at table

Unlock your child’s potential with Esperanza Spanish School’s immersive Spanish and STEAM curriculum! Enroll now and receive a special offer of $100 off for the next six months. We also accept ERDC. 

Our program is designed to provide a stimulating learning environment where children can thrive academically and creatively. With a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM), we ensure a well-rounded education that prepares children for a bright future. We also have special programs every day such as gardening, music, painting, etc. Call us today at 971-344-6528 or visit the Esperanza Spanish School website to schedule a tour and learn more about our programs. 

Parents and teens, do your future plans include college? Are you curious about out-of-pocket costs and how to pay? Jamison McAndie, CFP® will explain how financial aid works and how to plan ahead to manage college expenses. 

Celebrate the end of tax season by shredding unneeded papers! Shred-it will be onsite to shred your confidential papers. Doughnuts and coffee will be available.

Hosted by Hall Property Group, Karina Stark Team, Michellé Hutton Real Estate Group, and Summer Browner Real Estate. The community is welcome! 

Find up-to-date information here.

Management Consultant and author Jim Collins (“Good to Great and Great by Choice”) researched more than 20,000 companies to find a set of practices that were most successful against industry peers. He referred to these companies as ‘10X.’ Using his criteria, the national magazine, ‘Credit Union Today’ created a 10X list of common traits that successful credit unions follow. These include consistent membership growth, sturdy core earnings, profits that fueled continuous investment, exceptional scale in operations, and ongoing capacity for growth through strong capital.

Out of 4,600 credit unions nationwide, Sunset Credit Union was named one of 46 credit unions as a 10X Top Performer! “We’re honored to be selected as a nationwide 10X credit union,” said Sunset Credit Union CEO, Rhonda Baggarley. “Now that we’re open to anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in Washington County, we want everyone to know, they too can experience a 10X credit union. You can even join securely online!”

Sunset Credit Union is a full-service, not-for-profit financial institution serving anyone who lives, works, or attends school in Washington County. Visit the Sunset Credit Union website or stop by their office at 1100 NW Murray Blvd to learn more.

Farmers Market season is just around the corner. Please mark your calendars for our Opening Day! Between now and then, we are working on fundraising, recruiting some people who really love the market to volunteer on a regular basis and we are looking for a few more vendors to round out our product list. We are specifically looking for the following vendor types—hot food, eggs, meat/poultry/fish, cheese, berries, jams/jellies, nut butters, and hanging floral baskets.

Also, If you are a local business that is community-minded, we would love for you to join our sponsorship team. We can’t do what we do without the help and support of our local community. Contact us if you are interested. We will also be starting up a fundraising campaign to help with the costs of running the market. More information to come.

If you would like to stay up to date on what is happening at the market, please sign up for our weekly newsletter that will be starting up again in April. Contact us at ourcmfm@gmail.com to sign up, if you would like more information about the market, or if you have any questions.

We’re reaccredited! We’re so excited to share that as of February of this year, we officially have 25 years of AAHA Accreditation.

What is AAHA? The American Animal Hospital Association sets the gold standard of veterinary hospitals, setting over 900 standards to ensure best practices are followed in our building, with the protective equipment the staff wears, the training we complete each year, pain management for pets, and so much more. Unlike the human health world, accreditation of animal hospitals is voluntary. An AAHA accreditation is a strong indication that a veterinary practice delivers quality medicine – which positively impacts your patients, clients, and team and raises the bar for the entire veterinary profession. We’re so incredibly proud of our team- it is a true group effort to ensure we excel in AAHA standards.

We always strive to provide gold standard care and customer service in every aspect of our clinic, from communication to diagnostics, surgery to pharmacy. To help us achieve these standards, we send a survey on how your visit was, and we read each and every one of them.

A big theme lately has been PHONES. We’re seeing an increase in hold times, repeat calls, and voicemails and we hear you! We’re actively hiring two more receptionists to our team, as well as trying to implement a new scheduling system (coming soon!) to help streamline all of our processes. We also wanted to encourage you to come on inside if you are in the parking lot and need assistance. Although we are doing a semi-curbside model for some services, we want to help you in a timely manner. We may ask you wait outside if your pet is a little rowdy to keep our lobby as Fear Free as possible, but we want to help YOU!

You can also send us an email at staff.bpfc@gmail.com. We have staff members dedicated to answering emails during the week so that each of you receive a timely reply. Thank you for your understanding, and continued trust in our care.

Bethany Family Pet Clinic is located at 15166 NW Central Drive. Learn more on their website.

Five thousand active home buyers have come into Portland’s Spring market since my March report (RMLS lock box statistics). The market gains momentum every year as we move closer to the end of the colder months, and our local real estate market begins to shift to favor sellers as more buyers start actively searching for homes.

Home inventory has dropped further, and prices have begun to rise more steadily as the competition tightens. Conditions are right for sellers to benefit from these factors that will likely only improve as we head further into Spring when the Portland housing market reaches its peak for home sellers each year. 

Buyer traffic is one of the most important indicators of the state of the housing market. The winter months of lower buyer traffic reflected a cold market, but in February and March a much higher number of active buyers shifted the housing market to lukewarm status. Based on the seasonal cycles of our local market, we should see the number of active buyers only continue to increase in the months ahead. 

The steady decrease in available home inventory we saw this winter is consistent with the seasonal trends of the Portland real estate market. The current low number of available homes has created the conditions for a hot market this season. We can expect further decreases in inventory until more new homes are added to the market later this Spring. 

If you are planning to sell your home this year, now is the perfect time to list your home as the ideal market conditions that come with the spring season result in our highest volume of home sales and highest sales prices annually. The number of homes on the market that have had to undergo price drops has been steadily decreasing since December along with the decline in inventory. In January, home prices (calculated by price per square ft.) began rising after a long period of slowly decreasing prices and continued to rise more significantly in the past two months. 

Low market inventory and increased buyer traffic are currently creating more competition for available homes, which drives prices upward. Because I anticipate a higher number of active home buyers in tandem with an influx of new home listings in the Spring, we can expect prices to continue to rise through the Spring season.

It would be my pleasure to talk with you, walk through your home and suggest what would give you the most for your investment. This is a very complicated market, I would love to help you through it. Don’t hesitate to contact me at 503-706-6358 or jdempsey@windermere.com.

The housing market is constantly changing and this spring/summer promises to be very active! What does that mean for Home Buyers? This free Home Buyer Class is designed to unlock your path to homeownership. Join us for this free event with local experts sharing essential knowledge and resources to navigate the home buying process with confidence. We will walk you through proven steps for a successful purchase, discuss the current market trends, and answer your questions. Join Sr Mortgage Advisor Tim McBratney (PacRes Mortgage, NMLS 133935), local Insurance Agent, Dave Snyder (American Family Insurance), and myself, Marie Conser. 

Marie Conser, Oregon Principal Broker serving the Cedar Mill area, John L. Scott Real Estate.

Exciting opportunity alert! Interested in joining the community at Bethany Village? We have a 270 sq ft micro-retail space available now, located right in the heart of the Village between The Tailor Shop and Cup & Cone. Get in touch with Brady via email at propertymanagement@centralbethany.com, call 503-906-5787, or simply submit your request through the Bethany Village website. Looking forward to hearing from you!