• Cedar Mill Farmers Market
• West Side CSA Share Fair
• Valentines at Symphony Coffeehouse
• Beaverton Farmers Market opens 2025 season 
• Celebrate Valentines Day at LaChona
• Rightsize Room by Room with Big Rocks Organizing 
• Sunset Credit Union
• February in the Real Estate Market

Cedar Mill Farmers Market

2024 was a great season: thank you! We welcomed 30,224 customers over the 25 weeks of operation. We had 604 children involved with our Power of Produce Booth weekly activities. We welcomed a variety of musicians, and we were the very first market for many new vendors. Thank you all for being a part of the success! Planning for the 2025 season (May 3-October 18) is underway. Our Vendor Application is open. Visit the Farmers Market website for more information.

Love your market—get involved! We need your help! We invite you to share your gifts/talents as we prepare for our market season. Here are some areas to consider as we get things in place for market season: Power of Produce Kids Program planning/Implementing; Promotional help: Getting the word out about our market; Website management; Fundraising/Sponsorship; Volunteer Recruitment/Management; Special Event planning; Chef @ the market demonstrations. Please contact ourcmfm@gmail.com to get involved or to receive our weekly newsletter.

West Side CSA Share Fair

Saturday, February 22, 10 am-2 pm, Marion Acres, 23137 NW West Union

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) lets you purchase a share in the produce from a local farm, delivered to your neighborhood regularly throughout the growing season. The Share Fair is a chance to meet local farmers, explore their booths, and learn about their farms. If you’re looking to source your food locally, this is a great opportunity to find out how to sign up for a CSA program and learn about eating seasonal, local produce. Sponsored by the Pacific NW CSA Coalition.

And don’t forget to swing by the Comida KIN Food Truck for some a delicious lunch made with fresh, farm-grown ingredients!

Valentines at Symphony Coffeehouse

Mon-Fri, 7 am-5 pm, Sat-Sun, 8 am-4 pm, 16155 NE Cornell, Suite 500

Symphony Coffeehouse is a family-owned coffee and brunch spot at Cornell Road and Bethany Blvd. For Valentine’s day, we will be selling special tarts (such as the picture featured Raspberry Chocolate Tart) and treats, along with our new spring coffee specials! We are also partnering with a small business to sell flower bouquets for your special someones! We are excited for our month of love specials! If you’ve never been by, in addition to the delicious coffee and homemade pastries, we also make food in house such as incredible quiches, paninis, crepes, and so much more! Whether to study, relax, or to go on a date, we hope to see you there!

Beaverton Farmers Market opens 2025 season 

Saturdays, February-March, 10 am-1:30 pm, SW Hall Blvd., between 3rd and 5th Streets

On opening day you can pick up fresh bagels from Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels, fragrant apples from Kiyokawa Family Orchards, local fish from Linda Brand Crab & Seafood, and winter produce from Riverland Family Farm and Winters Farm. Treat yourself to a delicious pastry from ResQ Bakery, Decadent Creations, Twisted Croissant, Milk Money, and Dos Hermanos. So grab a warm coat and come out to visit us!

Our website offers a great tool under the Vendors + Products tab, to help you stay “in the know” about when your favorite produce, and your favorite vendors, will be in the market. As usual, if you ever have any questions or comments or just want to say hi, stop by the info booth, located in the NW corner of the parking lot, and our friendly staff will help point you in the right direction.

Celebrate Valentines Day at LaChona

LaChona Empanadas y Vinos Argentinos, 12535 NW Cornell Rd, Suite 104 (In the Milltowner Center)

Enjoy a special four-course meal with wine pairings. Learn more and reserve here. 

Rightsize Room by Room with Big Rocks Organizing 

Join us on an organizing adventure as we tackle one room at a time throughout the year—making progress and having fun along the way! 

The Junk Drawer

Tuesday, February 4, 12-1 pm, Zoom, Free

“A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.” Rightsizing your entire home can feel overwhelming but starting small leads to success! Click below to register for this free event. You can sign up for just this month’s session or register for the entire series. We can’t wait to see you there! Register through Zoom. Contact kayla@bigrocksorganizing.com with questions.

Sunset Credit Union

Choosing where to manage your finances is a critical decision. If you’re looking to switch banks or are in the market for a new mortgage, auto loan, savings account, or other financial products, you may want to consider starting a banking relationship with an organization that isn’t a bank at all: a credit union.

Credit unions serve many of the same purposes and offer similar products as banks. But if you want to keep your money with a nonprofit organization that supports your community with special benefits and financial support, a credit union might be the right choice. A credit union is a cooperative, nonprofit, member-owned financial institution. Unlike banks, which are owned by shareholders and must distribute profits to their owners, credit unions are owned by their members, who are also their customers.

If you choose to keep your money with a federally insured credit union (like Sunset Science Park Federal Credit Union), you will also benefit from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) which provides federal insurance on up to $250,000 of qualifying deposits per depositor, per insured credit union, for each account ownership category, in the event of a credit union failure.

Advantages of Credit Unions: Credit unions are focused on providing reasonable rates to their members. Because they don’t have to pay profits to shareholders as banks do, credit unions often can pass that money on to their members, by offering higher APYs on savings accounts and CDs and lower APRs on loans. Great Member Service: Credit unions tend to rate more highly than banks on surveys of customer satisfaction. For example, Consumer Reports found that 96% of credit union members were “highly satisfied” with their credit union.

If you’re ready to explore the differences between a bank and credit union, check out Sunset Credit Union. They serve anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in Washington County. You can open a new account securely anytime when you visit sspfcu.com/join.html.

February in the Real Estate Market

Throughout 2024, the biggest reason people stated for not wanting to move was interest rates and lack of affordability of their new home. Though most economists are predicting that rates will stay largely flat for 2025 with likely little to no change, housing prices remain strong. So, if a seller can get top dollar for their home now, while beating the rush of new listings that will come with our spring market, they can come out ahead. It appears that the current rates (hovering above 6.5% and up to and over 7%) are the new normal, and it could be 12+ months before we see any rate changes. This being said, more people are becoming aware of this and choosing to move forward regardless of current rates. This increased activity will cause prices to continue to tick up and could cost buyers money once our spring market kicks into full speed around mid-April.

As we begin 2025, and the historical start of our spring selling season, I want to give you an update on current housing market conditions. According to recent forecasts, despite mortgage rates remaining high, the Homebuyer Demand Index is up 7% and at its highest level since September 2023. In addition, mortgage purchase applications are up 17% month over month! This means that if you’re looking to make a move in 2025, competition is already starting to ramp up. Also, if you’re looking to sell your home (that is in perfect condition, and priced correctly), you can likely expect to get 100% of your list price with 37.4% of homes selling above list and only 36% of homes taking a price drop. While 2024 wasn’t a great year for real estate, prices have come up slightly and demand is still strong. Mortgage rates have been the hot topic for the last two years and current projections are that mortgage rates are not going to vary much in the next 12 months, so likely they will be the new norm at least through 2025. If you need to make a housing change, things aren’t as bad as what you’re probably hearing. Sellers can still get a great price for their home, and if you are buying, you will need to be ready to act fast to attain the home of your dreams.

With almost 40 years as a realtor, I have vast experience helping buyers and sellers with volatile markets. It would be my pleasure to meet with you, to learn your plans, and to help you navigate this transitional period. This is a very complicated real estate market, I would love to help you understand it. Contact Jan Dempsey, Realtor, Windermere Realty Group, jdempsey@windermere.com, 503-706-6358.