They are lifting the onions!  You cut hay, you combine wheat and beans, you pull sugar beets, but you lift onions.This is farming talk and we are in a farming area.  Malheur County Oregon ( west of Boise Idaho) on the Oregon Idaho border produces about 25% of the nation's onions and large amount of other crops as well as being a huge cattle producer. The trucks are rolling up and down the highways full to the top with onions or wheat or chopped hay or shopped corn (ensilage). Oregon's restrictive land use laws have worked for one of their purposes, preserving farm ground.  In Oregon you can't just buy a piece of land and build a house on it.    The land has to be approved for that purpose.The rule of thumb is tht it takes 600 acres to make a living.  That's not easy to come by.  Farm an... 08/31/2015

ONTCCY, the dinner/auction fundraiser for the Ontario Oregon Chamber of Commerce is coming up on February 13.  It will be held at the Four Rivers Cultural Center in Ontario.  I hope to see you there! See more at www.BarbHutchinsonHomes.com ____________________________________________________________________________________   The above information on the Fruitland real estate market was provided by Barb Hutchinson.  Barb can be reached by email at candobarb@msn.com or by phone at 208-707-4663.  Barb has helped people move in and out of homes in The Treasure Valley in Southwest Idaho for the last 27 years. Thinking of selling your home?  I love to share my marketing expertise! I sell homes and real estate in the following southwest Idaho towns:  Payette, Fruitland, Parma, Emmett, New Plym... 02/03/2015

Here are the Ontario, Oregon real estate market statistics for the month of November, 2014: See more at www.BarbHutchinsonHomes.com _____________________________________________________________________________________ The above information on the Fruitland real estate market was provided by Barb Hutchinson.  Barb can be reached by email at candobarb@msn.com or by phone at 208-707-4663.  Barb has helped people move in and out of homes in The Treasure Valley in Southwest Idaho for the last 27 years. Thinking of selling your home?  I love to share my marketing expertise! I sell homes and real estate in the following southwest Idaho towns:  Payette, Fruitland, Parma, Emmett, New Plymouth, Weiser, Caldwell, and Nampa, ID _______________________________________________________________________... 12/10/2014

See more at www.BarbHutchinsonHomes.com   _____________________________________________________________________________________ The above information on the Ontario real estate market was provided by Barb Hutchinson.  Barb can be reached by email at candobarb@msn.com or by phone at 208-707-4663.  Barb has helped people move in and out of homes in The Treasure Valley in Southwest Idaho for the last 27 years. Thinking of selling your home?  I love to share my marketing expertise! I sell homes and real estate in the following southwest Idaho towns:  Payette, Fruitland, Parma, Emmett, New Plymouth, Weiser, Caldwell, and Nampa, ID _____________________________________________________________________________________ Did You Enjoy This Real Estate Article? Subscribe To My Blog – It’s FREE and... 10/09/2014

Portland Oregon Real Estate Market Update August 2014 For those wanting a quick snapshot of the Portland Oregon Real Estate market for August 2014, here ya go! Either take the 2 minutes and 30 seconds to watch the video or read on! To Get an idea of what YOUR Specific Home Value is: Press Here it's FREE! Key points For the Portland Real Estate Market Update of 2014! More listings hit the market this summer than last summer-Likely because of seller confidence and prices are up! There are currently 7,727 Active listings in the Portland Metro area-So this covers all the metro area. The Average market time is 57 days on market- but keep in mind this is for homes that HAVE SOLD not for homes that are still sitting on th market (if that is the case call me now and let's get you SOLD! #503-804... 08/29/2014

Finally!  Here are pics from the Kurth garden on Lincoln Drive in Ontario.  This beautiful garden has formal European style gardens mixed with cottage-style gardens and it flows from one section to the other with delightful things to see at every step of the way.  This is a huge space filled with small vignettes and "garden rooms".  And there is an incredible view of this end of the Treeasure Valley.  Even the outbuildings are picturesque!  There are way too many pics to show them al at once, so I'll bring you a second batch tomorrow.  A few wonderful moments:   Thank you to the Kurths for sharing this gorgeous space!  There was tons of inspiration here, and hopefully this will give you some ideas.  Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow! See more at www.BarbHutchinsonHomes.com YOU MIGHT ALSO... 07/06/2014

Photo by Bing Images The Four Rivers Cultural Center in Ontario Oregon will be hosting Family Movie Night in the Japanese Garden featuring the Disney movie Frozen.  It is Friday, July 11 at 9:30 pm and tickets are only $2.50.  You are asked to bring blankets and chairs for your family.  Popcorn and soda will be available.  This sounds like a VERY fun event!  For more information, including where to get tickets, CLICK HERE. See more at www.BarbHutchinsonHomes.com YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: See my article and  photos of the Japanese Garden at the Four Rivers Cultural Center. See more events at the Four Rivers Cultural Center, Ontario Oregon For more information about the movie FROZEN, click here. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The above in... 06/30/2014

I drove from my Vale Oregon home west to Harper for a BPO  day before yesterday.  The scenery was wonderful, the air was clear and practically glistening.  Fall colors are more subtle here in the high desert.  Since it's mostly shades of brown, the hints of oranges and reds really show up.   Couple that with the greens of the hay and beet fields and the clear light gold of the dry field corn and it is fabulous.  10/19/2012

Today I get to help with the Global Village Festival in Ontario Oregon.  I'v e done this most years since it was started, I really enjoy it. Our area celebrated diversity before it was cool and before we even knew what diversity was. It's not that prejudice doesn't exist here, it does, but tolerance is the most prevalent. Our area first had Native Americans, then some French, Spanish and Northern European people, then lots of Basque people some Chinese then Mexicans, then Japanese because we were a free zone in WWII.  Of course there is a smattering of every type of person.  All this is a county with less than 40000 people. The festival features booths with different nationalities sellling their typical foods and each booth features a craft that the kids can do for free, the kids collec... 06/04/2011

One of the benefits of living in the Intermountain West is the ability to get away fast!  One hour in any direction from my home in Ontario Oregon and you are in the mountains!  However that's not where we went Sunday.  We were only a half hour from home. We took our 4 wheeler and went looking for Love Reservoir.  We'd heard it mentioned for years knew vaguely where it was and had often talked about going there.  We Google mapped it earlier.  It is south of Huntington Oregon in the desert along the ORegon Trail.  The area has lots of "roads"  think Baja lol.  These serve as ways for the ranchers to get to the fences to fix them and to put food and salt blocks out for the cattle.  We went for about 8 miles of absolute solitude - that's priceless right there.  We came upon the reservoir a... 03/18/2009

Maybe it's because I spent 10 years in the carpet business and have no carpeted rooms in my home, but I am glad to get rid of the snow and especially the ICE and have good old mud.  The Treasure Valley (border area of Idaho and Oregon NW of Boise)  is high desert so the mud won't last long.  In fact the farmers will be out in the fields in the Sunny Slope area SW of Boise any time.  AND ARE WE EVER READY FOR SPRING!  Renewal, hope, flowers, sunshine, love, romance, enthusiasm, all things that will help our area and our country smile again and regain our spirit!  Now if our marketing people can figure out ways of making thrift thrilling, prudence perky, earnestness exciting and caution carefree we'll be "cooking with gas". 02/11/2009

One of the wonderful things about being  a professional realtor is that I have a flexible schedule.  I used that flexibility this week!  Monday I spent the bulk of the day school shopping with my granddaughters - the super shoppers and I were picking out basically one and a half outfits for 5 different kids.  It was exhausting but fun.  I was at the office before and after and returned calls all day too.  Yesterday was ZZ Top concert day (I'd given that gift to myself for my birthday)  so left the office earlier than usual but had had what worked out to be a progressive sales meeting (think progressive dinners) with our agents as they came in I went over the changes that we had made (most at their suggestion).  Noon was the Malheur County Board of Realtors annual picnic - real low key j... 08/06/2008

In 2007, 151 residential listings were closed in Ontario, down 19% from 2006. The average price also dropped a little bit, from $134,763 in 2006 to $130,707 in 2007.However, the average days on the market in 2007 was 78, down from 113 in 2006. So fewer homes sold, but they were on the market a shorter period of time.As for my predictions, I believe that 2008 will be a reasonably strong year for homes priced below $150,000. There is still good financing available for those homes with low down payments, and since first time home buyers do not have to sell their current home before they buy a new home, I predict that homes in the "starter home" price range will be the easiest to sell with proper marketing.There will also be some great opportunities for investors out there - I am seeing ren... 01/04/2008