Pollock Home Auction Redux

It looks like home builder Roger Pollock is trying his best to add a little more chaos to the already turbulent Portland real estate market. His company, Buena Vista Custom Homes, will be holding another home auction March 8.

Buena Vista auctioned 250 homes in December at the Oregon Convention Center, and claim they sold 141 at that event. The smaller March auction will be a continuation, an attempt to sell some of the remaining 52 homes plus 18 buildable lots.

It looks like 34 of the listed homes are in beleaguered and overbuilt Happy Valley, one of the only local areas that has lost value in the last year.Real Estate Disposition Corporation, the California-based company that ran the December auction, will run the March auction.

The December auction received a lot of negative press (beyond other previously reported problems here and here for Pollock) over the unpublished reserves —the secret prices below which Pollock was not obliged to sell his homes. As a result, the highest bidders were not necessarily allowed to buy the homes. Pollock will use this same method at the March auction, and it will be interesting to see how the public responds on the second go-around.

For more details see the Buena Vista press release or the auctioneer's website.

Auction Details:
Date: March 8, 2007
Location: Ambridge Event Center
300 N.E. Multnomah Street
Portland, Oregon 97232
Registration: Will open at 12 PM (Noon)
Auction Start Time: 1:00 PM