Ha ha. I imagine they can do those things just fine, I've just never heard of them doing so in Oregon at any scale. Oookay. I don't think one would normally interpret "largest owner of private land" to mean most expensive buildings, but let's assume that was what you meant. You are still wrong. barfo
My parents once had some property for sale near Council Crest. A representative for a Japanese buyer who's company was relocating him to Portland wanted to buy their property but he balked at the price which would now be considered a once in a lifetime steal. What a cheap ass. They sold to lot to another buyer for full price. It was a good deal even for 1996. The representative and the Japanese man he was representing are probably still kicking themselves in the ass. My wife and I were reviewing our lot next to that lot when the rep. came by. He started talking to us and I mentioned how some raccoons lived in the ravine in the rear of the lot. Right after I said that a mama raccoon and two of her babies ran about 10 feet in front of us and up a tree. His mouth hung open. Should have told him about the rabbits and the pheasant that lived there or the retired Forest Ranger who lived on the other side of the ravine and cared for the woods. It was a slice of heaven. All this and ten minutes from Meier and Frank, maybe 6 or 7 minutes from Portland State.
Meant to say private real estate, and I'm right. Anyway that's what my Oregon State Real Estate License course taught me in 2007. To be more accurate, my best recall is that they said was Japanese citizens, Japanese businesses and the Japanese government owned more private real estate in Oregon than Oregonians owned.
I love my wife completely and 40 years of loving marriage backs that up. I can live without anything, I don't need lots of money, an expensive house, nice jewelry, expensive clothes, nice restaurants, an expensive car or expensive wine but I absolutely cannot live without my wife. If I've got her everything else is just so much fluff. Our arguments are that we want the other to have cash on hand and we don't need it ourselves. We also argue over who loves who the most. We hold hands frequently even at our old age. We hold hands whenever we go outside to a restaurant or the grocery store or the Blazer games. Not trying to say anything negative about your post, just taking an opportunity to shout out my love for my wife.
Im curious if either of you can provide links or something that at least provides some sort of evidence...
I would guess that the statement that he is probably remembering wrong is that of foreign entities that at one time owned land in Oregon, owners who were based in Japan held the highest % of land compared to other foreign land owners. It was a common smear tactic back in the 80's to blame the Japanese for timber jobs being lost, because they would just 'buy up' the land, and take the jobs from Real Americans. This seems no different. Tho I suspect most of the land owned by non US Citizens is probably owned by Canadians, and much of the land owned by people not living in the US is held by Ex Pats or people living abroad. But I'm sure Maris knows hundreds of Japanese people who own land in Oregon, much like he knows "hundreds" of liberals.
Back when the question was land, rather than real estate value, I did a little research and found that the total foreign ownership of land in the US is about the same as the amount of private land in OR. [~27 million acres vs ~25 million acres] Which doesn't prove anything but is interesting. Ok, one link. Here's something that claims that FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) accounts for 5% of the jobs in Oregon. That's all foreign countries, not just Japan. You'd think, if Maris' claims were true, that number would be a lot higher. But basically, his claim defies common sense. What is it that the Japanese own? The majority of real estate value in the state is residential, according to this link. Are the majority of houses in your neighborhood owned by Japanese? And are there big buildings downtown owned by Japanese? Which ones? The big employers, Intel, Nike, OHSU, Fred Meyer, etc.. - are they Japanese? barfo
I was doing some research too and I found it pretty to hard to find what I considered good data. It seems like a weird claim and probably not true, but I wasnt getting very far. Thank you for the links.
You'll grow old and grey waiting for Maris to provide a link that isn't tantamount to him saying he heard it once, real americans, Beautiful Central Oregon or challenging you to find the links (after providing some totally unrelated comment).
The only Japanese person I've ever known to own their own home in Oregon was actually a U.S. citizen and she married an Oregonian Caucasian. Oh wait, there was another Japanese American who I worked with at Boeing and he lived in a Japanese internment camp in Washington in WWII. Nice guy, use to claim that he was the only guy to have an Asian gardner do all his yard work, his mother-in-law. So, that's two, one in Oregon and one in Washington. I guess you'd have to include the Naito brothers but I think they were Americans. They did own some expensive real estate in Portland but must have been less that minuscule.
They should show the radiation that is in the air, because I'm fairly certain some of it landed in beautiful central Oregon. and downtown Portland too.
Im pretty sure my 2 year old has absorbed all of it and turned it into a super power where shes mad all the time. She’s like the Hulk without the muscles...
