While Austria braces for a
migrant crisis as thousands of desperate Syrians march toward the country via Hungary, another refugee horde is facing a backlash of its own: "No Californians" signs are appearing on home "For Sale" signs in Portland, OR.
Portlanders fed up with the housing "bubble" affecting the city are blaming a flood of Californians for the heated market and are making their feelings clear about just how unwelcome their southern neighbors are,
the Oregonian reports.
"A lot of these homes are going into bidding wars and going over ask price," realtor Quinn Irvine told the newspaper. "And a lot of these guys are getting outbid. And I think they're going around to agents who have properties that have sold over ask price and putting anti-California stickers [on signs]."
The paper reports that "[s]omebody plastered one of the stickers – showing a silhouette of California with a 'No Smoking'-like red slash through it – on [Irvine's] sign outside a house on North Burrage Avenue."
"There's the lowest inventory we've had in over 10 years, and people are frustrated," Irvine said. "They're basically blaming Californians for raising their real estate prices."
The San Francisco Chronicle posted a tweet of the stickers:
Vice.com asked local resident Andrea De Leon whether Portlanders really do "hate Californians."
"In general yeah," the 30-year-old educator told the website, saying Californians are blamed for "gentrification and other community problems," including "the increasing difficulty of finding work and housing in the city."
The Chronicle notes the stickers are reminiscent of
anti-California sentiments among Oregonians in the 1970s.
"Back in 1971, Gov. Tom McCall famously said 'Come visit, don't stay' in a speech about the tourist industry," the Chronicle reports.
"It's thought that he was specifically referring to the Californians moving to the state in droves in search of a better life.
"Later in the 1970s, 'Don't Californicate Oregon' bumper stickers began appearing."
Irvine admitted that he and his fellow realtors are dealing with a large number of out-of-state buyers, and that many of them do indeed come from California.
"I'm dealing with a couple of San Francisco buyers," he told the Oregonian.
"One guy's cash."
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