A living room with corner hearth overlooks the patio and gives way to an eat-in kitchen with maple cabinets, granite countertops and a center island. It also has cherry wood laminate floors throughout the first level. On the second floor, the vaulted master suite features a reading nook, his-and-hers closets and master bath with skylight. Secondary bath has tile counters and floor.

The home also has a downstairs powder room-laundry room, fenced backyard, a forced-air gas furnace and a one-car garage.

What else you can get for $200,000
With $200,000 to spend, "this is a really good market for the buyer," says Jeff Wiren, president of the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors and broker with Re/Max Equity Group. "There is a lot of inventory in that price range. And I can tell you that two or three years ago, there was not."

These days, in downtown Portland, "$200,000 is going to get you a condo or maybe a town house," he says. But there are a lot of "close-in suburbs of Portland" where you can find single-family detached homes, he says.

The biggest difference these days: The money is going about 20 percent farther than it was three years ago, Wiren says.

"Realistically, you're talking about buying a different kind of home" in that price range, he says. Several years ago, it would have been either a condo or townhome -- or a single-family home that was in serious need of repair, he says.

Now you can move farther in and get more home for the money -- including a lawn, he says. For $200,000, "what you're seeing now that's opened up to that buyer is a detached property where they can have a little bit of a yard with a fence," Wiren says. "That just wasn't available two to three years ago."