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Portlanders Are Putting 'No Californians' Signs on Houses for Sale

This particular act of low-impact vandalism might not be an indication of a simmering border dispute, but rather, the kind of boring hostility that the pretty-well-off have against the actually rich.
Screengrab via Saturday Night Live / Yahoo

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According to The Oregonian, someone is slapping signs on "for sale" signs in Portland that have little "No Californians" symbols on them. And as you read that sentence just now, you were plunged into an infinitely recursive Fred Armisen joke.

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No Californians stickers slapped on For Sale signs in Portland. — The Oregonian (@Oregonian)September 4, 2015

Because you know how he has that show Portlandia that makes fun of Portland? And after he made fun of Portland, he famously made fun of Californians in a series of sketches on Saturday Night Live? But then Fred Armisen even made fun of the website you're reading right now? So, it's like a Fred Armisen character is writing this very sentence about Fred Armisen (Author's note: Yes, I am one).

Anyway, this sticker thing is apparently really happening, and according to Quinn Irvine, a realtor who talked to The Oregonian, bitter would-be homebuyers are to blame. Irvine told that newspaper that there's a pattern of locals getting into bidding wars with Californians and losing. "And a lot of these guys are getting outbid," the realtor said, and then "going around to agents who have properties that have sold over ask price and putting anti-California stickers."

So this particular act of low-impact vandalism might not be an indication of a simmering border dispute, but rather, the kind of boring hostility that the pretty-well-off have against the actually rich. Or is it?

We asked Portland resident Andrea De Leon whether Portlanders hate Californians. "In general yeah," the 30-year-old educator said. She claimed that encroaching Californians are regularly scapegoated for "gentrification and other community problems," including "the increasing difficulty of finding work and housing in the city."

According to Oregonian author Luke Hammill, the house featured in his story was eventually sold for $450,000 to a New Yorker. Zillow.com's home value index says the current average price of a Portland home is $291,900, and that the market is "very hot" right now.

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