Jean is a baby boomer and 3rd-gen Portlander. She designed and manages a backyard cabin (Accessory Dwelling Unit or ADU), grows a 4-season no-chem vegetable garden, taught junior high to university for 20 years, and has graduate degrees in 20th Century US History, with a secondary field in Modern East Asia.
In her 8th year as a realtor, she owns and operates Johnson House PDX Real Estate, LLC where she is the principal broker. We support the owner-operator business model because it allows us to take time with our clients. Jean is serious, thoughtful, educated, hard working, and always puts quality over quantity.
Our specialities include: seniors & downsizing, green living, & income producing properties with Accessory Dwelling Units.
Our philanthropy includes: Northeast Community Center, The Hollywood Theatre, The Carter Center, BARK: Mt. Hood Watchdog Nonprofit, and the ACLU.
Jean Johnson brings a lifetime of wisdom to real estate.
The Southwest: Navajo & Hopi Nations
Jean was an educator for 20 years, 10 years of which she spent teaching public school in the Navajo and Hopi Nations.
The experience of living in different cultures taught Jean that there are many ways around the mountain.
Her appreciation for diversity has translated well into her real estate work, enabling her to work successfully with clients from a range of cultures, classes, genders, and ages.
The American West, Grand Canyon, & Colorado River
With Flagstaff as a home base, Jean and her husband hiked, rafted, and skied the American West during the Sixties and Seventies. They focused on wilderness areas from the Northern Rockies to the Colorado Plateau, frequently in their beloved Grand Canyon whether on the trails or the river.
During these years Mother Nature taught Jean that when when the weather turns south, the only way home is up the trail—a lesson in calm perseverance that has served her well in real estate when negotiating on behalf of her clients.
(Yes, that’s Jean on the left rinsing the sand out of her shoe with Colorado River water in the Grand Canyon—a 30-day private trip her husband organized in the 1980s.)
From Historian to Realtor
In her 40s, Jean earned first a masters and then a doctorate, specializing in US in the 20th century and Modern East Asia.
Those years of extensive reading and writing helped Jean hone critical thinking skills and a quiet strength, abilities that enhance her work as a realtor, enabling her to listen and then go the extra mile for clients.
Expect down-to-earth integrity from this capable woman.
Third-Gen Portlander
A baby boomer, Jean was born and raised on Mt. Tabor in SE Portland. Her Norwegian immigrant grandparents owned the Foster Feed and Seed in the 1940s, as well as Columbia Hardware, a building they eventually sold to Gartner’s Meats. Jean’s paternal grandfather was active in the Greater Portland area as well. and built the 9-hole Orenco Woods Golf Course in 1951 that has been preserved as a green space.
Jean’s parents moved to the Southwest while raising their children, but eventually the family returned to the Pacific Northwest.
Jean now lives in the Roseway District in NE Portland where she grows a 4-season no-chem garden and has a backyard cabin (ADU) .
Expect this 3rd-gen native to help you appreciate the neighborhoods and suburbs of Portland, both their current context and their historical roots.