November Stats

There has been a lot of talk regarding reports from the National Association of Realtors and others regarding the record price gains throughout the United States during the last seven months and this month especially.  Sources quote a 7% increase from last month to this month.  However, when you look at the fine print, and glance at stats in the NW, its closer to 1%.  Lets all remember that Real Estate is local, and although the market in Iowa does have an interest to us as a whole, we are really concerned with Portland, OR.

                 RMLS quotes our 12 month rolling Average Sales Price as being –12.6% since last October, compared to the previous 12 months.  Year to date, our total time on the market for homes is 143 days!  A positive note is that our inventory has dropped significantly.  Last October it would have taken 11.1 months to sell out of the city’s inventory whereas now it would take 6.5!  That’s great right?  Well, not exactly.  We have 20% fewer new listings, and we have more people getting frustrated with the market and taking their homes off.  Traditionally higher priced markets such as West Portland (-11.9%) have fewer pending sales because homeowners can’t get the prices that they would have gotten in the past.  If they don’t have to sell, they pull it off the market and wait.

This is all great for buyers, right?  Well, many of the homes still on the market are overpriced listings, and many of the properties that are competitively priced are so competitive that you are competing with 5-6 offers.  Interest rates are great, but appraisals are tight and coming in very low.  With less sold properties to use as comparables, appraisers are expanding their search areas, and some deals are falling through.

November 30, 2009 · Filed Under Portland Data, Portland Real Estate Market Data

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