Portland Real Estate Sales Take a Dive

Like the nighttime temperatures, Portland’s real estate market has cooled. Did’ja notice?

Perhaps all the directional signs sprouting up on street corners throughout the metro area gave you a clue.

Market activity results through September 2006 are out and at 4.5 months of available inventory, the Portland area has the highest ratio of homes available vs. closed sales since February 2004. Year-to-date sales are down nearly 24% over this time last year.

Panic time?

I don’t think so. Don’t forget that 2005 was the high-water mark for real estate activity, so take that into account. And the rest of the country has gone through their slowdowns earlier in 2006–we’re just lagging behind the national averages, as usual.

The good news (depending on your situation): Average appreciation over 12 months is up 15.4%. Average time on market is 41 days. Other parts of the country would be green with envy. Interest rates are still historically low.

I’ll dive into additional details next week. Stay tuned….

Technorati Tags: housing, Portland, results, sales, inventory, RMLS

Photo by ClintJCL.

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3 comments October 13th, 2006