Portland Real Estate Sales Take a Dive
October 13th, 2006
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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Related posts:
- June 2007 Real Estate Market Update — The New Normal
- Portland Real Estate Market Activity - July 2006 results
- Portland Real Estate Market Activity for September 2006
Entry Filed under: Market Activity
3 Comments Add your own
1. Larry Morris | October 14th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I was driving through Portland neighborhoods yesterday and between the For Sale signs and the Political signs it was pretty colorfull.
It seems like properties either dissapear immediately or the languish for weeks or what seems like months.
I’ve seen both. I have several sellers who haven’t been able to sell their properties for what the want/need, and I’ve had buyers who are still getting accepted offers before I’ve been able to get them pre-approved.
It seems to be truly back to location, price and presentation.
It would do sellers well to watch some of the HGTV shows.
I’ve also got a realtor who is going ahead and paying for an appraiseal on a tough property to get a real value of what the market deems similar properties to be worth. I can then run the appraisal through several lenders to see what they can do with the property. This should put her in a stronger position to sell the property. Buyers will already know that they have several lenders who just need to look at them. Closing would probably happen within 2 weeks… For $450, a pretty reasonable marketing expense.
Just another way a realtor is getting creative and distancing herself from the competition in a toughening market.
2. Portland Expat | October 14th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
The current construction of so many condos in the downtown area in so short a time gives me pause. In a slowing residential housing market where are the customers coming from? I fear a collision of current condo investors needing to bail added to the normal turnover of existing condo residents with new inventory next year. How do you think that will impact sale price of existing units?
3. » From Ron AresR&hellip | November 15th, 2006 at 10:03 am
[...] 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 […] Read more… [...]
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