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Last month's stats are out (you can click on the link to see the full report which covers the September numbers) and we continue to show a decrease in inventory, although not by dramatic leaps and bounds. However, any reduction in inventory is good news. Last year at this time we had 10.4 months of inventory for sale, in 2007 we had 8.4 months and this September 2009 we had 7.6 months of inventory. Sales activity continues to show improvement, although how much the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit influenced our market decreasing is unknown at this point.
The average sales price compared to last September is down by 8% and probably in large part due to the foreclosures, short sales, etc. on the market for sale and the median sale price also declined by 9.6% from last year as well.
This month’s RMLS™ Market Action report showed a trend of increasing real estate sales & subsequently lower housing inventory in many areas of Oregon & Southwest Washington.
Sales Activity:
Closed sales rose in the following areas this month, compared to the same month in 2008:
| Area |
Closed Sales |
| Curry County, Oregon |
100% |
| Columbia Basin, Oregon |
36.6% |
| Lane County, Oregon |
23.2% |
| Clark County, Washington |
20.2% |
| Portland Metro, Oregon |
9.8% |
Third Quarter Sales Up:
September marked the end of the third quarter and compared to Q3 in 2008, Coos County, Curry County, Douglas County, Lane County, Portland and Clark County all saw sales outpace Q3 in 2008. Clark County led the pack at a clip of 18.7%.
Inventory:
Ten of eleven areas that we cover in the Market Action report saw housing inventory drop from August. This can be attributed to rising sales in several areas and as we head into the slower fall & winter seasons, fewer homes are being listed as well.
Both the Portland and Clark County areas saw inventory drop to 7.6 months. Lane County has the lowest inventory of the areas we cover at 6.8 months.
PENDING SALES
What is of note, is that pending sales in our Portland metro area have increased almost across the board in all areas except for the Milwaukie/Clackamas and West Portland areas from last year. Overall, pending sales were up by 34.1% compared to 2008.
The following are the percentages by area as to the number of pending sales increasing from last year:
- North Portland 39.7%
- NE Portland 81.8%
- SE Portland 42.2%
- Gresham/Troutdale 47.2%
- Milwaukie/Clackamas -5.1%
- Oregon City/Canby 89.2%
- Lake Oswego/West Linn 35.4%
- West Portland -1.4%
- NW Washington County 9.8%
- Beaverton/Aloha 39.0%
- Tigard/Wilsonville 32.1%
- Hillsboro/Forest Grove 35.8%
- Mt. Hood 25.0%
- Columbia County 34.9%
- Yamhill County 45.8%
- Marion/Polk Counties 76.4%
DAYS ON THE MARKET
The days of short market times are over. Properties for sale in Lake Oswego are still having a hard time selling and that area has the longest market time with an average 204 days on the market. Northeast Portland had the shortest market time of only 84 days on the market. Last year, our metro Portland market also had fewer days on the market at 129 days compared to this year, 2009 at 131 days. There are still 13,667 houses on the market for sale in the areas covered by our RMLS.™
PORTLAND'S RECESSION
According to Moody's latest recession status, for Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton it shows that Portland's recession is moderating. Here is their latest August Adversity Index map. Click on map to view larger image.
In one way I'd like to see how the market does without a tax credit, although I know an extension is needed to continue to boost our real estate market and economy.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
ALL ABOUT.....Portland.Oregon.Real Estate by Betty Jung is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
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(For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).
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