Portland Metro Sales by Price Range – September 2009

by | Oct 23, 2009

Homes below $400k make up 85% of sales in September

I recently read that in Phoenix,  93% of September Home Sales were below $400k.  The author says that Phoenix is essentially a “tale of two markets”, one where homes in the lower priced spectrum are selling & where high-end homes are sitting.

We’ve looked at similar numbers before to see how the homebuyer tax credit was effecting the Portland market, so I figured it was time to take a look at these numbers again & see how we compare to the Phoenix sales by price range – here’s what I found:

% of Portland Home Sales by Price Range (September 2009)

Sept. 2009 % of Sales Sept. 2008 % of Sales
$0-$150k 190 10.4% 115 6.6%
$150-$200k 383 20.9% 235 13.6%
$200k-$250k 416 22.7% 420 24.3%
$250k-$400k 569 31.0% 633 36.6%
$400k-$500k 142 7.7% 170 9.8%
$500k-$750k 96 5.2% 114 6.6%
$750k – $1 million + 38 2.1% 44 2.5%

% of Sales by Price Range, Combined (September 2009)

Sept. 09 Sept. 08
Below $250k 53.9% 44.5%
Below $400k 85.0% 81.1%
Above $500k 7.3% 9.1%

As you can see, not quite as high as Phoenix, but still 85% of sales in Portland were below $400k, which is up about 4% from last September.

Also note that sales below $250k are up 9.4% from last September. I suspect a lot of those sales can be attributed to the $8,000 tax credit (although some investors may also be cashing in on some lower priced homes as well).

The tax credit is set to expire on November 30, and the debate rages on in Washington over its extension. It seems to have given the market here a boost, so it will be interesting to see how the market fares if/when it expires.

If the tax credit does indeed expire, it would still take a lot for things to get worse this winter compared to last year. Last January we saw sales activity drag to the lowest total in the Portland metro area that we had seen since RMLS™ began keeping records in 1992.

What do you think? Did the tax credit help? Should it be extended? Leave a comment, we’d love to hear your opinion!

Portland Metro & Clark County: Top 5 Areas – Inventory

by | Oct 22, 2009

Top 5 Areas with the Lowest Housing Inventory in September, Portland & Clark County

Below are the five MLS areas with the lowest supply of housing inventory for September 2009 for the Clark County and Portland metro areas. Inventory measures how long, in theory, it would take to exhaust the current supply of housing. We arrive at this number by dividing the number active listings by the number of sales for the month.

Clark County

Area Area # Actives Sales Inventory
Lincoln/Hazel Dell 14 34 10 3.4
Five Corners 25 89 18 4.9
East Orchards 26 90 18 5.0
Cascade Park 24 105 20 5.3
Evergreen 22 276 51 5.4

Portland Metro

Area Area # Actives Sales Inventory
Beaverton/Aloha 150 1,007 204 4.9
NE Portland 142 1,016 185 5.5
North Portland 141 455 75 6.1
Southeast Portland 143 1,396 228 6.1
Hillsboro/Forest Grove 152 880 142 6.2

RMLS Market Action Recap – September 2009

by | Oct 16, 2009

Residential real estate sales tick up in several areas, inventory down

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.

Supra Lockbox Activity – Updated Through Week of September 7-13

Supra Lockbox Activity – Updated Through Week of September 7-13

by | Sep 21, 2009

Lockbox Activity Back Up

The deadline to be able to get the $8,000 first time home buyers credit is coming up. Perhaps this fact spurred the increase in lockbox activity this last week. When comparing the week of September 7-13 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 6.7% in Washington and 3.9% in Oregon.


Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)

Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.

August Market Action Results Mixed

August Market Action Results Mixed

by | Sep 16, 2009

Same-month sales improve, but inventory rises in many areas

Pending sales in Clark County surpassed August 2008 & 2007 totals

Pending sales in Clark County surpassed August 2008 & 2007 totals

Sales Activity
Sales activity (pending sales & closed sales) outpaced totals from last August in several areas. Clark County continues to post impressive numbers in this category, as pending sales were up 24.9% and closed sales increased 21.4%. Portland posted a 13% increase in pending sales and 4% in closed sales.

In Southern Oregon, Curry County saw a big jump in pending sales, a 75% increase over last August. Coos County, the Columbia Basin region and Baker County also saw pending and closed sales grow.

Housing Inventory
Inventory, on the other hand, rose in many areas this month. However, most of the increases were modest and inventory remains well below 2008 levels.

Portland saw inventory rise to 7.8 months, up from 7.3 in July, but was still 21% below where inventory was in August 2008. Clark County, similarly, was at 8 months in August, but that was 37% lower than August 2008, when inventory stood at 12.7 months.

Baker, Curry, Douglas & Lane counties and the Mid-Columbia region all saw inventory increase in August, but in all cases, it was still lower than 2008.

Days on Market
You may have noticed that this month we have comparable data for the “Total Market Time” (TMT) statistical category. This is the amount of time that it takes from when a property is listed to when an offer is accepted on that same property. If the property is re-listed within 31 days, TMT continues to accrue; however, it does not include the time that it was off the market.

We started tracking this stat in August 2008, so we finally had comparable data this month. As you may recall, we used to measure “Current Listing Market Time” instead, this measure was less accurate as it only tracked the amount of time that a listing was on the market, it did not track the property address (so if it was re-listed, it would reset).

Overall, it appears that it is taking more time to market properties, all of our market areas saw increases compared to last August, with the exception of the Columbia Basin region and Union County.

In Portland it took 135 days to sell a property, up 11.5% from last August when it took 121 days.