Guest Blog Post by Gail Hare, Executive VP

As reported in the recent issue of Market Action, Portland Metro had only 4.7 months of active listings, the lowest in almost five years. Inventory in months is calculated by dividing the number of active listings by the number of closed transactions for the month. In the Portland Metro area, the number of active listings on the market has held quite steady, varying less than 5% between December and April. At the end of April, there were 8,523 active listings on the market.

In neighboring Clark County, Washington, there were 2,679 active listings or 6.7 months of inventory to work with. However, this inventory includes an unusually high number of proposed new construction listings. Out of all the active listings in the RMLS^™ system on 5/14/2012, there are only 1,059 designated as proposed construction. More than half of those are in Clark County. Counting under construction listings, over 20% of the inventory in Clark County is not available to purchase and move into right away, so inventory in months for built homes (new and existing) is more in the neighborhood of 5.3 months. By contrast, the Portland Metro area has less than 8% of its active inventory in homes that are not yet built.

Of course, further decreasing readily available inventory across both Portland Metro and Clark County is the market phenomenon called short sales. Active inventory includes listings that may have offer(s) accepted by the seller but waiting for action from the bank.

For the buyer who wants a home to move into soon, the low inventory together with these complicating factors creates a very real shortage of listings that might meet desired criteria. It should be noted that this is not a universal issue in all RMLS™ service areas. Some areas still struggle with higher inventories. (Click on charts for larger image.)