Updated Home Sales Reports Now On RMLSweb!

A new User Interface and updated reports are now available

The previous Home Sales Report feature on RMLSweb was known to be slow and sometimes inefficient. Therefore, in February 2011, the RMLS™ Board of Directors voted to approve a project for 2011 that would involve rewriting the Home Sales Report feature. This rewrite included redesigning the User Interface, as well as the generated reports themselves.

Now, the updated Home Sales Reports, in addition to the new User Interface, are available for subscribers’ use! To access the Home Sales Reports, go to the RMLSweb Desktop page. Next, locate the “Statistics” menu at the top of the screen and select “Home Sales Report” from the menu options. The new Home Sales Report feature utilizes dropdown and multiple-select fields to allow for a quicker and easier user experience. View our new tutorial, Utilizing Home Sales Reports to learn more.

Here is an example of the new User Interface for the Home Sales Report feature (feel free to click on it for a larger view):

Notice the four new report options under the Generate Report column. Part of our redesign included adding the option of viewing four separate reports for the following:

New Residential (Year Built Description is New, Proposed or Under Construction)
Existing Residential (Year Built Description is not New, not Proposed or not Under Construction)
Total Residential (Total of New and Existing listings)
Active/Pending Residential (Pending Calculation is New!)

NOTE: For reports prior to July 2011, you will not be able to view the four different report options. All reports through June 2011 will stay in the old one-page format.

The new User Interface allows for a maximum of 35 area reports to be selected. Also, users can select multiple regions or reports by using the Ctrl or Shift keys.

In addition to the new User Interface and additional report options, we also revised the generated reports to more closely resemble data collected by the National Association of Realtors®. For example, we added additional price classes to better portray the market (this change will only affect the newly created reports from July 2011 on). The highest price class that the old reports offered was for listings that were “Over 500,000” (in dollars). With the new report, we have added the following options for Type Price Class:

$500,000 to 749,999
$750,000 to 999,999
$1 million to 1,249,999
$1.25 million to 1,499,999
$1.5 million to 1,999,999
$2 million to 2,999,999
$3 million and over

View our brand new tutorial, Utilizing Home Sales Reports, to learn more about the new functionality and report options.

Still need help? Feel free to call the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169.

November 2009 RMLS Market Action Recap

Sales up, but in comparison to a dismal month last November

The big highlight this month for many areas is a large jump in closed sales compared to last November. Curry County posted a 141.7% increase and Portland and Clark County set records for percentage increases in same-month sales at 72.4% and 70.5%, respectively.

While these stats are obviously a good sign for market activity, continue to keep in mind that last year we were at the height of the economic crisis and we hit some of the lowest points in sales totals in recent years. So, yes, sales are way up compared to last year, but remember that we’re comparing it to unusually low sales totals.

Has the winter slowdown arrived?
Closed sales had been on the rise in many key areas month-to-month through October, but it appears that the winter slowdown has arrived. Compared to this October, pending and closed sales were down in most areas, including Columbia Basin, Douglas County, Lane County, the Mid-Columbia region, Portland and Clark County.

Inventory up
Inventory ticked up in every area except Curry County and Union County, however, most areas are well below last year’s inventory levels thanks to fewer listings entering the market and higher sales totals. For example, Portland’s inventory stands at 7.1 months – 53% less than last November’s 15 months of inventory.

Supra Lockbox Activity – Updated Through Week of October 26 – November 1

Real estate activity up slightly in Washington, down in Oregon

When comparing the week of October 26 – November 1 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 0.3% in Washington and decreased 4.1% 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.

Portland Metro & Clark County: Top 5 Areas – Inventory

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

Supra Lockbox Activity – Updated Through Week of October 5-11

Activity Slides in Oregon & Washington

When comparing the week of October 5 – 11 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox decreased 7.7% in Washington and 10.4% 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.

Supra Lockbox Activity – Updated Through Week of September 14-20

Lockbox Activity Down In Washington, Up In Oregon

When comparing the week of September 14-20 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS subscriber opened a Supra lockbox decreased 1.2% in Washington and increased 1.4% 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

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

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.

The $8K Tax Credit and its Effect on Portland Metro Real Estate

There’s been some encouraging news lately in the RMLS™ market areas. The number of sales and pending sales are finally outpacing the totals from the same month in 2008. How much of it might be a result of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, though?

I recently put together some statistics for the Oregonian on the Portland metro area, and thought I would share them with you.

There is no question that home sales in the lower-end of the market have seen a big jump this year. In 2007, homes priced between $0 and $249,999 only made up 35% of all sales in the Portland metro area. In 2009 so far, they make up 49.6% of the market.

As you’d expect, coinciding with the increase in lower-end homes is a drop in high-end homes. Homes priced $500,000 or above have dropped from 13.5% of the market in 2007, to just 8.2% of the market this year.

Click on the graph for a larger view

The question is: what will happen when the $8,000 tax credit expires on December 1?

I know the tax credit definitely got me off the fence & I can literally think of 15 of my friends and acquaintances (off the top of my head) who have bought or are actively looking to buy.

So in my humble opinion, there’s little doubt that the tax credit spurred people to buy. But as the deadline for the credit approaches, it should be interesting to see where sales go.

Supra Lockbox Activity – Updated through July 26

Activity continues to slide, slightly

Comparing July 13, 2009 through July 26, 2009 the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes decreased 1.4% in Washington and 1.9% in Oregon.

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

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

June 2009 RMLS Market Action Shows Positive Activity in Several Areas in Oregon & Southern Washington

The latest issue of the RMLS™ Market Action for June 2009 shows increases in accepted offers, closed sales and a decrease in inventory in several regions.

Accepted Offers
The five county Portland Metro Area saw a month-over-month increase in pending sales (8.4% comparing June 2009 with June 2008) for the first time since December 2006. Pending sales also increased for the third month in a row in Clark County, Washington. The following regions also saw an increase in pending listings in June 2009: Coos, Curry, Douglas, Lane, Mid-Columbia and Union.

Closed Sales
Closed sales in Clark County increased14.8% comparing June 2009 with June 2008. This is the first increase since September 2008.

The following regions also experienced increases in closed sales: Columbia Basin, Curry, Douglas and Mid-Columbia.

Inventory
Inventory in all three of our largest service areas (Portland Metro, Clark County and Lane County) dipped to the lowest it’s been since August 2007. In addition, the following counties experienced drops in inventory from the previous month: Columbia Basin, Coos, Curry and Douglas.