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.
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.
When comparing the week of September 28 – October 4 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 1.9% in Washington and 3.4% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, left; Oregon, right)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
When comparing the week of September 21-27 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox decreased 1.7% in Washington and 3.1% 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.
Here’s a quick rundown of upcoming Realtor® events & education for the remainder of October in Oregon & Southern Washington. If you have an event that is not listed here, please let us know by commenting below. For future events, please send an e-mail to communications (at) rmls (dot) com.
RMLS™ Fall Education Summit & Trade Fair: October 8, 2009
Sharpen your skills and learn more about the current market at the RMLS™ Fall Education Summit & Trade Fair in Pendleton, Oregon on October 8. We have three free continuing education opportunities for both Oregon & Washington real estate agents (see descriptions below):
Oregon Agents:
- 9:30 – 11:30 am: “Dealing with Distressed Property Market” – Matt Farmer, Oregon Association of Realtors®. Course is eligible for 2 core hours.
- 1 – 2:30 pm: “Critical Ground Water: Water Quality, Water Quantity, The Basics” – panel includes: Teresa Walchli, Umatilla County Soil & Water Conservation District; J.R. Cook, City of Umatilla; Ken Diebel, Oregon Department of Natural Resources Division. Course is eligible for 1.5 elective hours.
Washington Agents:
- 9 am – noon: “Current Issues in Washington Residential Real Estate” – Dian Lane. This course is eligible for 3 core hours for Washington agents.
To register for any of these classes, e-mail tradefair@rmls.com.
Other Events & Opportunities:
– October 3: Salem Association of Realtors® (SAR) hosts “Talent Show – SARCF Fund Raiser”, benefits the SAR Community Fund
– October 8: RMLS™ Fall Education Summit & Trade Fair
– October 8: Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors® (PMAR) hosts “Navigating the Realtor® Code of Ethics: PMAR Ethics Training Seminar”
– October 8: Clark County Association of Realtors® hosts “Foundation Follies” – proceeds benefit Northwest Children’s Outreach
– October 8: Eugene Association of Realtors® (EAR) hosts “Lane County Property Taxes”
– October 12-13: Washington Realtors® Education Conference
– October 14: Douglas County Board of Realtors® hosts “Unusual Preliminary Title Reports & The New 2009 Title Updates”
– October 15 & 22: EAR hosts “Evaluating Investment Properties I & II”
– October 20-23: Realtor.com® Marketing & Technology Real Estate Series presents “Survival Guide 2009”, October 20 – Ashland, October 21 – Eugene, October 22 – Salem, October 23 – Portland.
– October 21-22: Earth Advantage offers “S.T.A.R. (Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals)” in Portland
– October 22: PMAR hosts “At Home with Diversity”
– October 23: PMAR hosts “Homeownership Opportunities Certification Course
– October 28-29: Earth Advantage offers “S.T.A.R. (Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals)” in Bend
Also, if you’re an RMLS™ subscriber, we have lots of FREE opportunities for continuing education credit at a location near you, click the link for your area to view the October Training Calendar:
– Coos County
– Eastern Oregon
– Eugene
– Florence
– Gresham
– Hood River
– Portland
– Roseburg
– Salem
– Vancouver
Image courtesy of Ayhan Yildiz
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.
Effective October 1, open house data will be available on RMLS.com and in IDX feeds to your personal websites. What does this mean?
IDX feeds: your IDX provider now has access to these fields. They may be able to set up an open house search feature for you – ask your IDX provider about what they can do with the new data.
On RMLS.com: users will not be able to search exclusively for open houses, but if there is open house information for a listing, it will be displayed in the listing information. So, if someone sees a house they like, they can look to see if there are any open houses coming up for it.
Benefits? Get more exposure for your open houses! Make sure to enter specific open house data on RMLSweb – here’s how:
1. Go to Listing Load on RMLSweb.
2. Find the listing you want to enter an Open House for and click on the OH/BT button (Open House/Broker Tour).
3. Click “New Open House”.
4. Enter all of your Open House details & click Save.
Starting on October 1, you’ll notice that you have to accept new Terms of Service (TOS) for RMLSweb, RMLS.com and RMLSweb Mobile.
Note to RMLSweb Mobile users: you will need to login to RMLSweb first to accept the TOS, otherwise; you will not be able to use RMLSweb Mobile until the new TOS are accepted.
The changes to the TOS are in accordance with Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2) Digital Millenium Copyright Act. As part of the new TOS, if you feel a photo or other content acquired by another subscriber is in violation of copyright, you can now e-mail copyrightagent@rmls.com.
By e-mailing us we can start an investigation, but before we take any action, we need to receive a signed statement with specific information about the infringement by mail or as an attachment to your e-mail. For more details, you can preview a copy of the Claims of Copy Right Infringement instructions.
As a reminder, section 10.3 of the RMLS™ Rules & Regulations states:
“By the act of submitting any property listing content to RMLS™, the Participant represents that Participant has been authorized and also thereby does grant authority for the MLS to include the property listing content in its copyrighted MLS compilation and also in any statistical report on comparables. Listing content includes, but is not limited to, photographs, images, graphics, audio and video recordings, virtual tours, drawings, descriptions, remarks, narratives, pricing information, and other details or information related to listed property.”
We’ve received reports of homes that were listed for sale on Craigslist being fraudulently re-posted as a low-rate rental listings. These types of scams may be aimed at getting prospective renters to wire or send first and last month’s rent. For example, a case was reported where a home listed at over $400,000 was fraudulently offered for just $700 a month.
Suggestion: If you’re concerned that listings you have posted on Craigslist may be at risk, you can setup an alert using RSS feeds – here’s how:
1. If you don’t use an RSS Reader currently, sign up for an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader or Bloglines (these are just a couple examples of free programs you can use).
2. Visit craigslist.org and find your region’s Craigslist page.
3. Click on the “Housing” section and type your property address or a unique phrase from your property description into the search field and click search.
4. At the bottom of the page, there is a button that reads “RSS” – click on this.
5. Copy the link of the page that opens and add it to your RSS Reader.
By doing this, you would be notified when you check your RSS Reader if someone has copied information from your listing & re-posted it on Craigslist in the housing section.
Another option would be to use Google Alerts:
1. Visit google.com/alerts.
2. In the search terms field, enter the property address or a unique phrase from your listing.
3. Select “Comprehensive” as the type of search.
4. Select how often you want to be notified if it returns search results.
5. Enter the e-mail address you want notification sent to.
Google Alerts searches the web, news articles, etc. and will return any results that match your search criteria.
If you see any fraudulent listings on Craigslist, report it to Craigslist.
Please also notify RMLS™ of any similar activity by e-mailing Kelly McKenna at Kelly.m (at) rmls (dot) com.
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.