This Week’s Lockbox Activity
For the week of October 22-28, 2012, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes in Washington and Oregon. Compared to last week, the numbers increased modestly in Washington, but declined in Oregon.
For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.
This Week’s Lockbox Activity
For the week of October 15-21, 2012, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes in Washington and Oregon. Compared to last week, the numbers declined in Washington, while Oregon saw a marginal increase.
For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.
RMLS™ has added the following new search options on RMLS.com. There is now the ability to search for properties in Oregon only, Washington only or both states combined. The ability to search for upcoming open houses for Residential, Multifamily and Farm properties has also been added.
When comparing the week of January 18-24 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 2.1% in Washington and 6.1% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
When comparing the week of December 14 – 20 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox decreased 2% in Washington and 7.2% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
It’s our favorite time of year, a time for family, succulent turkey, delicious pies, stuffing… well, we could get carried away about the food… more importantly, though, it’s a time to give thanks.
To our subscribers, we want to thank you for:
– Cooperation. The network of more than 12,000 real estate professionals that subscribe to RMLS™ have assisted 31,122 people in Oregon and Washington with a real estate transaction in 2009.
– Your feedback. You’ve provided lots of feedback about our services this year. We received more than 2,100 responses alone in our first ever customer satisfaction survey. While we evaluate the survey results, we encourage you to continue to provide feedback and suggestions on RMLSweb – just scroll over Toolkit and click on Questions/Comments. We serve a diverse group of customers, each with unique business needs. While it might not always be possible to meet each need, we’re doing our best to listen to all of your ideas and work toward making them a reality.
– Your patience. We’re proud to say that, aside from planned outages, RMLSweb has officially been available 99.9% of the time this year. But sometimes we have to close up shop to make changes or additions and, on rare occasions, something goes wrong. Thanks for understanding when we aren’t available for you.
– Our subscribers who serve. RMLS™ Realtor®-subscribers comprise our Board of Directors, Service Advisory Committee, Technology Committee, Forms Committee and Rules & Regulations Committee and also serve on other task forces as needed. Thank you to all who generously contribute their time and efforts to helping guide our decisions.
– Reading this blog. We’ve had over 10,000 visits since we launched this blog in June and we’re starting to have some great conversation about RMLS™, market trends and other industry news. Thanks also to the hundreds of followers and fans of our Twitter & Facebook accounts. We hope you’ll continue to make these a part of your online activities and that you’ll join in the conversation.
– Attending our classes and events. Approximately 4,000 of you have chosen to take an RMLS™ class or have attended an RMLS™ Trade Fair this year. We hope that you’ll continue to take advantage of these free educational opportunities.
We’re thankful for being able to work with such a great community of Realtors® and real estate professionals and we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season!
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Dickert, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
The latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association indicated that the rate of foreclosure for people with fixed rate loans and good credit is on the rise.
The AP reports that homeowners’ inability to keep up with payments is now more due to unemployment, rather than the subprime loans that contributed to the initial increase in foreclosures.
A quick search on RMLSweb reveals that in the Portland Metro area, distressed properties currently make up 21.9% of active residential listings (this number takes into account listings that require third-party approval, as this typically indicates a short sale and those that are marked as bank-owned).
In Clark County, 31.7% of residential listings are distressed.
Sales activity continued to outpace levels from the same month last year in the latest RMLS™ Market Action report. Inventory was also down in several areas, including Lane County, Portland and Clark County.
Sales Activity:
Both pending and closed sales increased in 9 out of 10 of the regions that we cover when compared to the same month in 2008. The Portland metro area saw its largest increase in closed sales since January 2005 , which was also the highest total of closed sales since August 2007. Clark County set a record for pending sales, with an increase of 56.9% compared to last October. Here’s a recap of each region’s same-month sales activity:
It will be interesting to see if this trend of increased sales activity will continue this fall and winter season. The percentage increases were not surprising this month, given the recent strength in sales and considering that last year we saw sales begin to drop in October, kicking off a stretch of slow sales activity that would extend into the first quarter of 2009.
Inventory:
Housing inventory levels dropped in several key areas, including Lane County (6.2 months), Portland (6.5 months, lowest since August 2007) and Clark County (6.4 months, lowest since September 2006). This is somewhat counterintuitive, as inventory levels have often increased as we head into the slower fall and winter seasons. But, considering the following factors, it’s no surprise:
What do you think?
Realtors – what do you think? Where do you see the market heading? Have you heard increased interest from buyers and sellers since the tax credit extension/expansion? Comment below!
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
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.