Portland
Oregon Real Estate - Live Green...Live Well!
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Patrick
Smith, MBA, AHWD
Eco Broker Certified
503-421-3824
Licensed in the State of Oregon
CONTACT PATRICK
4001
NE Halsey Street, Suite 100, Portland, Oregon,
97232
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Portland Real Estate Market Data for February 2009 Home purchasing activity data for February was published by RMLS this morning and the information is mostly positive for an improving Portland housing market. Compared to January figures closed sales in the Portland metro region increased 17.1% while pending sales increased 3.3%. As another positive note new home listings decreased 17.3% thereby reducing the amount of home inventory on the market. What is significant about such a large decrease in month-to-month new home listings is that, historically, home inventory increases between January and February and continues to increase on a month-to-month basis through September of each year. A decrease in inventory suggests many homeowners are both choosing and able to keep their homes off the market, at least for the time being.
While all of these figures are extremely hopeful it needs to be noted that there still exists an unusually high level of home inventory. At the current month’s rate of sales it would take approximately 16.6 months to clear the Portland real estate market of current inventory – a significant decrease from January’s record-setting 19.2 months.
Another positive note in the Portland housing market for February was a 0.4% increase in the average sale price (currently $298,500) and a 3.6% increase in the median sale price (currently $259,000) over January figures. This is the first increase we have seen in both average sale price and median sale price in more than a year.
Similar positive results were reported for southwest Washington where February versus January 2009 data showed closed sales were up 10.3%, pending sales increased 11.7% and new home listings decreased 15.1%. Likewise, southwest Washington residents also saw an increase in both average and median sale prices.
With enticing first-time homebuyer incentives, historically low prices and interest rates, and loan modification assistance for thousands of distressed homeowners available it is quite possible we will continue to see improvement in the Portland real estate market for several months to come.
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