Market Talk with The Oregonian

Oregonian coverI had an opportunity to talk with Dana Tims for today’s “Dealing With The Downturn” feature in the SW Weekly section of the Oregonian, which covers Tigard, Tualatin, and Sherwood.

Tims interviewed a homebuilder, supplier, remodeler, homeseller, and real estate agent to gauge how each sector is adapting to a slower housing market.

Here is the text, in case the link goes away:

    Trying to adapt to the new housing market
    A builder, a Realtor, a seller, a remodeler and a supplier discuss their strategies
    Thursday, April 10, 2008
    DANA TIMS
    The Oregonian Staff

    Until recently, a vibrant housing market provided many of the jobs and much of the income that stoked the southwest suburbs’ economy for the past half-decade.

    Much has happened in the past year to erase the double-digit profits that home sellers were taking for granted.

    The number of houses on the market, for instance, has increased almost sixfold since 2006, giving buyers the upper hand.

    Houses are lingering on the market far longer than they did two or three years ago. The multiple offers and bidding wars common among prospective buyers as recently as 2005 have been replaced by sellers trimming asking prices 10 percent and more to keep buyers from shopping elsewhere.

    Some areas are feeling the pinch more than others. Below are brief profiles of five people and their accompanying market sectors. Each is trying to find new strategies for coping with the downturn.

    The Realtor
    Ron Ares jumped from his job as marketing director for a high-tech company to a family-run real estate business in West Linn three years ago. That may as well have been a lifetime ago.

    “Inventories were half of what they are now, full-price offers were commonplace and if buyers didn’t have all their ducks in a row, they were likely to miss out on houses that were selling the same day they came on the market,” said Ares, a Tigard resident who specializes in the southwest suburbs. “It was one open house, one advertisement and ‘Katie bar the door.’ ”

    The market hit its peak, in terms of median sales prices and number of houses sold, last July or August, Ares said.

    Ultimately, he expects that this year will see a considerable dip in closed sales when compared with 2007, but the drop will be less than the 35 percent chalked up so far this year.

    Successful agents — that is, those not among the nearly 1,100 Portland-area Realtors who decided not to renew their licenses at the beginning of 2008 — need to pay close attention to the market and be willing to expand their skills sets, he said.

    Some agents, for instance, are focusing on so-called short sales, where the balance owed on the mortgage is more than a house’s market value. The endeavor involves negotiating with lenders, who may be willing to settle for less to avoid foreclosing.

    In Ares’ case, he is working only with longtime lenders who have endured down cycles before and know how to source solid loans.

    “What I’m telling clients is, if you need to sell and don’t want to get stuck, look at what the peak pricing was and take 5 percent off the asking price,” Ares said. “Otherwise, they’ll just be chasing the market down.”

Read the full interview for how the other interviewees are coping with a slower real estate market.

April 10, 2008 · Filed Under Communities, Market Activity, Selling Advice

Comments

One Response to “Market Talk with The Oregonian”

  1. Real Estate Graphic Design and Marketing on May 8th, 2008 2:43 pm

    Great article. Thanks for posting. I bought a home last year for $240k and now zillow say’s it’s gone down $6k in less than a year’s time. So sad for a first time homebuyer, loosing equity…

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