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Portland Real Estate Market Activity – April 2008
Like the rest of the nation, Portland is feeling the effects of the housing hangover and we may be taking our medicine over the next several months in the form of sliding prices and lingering inventory.
Portland Realtors are getting their market update from RMLS and the results mirror my early reporting.
When compared to April 2007, closed sales are down 39% and the average sale price is down nearly 4 percent to $325,000. The average sale price in March was $336,700 and $342,800 in February, so the month-over-month declines continue.
If there was a plus side to April results, it was pending sales — up almost 7% over April of 2007 March 2008.
One change in reporting from RMLS is their abandonment of the methodology for measuring overall Portland appreciation as a 12-month rollup of sale prices compared to the previous 12 months. You’ll start seeing year-over-year monthly comparisons as the ‘new’ appreciation measure.
At the current pace of sales, the housing inventory (16,370 listings) nudged back above 10 months (10.3). Homes are taking, on average, 82 days on market to sell, year-to-date.
Here are year-to-date sales results by market area, sorted by average sale price:
| Area | YTD Avg. Sale Price | YTD Median Sale Price | 12-Mo. Appreciation* | DOM** |
| Lake Oswego / West Linn | $552,800 | $449,000 | 7.0% | 105 |
| West Portland | $491,500 | $397,000 | 4.0% | 93 |
| NW Washington County | $394,800 | $367,500 | 4.4% | 72 |
| Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville | $362,700 | $337,000 | 2.5% | 85 |
| Milwaukie / Clackamas | $339,500 | $294,500 | -5.9% | 70 |
| Oregon City / Canby | $326,300 | $286,000 | 2.5% | 96 |
| Northeast Portland | $316,400 | $274,000 | 6.7% | 59 |
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove | $286,000 | $259,900 | 1.3% | 82 |
| Yamhill County | $279,000 | $227,000 | 1.6% | 88 |
| Beaverton / Aloha | $277,100 | $250,600 | 1.9% | 77 |
| Southeast Portland | $276,600 | $245,000 | 4.5% | 60 |
| North Portland | $274,800 | $255,000 | 7.7% | 56 |
| Gresham / Troutdale | $257,900 | $246,000 | 0.4% | 59 |
| Columbia County | $228,400 | $214,400 | 5.7% | 88 |
Source: RMLS, May 2008.
*12-month appreciation is calculated by comparing the most recent 12 months’ average sales prices to the previous 12 months’ results.
**DOM or days on market may exhibit reporting inconsistencies and should be used to analyze trends only.
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5 Responses to “Portland Real Estate Market Activity – April 2008”
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If there was a plus side to April results, it was pending sales — up almost 7% over April of 2007.
Ummm… no:
Pending Sales:
April 2008: 2070
April 2007: 2998
My quick in-my-head guestimate says that’s about 30% less pending sales in April this year vs last year.
ST – good catch, 7% up on March, now redacted.
Why is 7% up on March good? Is it that April typically has fewer sales than March? How did April 2007 compare to March 2007 versus April 2008 versus March 2008? (That would be the relevant metric to me.) Thanks, Steve
Hmm, what was the overall median house price in Portland for April? I didn’t see it mentioned.
@Steve – Here are the March to April pending sale stats for the past few years: 2007: -2%, 2006: -5%, 2005: +6%. It is positive because we aren’t digging a deeper hole, but as SkepticTank points out, its a far cry from 2007’s units pending.
@Alan – The median price in April was $275,000 (vs. $285,000 in April 2007).