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re:PDX is presented by Claire Widmark, broker affiliated with M Realty LLC in Portland, Oregon.
Phone: 971-275-3691
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Portland Real Estate Market Slows To New Lows – January 2009 Results Preview
Stagnant is the word to describe Portland’s real estate market over the past three months, emphatically punctuated by a new low-water mark for sales activity in January 2009.
With just 713 homes closed, my early look at January 2009′s activity showed that less than 4% of the active housing inventory is being absorbed (sold), compared to an 8% monthly average in 2008 and closer to 15% in 2007. Of course, the leading indicator, pending sales in November and December, predicted this crater in sales activity.
The median price ($250,000) is down nearly 11% year-over-year, and off 17% from the peak. The median value is now equivalent to that of October 2005. The average sale price ($297,100) is down 13% from 12 months ago and off 16% from the peak of August 2007.
If there’s a silverish lining, pending sales staged a marginal rebound in January, up to 1,100 from December’s paltry 810 pending sales. But its still less than half of the January average measured over the past 5 years.
(Note that RMLS will be scrubbing these numbers for their February 15 report, but these trends are pretty clear.)
Anecdotally speaking, buyer activity is picking up significantly since the New Year, primarily in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range. I can’t put my finger on why that is the case, but apparently, some buyers are feeling more bullish than they were in the second half of 2008, and are trying to capitalize on some of the ‘incentives’ available to them (i.e. tax ‘credits’, low interest rates, buyer’s market, etc.). We’ll see if that translates into pending sales in February.
Photo courtesy of terwilliger911, used under Creative Commons license.
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