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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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Is house flipping making a return?
NPR reports on the rising trend of all-cash housing transactions, including a resurgence of house flippers.
Listen at the audio link or read the article at NPR.org.
Portland Real Estate Market Activity – July 2010
As foreshadowed by May and June’s low pending sales, the July closed sale total tells the real story of the non-tax-credit-stimulated housing market in Portland.
From a high of 2,050 closed transactions in May, the market has cooled to around 1,400 closings during what would normally be the peak home buying and selling season (the 10-year July average is 2,400 closed sales). To give it more perspective, 1,400 sales is more in line with what you would expect for a January or February of an average year. July’s pending sale figure of 1,627 signals a low closed sales month in August. The slower sales pace has raised the available inventory level to 15,271 homes on the market — or 10.8 months’ supply. The Portland area has not had 15,000+ listings on the market since November 2008.
Despite the soft volume, prices have remained steady, even rising. Compared to June, the average and median sale prices were up 2.5%. In the Portland metro area, the median sale price was $246,000 and the average equaled $297,000. These levels were -1.6% and +2.9% respectively over July 2009 results, and may be residual echoes of the tax-credit frenzy of April and June 2010.
Below are summaries of the Portland housing market, including year-to-date figures for the metro areas.
Market Summary
| July 2010 | June 2010 | Last Year July 2009 |
|
| Median Sale Price | $246,000 | $240,000 | $250,000 |
| Average Sale Price | $297,000 | $289,800 | $288,600 |
| Closed Sales | 1,412 | 2,012 | 1,988 |
| Pending Sales | 1,629 | 1,618 | 2,170 |
| New Listings | 4,029 | 4,257 | 3,907 |
| Active Listings | 15,271 | 14,752 | 14,503 |
| Total Market Time * | 121 days | 121 days | 143 days |
| Inventory (in months) | 10.8 | 7.3 | 7.3 |
Below is activity by market area. Please note that the median and average sale prices are year-to-date), and the appreciation numbers are a 12-month average compared to the previous 12-month average. Total market time is the number of days between the date it went on the market and when it received an acceptable offer.
Market Report by Area
| Area | YTD Avg. Sale Price |
YTD Median Sale Price |
12-Mo. Change | Total Mkt Time* |
| Lake Oswego / West Linn | $439,700 | $385,000 | -3.6% | 156 |
| West Portland & Downtown | $404,600 | $339,000 | -8.0% | 123 |
| NW Washington County | $366,200 | $338,300 | -6.4% | 131 |
| Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville | $304,700 | $278,500 | -6.2% | 148 |
| Northeast Portland | $285,200 | $246,500 | -5.8% | 87 |
| Milwaukie / Clackamas | $262,000 | $242,800 | -7.2% | 112 |
| Oregon City / Canby | $257,100 | $229,500 | -10.2% | 125 |
| Beaverton / Aloha | $243,900 | $220,000 | -4.7% | 100 |
| Southeast Portland | $238,200 | $208,000 | -6.5% | 82 |
| Hillsboro / Forest Grove | $233,400 | $210,000 | -8.9% | 136 |
| North Portland | $232,100 | $227,000 | -3.8% | 85 |
| Yamhill County | $218,300 | $192,000 | -9.0% | 216 |
| Gresham / Troutdale | $214,600 | $203,300 | -7.6% | 120 |
| Columbia County | $187,500 | $182,000 | -11.0% | 186 |
Market data courtesy of RMLS, July 2010.
Oregon: Top Housing Market by 2014?
Reader Darin points us to a Yahoo/Bloomberg article touting Washington and Oregon as the top two housing markets to rebound by early 2014 (funny how that number went from late 2009 now to 2014).
The article specifically calls out Bend:
The area around Bend area, in central Oregon’s high desert by the Cascade Mountains, has the second-highest four-year growth forecast, 33.6 percent, after Bremerton-Silverdale, Wash. Bend draws home buyers and visitors with its wealth of outdoor recreational opportunities, but its prices have dropped about 40 percent since hitting a peak in late 2006. Fiserv and Moody’s Economy.com now expect a rapid recovery starting next year. Greg Broderick, a real estate broker in Bend, says prices have overcorrected and buyers are seeing good value in the market. Homes priced the low hundred-thousand-dollar range “are being snapped up at a furious pace,” he says. Still, the area must deal with a higher-than-average unemployment rate, which the BLS says was 13.4 percent in June.
Yep, that jobs thing is kind of a big deal. You can’t eat lifestyle.
Full article over at Yahoo real estate.
