December had a surprising end to the year; Decembers inventory number closed at 5.3 months of supply. This is significant since the Portland area has not had that low of an inventory number since June of 2007! That's 4 and ½ years since we've seen this few of homes on the market and way down from the market high water mark of 19.2 months of supply posted in January 2009. Does this mean that the market is finally hit bottom? There is good reason to believe that the bottom has been reached for entry level homes, those homes that are $200,000 and below. Mid level homes are probably going to see a leveling off too but the caveat to this whole story is going to be the number of bank owned homes hitting the market over the next few months as banks begin to process foreclosures again after they lifted the moratorium. The good news is that banks will be filling an empty bucket instead of filling a bucket overflowing with inventory like back in 2009. Buyers will see more selection hitting the market as we move into spring and sellers will not see a big increase in competition. Other figures for December 2011 compared to 2010 were closed sales increased by 10.3% and pending sales rose by 19.3%. Listings fell by -11.7%, contributing to the low available inventory numbers. When comparing December to November, closed sales rose 6%, pending sales fell by 14.4% and new listings dropped by 16.1%. Year to date, 2010 vs. 2011, closed sales increased by 4%, pending sales rose 6% and new listings fell a whopping -25.4%. Total sales volume was about $5.2 billion dollars, down from $5.3 billion in 2010. Sales prices for December 2011 were down -6.2% and the median declined -5.8% when compared to December 2010. On a month to month basis the average price increased by .05% and the median price fell by -3.7%. For the year the average sales price declined -6.7% and the median fell -7.9%.
Approximate Location Boundaries: Portland Metro
Location Characteristics: Portland is a diverse city with established neighborhoods, new construction developments and new high rise condo's downtown with out the urban sprawl you may find in other cities. We are a vibrant city and we are a destination city for the west coast. Home prices have remained relatively stable over the past months and we continue to enjoy appreciation in many areas of our housing market. Let me know what you are interested in and I will be happy to send you additional information.
About Kevin Begemann:
Hello, I am Kevin Begemann, a real estate professional for Oregon. I have 9 years of experience in real estate. I specialize as a buyers agent for bank owned properties.
These reports reflect the views and opinions of their authors and are not necessarily the views and opinions of Realty Times.
