These percentages are almost identical to last month’s July comparison of 2018 to 2019.

Compared to August 2018, closed sales & new listings are down a bit, & average days on the market are slightly longer. Our market is cooling a little bit, which is generally good news for buyers, although there is still a lack of affordable inventory. For example, in NE Portland in August 2019, the average sale price was $506,200. The average sale price in NE Portland in 2019 through August was $483,200.

As always, these are statistics that can be sliced & diced in many ways. There are micro markets in all parts of Portland, some where houses are less expensive, some where they are more expensive. I am just glad that the appreciation rates have settled down to a more reasonable level than they were, for example, in August 2018 at 6%, & August 2017 at about 10%.

Thank you for reading. Please let us know if you have questions about any of this information, or anything real estate related. By the way, we tend to be more active with news & commentary on our Facebook page, so please check us out there!

“Comparing 2018 to 2017 through November of each year, the average sale price rose 5.6% from $429,000 to $453,100. In the same comparison, the median sale price rose 5.3% from $379,900 to $400,000.”

Please let us know if you ever have any real estate related questions, we are happy to help.

In our Portland Oregon real estate market, we rarely work in subdivisions where houses are very similar to one another, so we are almost always dealing with fairly unique properties. In these circumstances, value is definitely in the eye of the beholder, as there is no absolute way to pin point a property’s exact value until the property is actually sold on the open market. So, we use a variety of tools to determine the property’s estimated probable value, & usually our informed estimation winds up being very close to the final market value. Market value is defined as the price paid by a buyer to a seller for a property that has been exposed to the open market (meaning that all potential buyers have the opportunity to buy the property), the parties are not related to each other (arm’s length transaction), both buyer & seller are reasonably informed about the market, & neither buyer nor seller is under duress.

Another part of this topic is how we can best work with appraisers to help them understand the value of the property under consideration. Different appraisers will arrive at different property values; just as buyers, sellers, & their agents may all have differing opinions of value. Our goal when working with appraisers is to ensure they understand why the price that the buyer & seller agreed upon is a reasonable price, and that the lending bank (who is the appraiser’s client) should move forward with the buyer’s mortgage loan.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments. Thank you for reading.

Notably though, these increases are lower than the average & median increases we’ve been seeing for quite awhile, so hopefully prices are slowing down. I say hopefully because many people are being priced out of home ownership in the Portland area.

Looking at lower priced property often brings buyers to consider condos. The featured image of this post is a graph showing the monthly median condo sale prices since 2016. The median condo sale price is now over $275k, up from just over $200k back in the beginning of 2016.

Currently in SE Portland zipcode 97215, the most inexpensive residence of any type (house or condo) is $250k, with the next cheapest property priced at $387k. In 97214, we have some condos starting at $199k, but houses start at $425k.

Our best mortgage lender just introduced a loan program which grants a forgivable 3.5% down payment second loan, so the buyer only has to come up with closing costs & inspection fees. If the buyer makes less than $93,610, the 2nd mortgage (the 3.5% down payment at 0% interest) will be forgiven after 3 years as long as the borrower has a perfect payment history. It’s a pretty sweet deal! Contact us for more details.

From the March 2017 Market Action Report: “Comparing the average price of homes sold in the twelve months ending March 31st of this year ($404,300) with the average price of homes in the twelve months ending March 2016 ($361,100) shows an increase of 12.0%. In the same comparison, the median has increased 12.2% from $315,000 to $353,500.”

Also, “Total market time decreased by four days this March, ending at 58 days. Inventory decreased as well, ending at 1.3 months. There were 3,313 active residential listings in the Portland metro area this March.”

But, there is a glimmer of relief, “new listings outpaced March 2016 by 5.7% and February 2017 by 43.0%. This was the strongest March for new listings in the area since 2010.” More houses for buyers to choose from helps the market to be more balanced between buyers & sellers, although we still have a long way to go in this regard.

This is a look at the entire Portland Metro Area. Within that vast area, there are many sub-markets, each having it’s own statistics & variables. Generally, the closer to downtown Portland, the hotter & more seller friendly the market will be. If you have any questions about a specific area please let me know.

From the February 2016 Market Action: “Comparing the average price of homes in the twelve months ending February 29th of this year ($357,500) with the average price of homes sold in the twelve months ending February 2015 ($333,700) shows an increase of 7.1%. In the same comparison, the median has increased 7.8% from $287,500 to $310,000. Inventory in the Portland metro area remained stable in February, sitting at 1.8 months.”

Obviously this compares apples to oranges, not apples to apples (the houses sold February 2015 are for the most part not the same houses that sold in February 2016), so let’s look a bit further.

The 1.8 months of inventory refers to the Absorption Rate* for the entire Portland Metro Area, and includes properties that are not attractive for whatever reasons, so they do not sell quickly & they tend to skew the averages. When you get into the more popular areas, available inventory is even less.

Right now in Zipcodes 97214 & 97202, which includes a large part of the popular SE Portland neighborhoods**, there are 50 detached houses for sale. In the last 30 days, 40 houses have sold in this area. This means there is currently 1.25 months of inventory, or about 5 weeks.

If we ignore 4 of those properties that were under construction so those buyers were not able to close those sales quickly, we have median days on the market at 5 days, median list price at $477,450, & median sold price at $516,750, or 108% of list price.

This is a very hot market, and a tough time for buyers. Most buyers can expect to write a few offers & miss out on a few houses before finally being able to buy one they like. Houses are still being bought though, it just takes perseverance & probably some compromising by most buyers.

*Absorption rate is a way to track how many real estate listings are on the market versus how many listings are selling within any given period of time. It looks at monthly inventory; in other words, how many months would it take for all of the available listings to sell, if no new listings entered the market. Of course this is hypothetical, but it can be a revealing statistic that helps to identify trends. About 6 months of available housing inventory is typically considered “balanced,” neither a strong buyers’ market nor a strong sellers’ market. Both are approximately equal at about 6 months of inventory. Under 6 months points to a sellers’ advantage in the market, over 6 months indicates buyer advantage.

** These neighborhoods include Sellwood, Moreland, West Moreland, East Moreland, Brooklyn, Ladds Addition, Sunnyside, Richmond, Hosford Abernathy, Creston – Kenilworth, Reed, Buckman, Hawthorne & Belmont.

Absorption rate is a way to track how many real estate listings are on the market versus how many listings are selling within any given period of time. It looks at monthly inventory; in other words, how many months would it take for all of the available listings to sell, if no new listings entered the market. Of course this is hypothetical, but it can be a revealing statistic that helps to identify trends. About 6 months of available housing inventory is typically considered “balanced,” neither a strong buyers’ market nor a strong sellers’ market. Both are approximately equal at about 6 months of inventory. Under 6 months points to a sellers’ advantage in the market, over 6 months indicates buyer advantage.

I like to look at the absorption rate of a specific area, looking at a specific type of real estate, and within specific price points. For today, I wanted to know exactly what is going on with SE Portland single family detached housing listings & sales during this summer of 2015.

First I looked at all of “Close In SE Portland” as commonly defined by zip codes 97214, 97215, 97202 & 97206. Then I narrowed the results down to only the areas that tend to be the most popular in SE Portland; these can very generally be defined by zip codes 97214, 97215 & 97202. Then I looked at 97206 specifically because that tends to be a different housing market & a more affordable part of SE Portland.

As of today, 8/3/15, in zipcodes 97214, 97215, & 97202 there are 85 available properties, and 86 properties have sold within last month. This means there is just under one month of inventory which is considered very low, and a very strong sellers’ market. The average list price is $576,126 & the median list price is $565,000.

In zipcode 97206 there are 83 available properties, and 81 properties have sold within last month which is just over one month of inventory, but at a different price point. The average list price is about $340k, & the median list price is about $300k.

If you run this same search but take out any listings that have big problems, the statistics get even tighter, with even lower inventory numbers & higher final price to list price ratios. Most houses are selling very quickly right now, usually under a week & with multiple offers for well over the list price. The last offer I wrote was for a property that received 16 offers, which is pretty typical these days. We commonly see offers that are 10 – 20% over the list price. We are also seeing buyers waive appraisal & inspection contingencies which are generally considered to be very aggressive & risky strategies for most buyers.

I can run these numbers for any area around the Portland Metro region, and for almost any type of property. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly.

Thanks for reading!