September 2017 Newsletter

August by the Numbers

• Portland Area Months of Inventory: 2.0
• Portland Area Avg. Sales Price: $429,000
• YTD Average Sales Price increased: 9.3%
• Portland Area Closings decreased: 8.6%
• Portland Area New listings decreased: 3.7%
• Average market time: 34 days

Lack of homes for sale weighs on Portland-area real estate market

A short supply of homes for sale is stifling activity in the Portland-area real estate market.

Despite a competitive environment where certain homes are still attracting several offers, sales for the year through August have dropped 2.7 percent compared with 2016, according to new numbers from the Regional Multiple Listing Service.

The number of sales contracts in August, for deals that would close later in the year, were down 7.6 percent, leaving little room for a rebound.

But even as sales wane, prices continue to rise. The median price for a home sold last month August was $385,000, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier.

That suggests the sales slump is due in large part to a stubbornly low inventory of homes, and especially in lower price tiers.

“There’s not enough to look at,” said Israel Hill, a managing broker with John L. Scott Real Estate in Northeast Portland. “When you break down the price points, you find anything under $500,000, the inventory is even more shockingly low.”

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Source: oregonlive.com

Rental News

Portland Oregon Rental Update – More Supply is helping Renters

Following the last recession, it was clear that building was far behind schedule, thankfully we’ve seen more new construction starts over recent years and many of those properties in Portland Oregon are finally coming to the market thus easing rent stagnation.

Recent analysis shows us that the pace of new construction is currently meeting and or exceeding demand and what’s even better is that there are currently more than 25,000 new apartments under construction in the Portland Oregon area but could regulations kill the positive growth that we’ve enjoyed here in the last four years?

Even that tsunami of supply, however, is not enough to put a smile on the economist’s face. “The big uncertainty in the years ahead will be whether the policies the city has enacted (inclusionary zoning) and others that it is considering (rent control) will choke off future investment in local housing supply,” Cortright concludes. “Once the current inventory of permitted housing is built (and much of it was permitted just prior to the new inclusionary requirements taking effect), it’s far from clear that developers will find Portland as attractive a marketplace for new apartments as it has been in the past few year.

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Source: Oregonlive