Portland Real Estate Market Conditions June 2011

The June numbers are out. Now we have  half a year of information about the Portland real estate market, prices of homes for sale in Portland and how many homes are selling compared with last month and the previous June.

To compare June 2011 figures with May 2011 check my previous market conditions blog.

A snapshot of the Portland real estate market for Buyers and Sellers: Portland home prices continue their  gradual rise. Since January 2011 the median sold price for Portland homes has increased $7,900. (See the chart below.) As prices start to rise and interest rates remain at near historic lows, the number of homes available to buy has shrunk. There are getting to be fewer homes to choose from, and they are costing a little more each month. If you are waiting to see the bottom of the market, you may have to look in the rear view mirror. There are still lots of great homes to buy. Call me. I’ll help you set up an on-line search for homes for sale.

Comparing June 2011 Portland real estate numbers with June 2010: Closed home sales were down a little bit (2.7%) this June over last June. However pending sales were up a huge 23.7% over the previous June. Pending sales are homes where an offer has been accepted but the sale has not yet closed. June’s pending sales are July’s closed sales in many cases. New listings of homes for sale in Portland dropped 22.4% compared with June 2010.

The average market time for a home for sale in Portland is 134 days. It was 121 days this time last year.

June 2011 compared with May 2011 Portland home sales: Closed home sales are up 12.4% over last month while pending sales are down -7.7%. New listings are also down 5.8% from last month.

At the current rate of sales the Portland real estate market has 6.0 months of inventory. (In May there were 6.8 months of inventory. See the chart and explanation below for more details.)

Sales Prices: Compared with the previous June, the average sales price is down 7.8% and the median price is down 7.1%. However, we continue our 2011 trend of gently increasing the median sales price each month. The median sales price for Portland real estate is up for June 2011 by 1.3% over May 2011. (See the Portland Metro Residential Highlights chart below for more details.)

I’ve graphed the median sales price for Portland real estate for the past 13 months. You can see our slow but steady rise in prices. Does 6 months price increase make a trend?

For June the average price for buying a home in Portland is $267,100 and the median price is $222,900.

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market;  4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.