Portland Market Report

February 27, 2011 08:45

Portland Real Estate Market Action, January 2011

The 2010 numbers are in, and they were not pretty. When January 2011 numbers are compared to January 2010, there was a decline of 11.9% in average sale price. The median price was also down 10.4% over the same time period. On the positive side, the inventory of homes was lower in January 2011 vs. 2010; it came in at 11.3 months compared to 12.6 last year. In order for a real estate recovery to begin, excess inventory needs to be soaked up by buyers.

 Market times continue to be long… around 160 days, and this number is worse than a year ago, when it was 145 days.
Average sale prices of homes in Portland are approximately the same as is January 2005.

 People ask me almost every day, “When will the market recover?” or “Are we at the bottom yet?” I usually answer “maybe”, but nobody really knows when the local market will really recover. 2011 will be a great year for certain types of buyers… buyers who want to move up into bigger or nicer home, first time buyers who plan on holding the property for a few years, investors who are looking for rental property and investors who resell real estate. These buyers will be able to get a lot of value in 2011.

The story for the real estate market in 2011 is affordability: the combination of low prices with low interest rates.

Graphs and data used in this article were provided by RMLS.