Portland Housing Stats from November 2011

Next week the numbers for December will be released but before we look at those I wanted to take a minute and look back at what was happening with the Portland area Housing Market in November. This also comes after many articles coming out these first few weeks in January saying that the Housing Market will finally rebound in 2012 and that we will definitely see an increase in home prices here in Portland.

Similar to October 2011, sales activity in the Portland Metro area showed improvements in closed and pending sales this November 2011 compared with November of last year. Closed sales went up 18.9% in November 2011 compared to November 2010. Pending sales rose 18.2%, while there were 18.1% less newly listed residential properties. A month-to-month comparison of the previous month of October 2011 with November 2011, shows closed sales rose 3.2% from 1,474 to 1,521. Pending sales fell 10.3% from 1,878 to 1,685. New listings were down from 2,433 to 2,026 (-16.7%).

A month-to-month comparison of the previous month of October 2011 with November 2011, shows closed sales rose 3.2% from 1,474 to 1,521. Pending sales fell 10.3% from 1,878 to 1,685. New listings were down from 2,433 to 2,026 (-16.7%). At November’s rate of sales, the 9,451 active residential listings would last about 6.2 months. Interestingly, this is the lowest active listing count in the last three years.

The average sale price in November 2011 fell 4.6% when compared to November 2010. The median sale price also was down
by 3.4%. Prices increased when comparing November 2011 to the previous month of October 2011. Average sale price went up from $258,700 to $259,400 (0.3%), while median sale price rose by 3.3% from $217,800 to $225,000.

A comparison of January-November 2011 with the same period last year shows improvements in closed and pending sales. Closed sales increased 3.4% (17,385 v. 17,968) and pending sales rose 5.3% (18,436v. 19,411). New listings, however,
saw a decline of 26.0%, falling from 43,658 to 32,315.

So what does this all mean? Well it shows that people are getting out there and buying finally. It has taken years of this down market to convince people that despite the doom and gloom, this is the best time to buy. Prices are low and continue to fall while interest rates are the lowest they have ever been in all of history! It also shows that prices continued to drop so it will be interesting to watch what happens in the first few months of 2012.

by Betsy Ballantyne
betsy@betsyballantyne.com

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