DECEMBER 2010 RMLS™ Action Report
The December 2010 RMLS™ Market Action report was published yesterday afternoon. Here’s the full report.
Not surprisingly, our inventory of homes fell significantly by the end of the year and was not unlike 2009. Our weather has a lot to do with it. In 2008, year-end inventory was 14.1 when we had our Arctic Blast and no one was out looking for houses. This year we didn’t have that kind of weather. In addition, interest rates are currently extremely low and we have a good inventory of well-priced homes, i.e. foreclosures and short sales.
Personally, I also noticed an up-tick of activity at year’s end as I worked through both Christmas and New Year’s holidays with buyers writing offers. This is typically a slow time of year, but I didn’t have that experience this year. There are some winter months that are slow and others that aren’t it usually is dependent on the weather. In almost every situation I’ve been in with my buyers writing offers of late, we’ve been in multiple offer situations. There are buyers out there and my experience has been that the first-time home buyers are out in force. Pending sales increased by 6% this December from the previous year which is a good indication that our market is still alive and kicking.
However, prices are still falling. The average sales price fell by -2.7% and the median sales price dropped by -2.9% for the year when comparing 2009 to 2010. Although for November 2010 to December 2010, our sales price actually increased by 2.2% while the median price did drop by -1.3%
Below are the stats for year-end as to which markets in our Portland metro area were balanced, sellers or buyers markets
Buyers, Sellers or Balanced Markets in the Portland metro area:
Balanced: 5-6 months worth of inventory is considered to be a balanced market (or under 7 months). There were 4 markets that were balanced markets at 2010 year-end:
- North Portland = 6.2 months of inventory
- NE Portland = 6.3 months of inventory
- SE Portland = 6.2 months of inventory
- W Portland = 6.6 months of inventory
Not surprisingly, North, NE, and SE Portland throughout 2009 and 2010 continuously were either buyers or balanced real estate markets. The surprise is W Portland. Throughout most of 2010, W Portland had a high number of listings. My only thought would be that either many more foreclosures/short sales got sold, sellers were more aggressive in their pricing, or people who had their houses on the market for a lengthy period of time took their homes off the market. When I do my West Portland stats, I’ll dig deeper into that data.
Sellers Market: Under 5 months of inventory is a sellers market and we did have one area in Portland metro that had the unique distinction at year-end to be considered a sellers market:
- NW Washington County = 4.9 months of inventory.
A record number of condos sold in the NW markets this past year due to many auctions that were held. I would think this had a lot to do with reducing the over-all inventory of the NW market area.
Buyers Market: An inventory of 7 months or greater is considered a buyers market. Unfortunately some of these market areas that were still buyers markets at the end of 2010 were that way through much of 2010 and going back into 2009 as well. There were three market areas that had around 8 months of inventory or slightly less, which is a sign that the prices in those markets are stabilizing:
- Gresham/Troutdale = 8.1 months of inventory
- Milwaukie/Clackamas = 9.8 months of inventory
- Oregon City/Canby = 10.3 months of inventory
- Lake Oswego/West Linn = 12.2 months of inventory
- Tigard/Wilsonville = 8.5 months of inventory
- Beaverton/Aloha = 7.9 of inventory
- Hillsboro/Forest Grove = 7.1 of inventory
No surprise that the suburbs have been struggling since early in this recession. Lake Oswego/West Linn can’t seem to shake their high inventory due most likely to 1) higher priced homes for sale and/or 2) a reluctance to reduce prices.
In the meantime, if there is specific neighborhood or area information you are interested in, email me at bettyjung.rebroker (at) gmail.com and I would be happy to give you that information.
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