Portland’s RMLS recently reported RMLS March Market Action Report. As I was reviewing the numbers at the beginning of the month I expected that we would report a year-to-year price decline for the first time. But, as March data trickled in during the early part of April, prices were high enough to tip both the Mean and Median prices for Portland from slightly negative to up .1%. The median price increased $300 to $286,500 and the average home price increased $400 to $336,700.

Listing and Sales Trends:

A look at the trends shows that listing activity is tracking to to the year-ago trend-line. Sales are off almost40% from March 07. Pending sales that went under contract in March, and likely to close in April are down almost as much, so we would expect this months transaction volume to be 35%-40% lower than last April.

Inventory Absorption

Inventory in Months is a simple calculation of housing inventory divided by sales in the current month, It returns an estimate of how many months it would take at the current month’s sales rate to sell through all the existing inventory (assuming no new listings). The quotient is influenced by both the total inventory and the current months sales rate. Total inventory has been increasing each month. Since we’ve been entering a seasonally busier time to buy homes, so has our sales volume. Seasonality, not reduced inventory, is responsible for the improvement (reduction) in housing inventory.

Regional Stats:

Unique properties are selling more briskly and holding value better than properties that have many peers or substitutes. Location is a big component of uniqueness, but not the only one. As a general rule of thumb, we expect single family homes in close-in neighborhoods will out-perform the market in any market: buyers or sellers. Why? it’s not being marginalized by new housing supply, which is typically higher-density housing or at the perimeter of the market.

Related posts:

1. Portland Real Estate Becoming More Affordable
2. Portland Home Prices Finally Fall in March
3. February 2008 Market Action Report
4. Case-Shiller Report Shows Portland Still Appreciating
5. North Portland Real Estate Market Report - May 2008