Portland Real Estate Market Update

The data is telling the story with month after month gains and an overall real estate market recovery. On a national level December showed over an 8% increase in home prices from the previous year. Locally, the 2011 low is long behind and the last 14 months or so have been trending up! The average sales price in Portland for February was $278,000 up 5.8% from the year before. There were also more closed sales this last month than any previous February since 2008.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported, “Some hot markets are even seeing multiple offers for the same property…” For the Portland market, this is quite an understatement. If you’ve been bought or sold a home recently you know multiple offer situations and bidding wars are commonplace!

Record low housing inventories continue to fuel the increasing prices. There is approximately 4 months of homes ready for sale right now in Portland. To give this some perspective, that’s down from over 12 months in 2010! The principle of supply and demand continues to be a major factor in today’s market. Pending sales continue to climb boasting an 11.8% increase from January to February. Meanwhile, new listings remain fairly steady, but actually decreased 1.6% over the same period.

While the housing inventory continues to get scooped up by buyers eager to lock in low interest rates and returned investors, prices will continue the rebound. While we’re still a far cry from the peak selling prices of 2006, this market provides an amazing opportunity to move up and get the most out of your money. With the right preparation and pricing, homeowners are able to maximize their homes selling potential. They may then turn around and buy more for their money with record low interest rates!