Portland’s Multiple Listing Service released their most recent market stats.  The year-to-year stats look pretty good but a couple of the month-to-month stats caused me to raise an eyebrow. 

Coming off of a pretty stellar December, the number of closed sales dropped from 1462 to 1035. However, the number of pending sales increased by 23% to 1489.  That should translate into a nice increase in closed sales next month. 

The average and median sale prices were down by 10.5 and 6.5 percent, respectively.  That’s a pretty big drop for one month, but I wouldn’t put too much into this number unless we see sale prices remain at this level for the next couple of months.  This could simply be a matter of end-of-year shopping by investors, who are taking advantage of inexpensive houses on the lower end of the market.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this number jump back up again next month.

The inventory jumped up to 11.3 months, due mainly to the number of new listings that hit the market in January.  This is a typical occurrence for January, and I included a chart to illustrate what typically happens this time of year.  People come off of the holidays and list their houses in anticipation of our buying season.  The inventory typically goes back down by March once the buyers get out there. 

On the ground level, my colleagues and I are doing a lot of business right now and I’m doing a lot more business than I typically do at this time of year.  A lot of the business I’m doing right now is with cash buyers, and it’s been a long time since cash buyers have been around in these numbers.  On the other side, I’m really interested to see how much of an effect interest rates will have on property sales during the next year as well. 

Taken from RMLS’s January 2011 “Market Action”

“January Residential Highlights

Sales activity in the Portland Metro area showed mixed results in January 2011. Closed sales began the year at a higher level than January 2010 and January 2009. Inventory also saw a lower level than the first month of 2009 and 2010, dropping 1.3 months compared to January 2010.

Closed sales were up 5% in January 2011 compared to January 2010. Pending sales were down 3%, and new listings dropped 20.5%. Comparing the previous month of December 2010 with January 2011, closed sales fell from 1,462 to 1,035 (-29.2%). However, pending sales grew from 1,210 to 1,489 (23.1%), and new listings jumped from 1,925 to 3,128 (62.5%).

At the month’s rate of sales, the 11,697 active residential listings would last about 11.3 months.

Sale Prices

The average sale price for January 2011 declined 11.9% compared to January 2010. The median sale price also fell 10.4%.

Month to month, comparing December 2010 to January 2011, the average sale price went down from $278,000 to $248,900 (-10.5%) while the median sale price also dropped from $230,000 to $215,000 (-6.5%).”

As of August 1^st, 2010, any wood stove or fireplace insert in residential property must have DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) certification or it must be removed from the property prior to closing. 

If you’re a buyer and the property you’re purchasing has an uncertified wood stove and you decide that you would like to remove the stove yourself rather than having the seller remove the it prior to closing, you’ll need to do so within 30 days of purchasing the property. 

Let me know if you have any specific questions.  I’m happy to provide answers.  You can also click here for the DEQ’s Frequently Asked Questions page.

      -Ron-