Mt. Hood, Oregon Real Estate Market, 2023 Update

Every month we feature a suburb of Portland and share an assessment of how its real estate market is performing. Check out our Portland Suburb Real Estate Market Reports to peruse a list of the suburbs we have profiled. This month’s focus is on Mt. Hood, and all the towns on it, a highly desirable area in which to live or own a vacation property for its beautiful mountain setting and plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities. Residents can take advantage of the nation’s longest ski season via six different ski areas on Mt. Hood or hike the nearby Columbia River Gorge to enjoy its scenic vistas. Mt. Hood is divided into smaller towns around the mountain, shaping distinct rural communities that are defined by their forest or mountain backdrop and the outdoor enthusiasts who are drawn to vacation there for the variety of winter sports and excellent opportunities for hiking and fishing.

Mt. Hood Real Estate Inventory is Low

Inventory in these mountain towns is mostly remaining steady or decreasing while the Mt. Hood housing market experiences (likely) its most active buying season this year. Like the rest of the Portland metro area and surrounding suburbs, Mt. Hood has been experiencing a cooler market overall, with prices kept higher by mortgage rates. But with less inventory in the typically warm Spring market and the increased buyer activity that comes with it, prices should continue to climb for a little while longer before prices inevitably start to drop in the summer as buyers begin to pull back.

As you can see from this inventory chart for the popular area called Welches, as an example, inventory has been steadily decreasing since September of 2002, increasing only slightly last month to its current plateau. As the seller’s market comes to what we expect will be an abbreviated end toward the beginning of summer, new listings should start to increase throughout the summer and into the fall and winter months.

Mt. Hood Real Estate Prices Remain Steady

While prices have been flatlining, there has been a steady decrease in price per square foot as shown on the chart below from Fidelity National Title, indicating that larger homes are becoming available on the market and giving buyers an opportunity to afford more space for less.

At the same time, the housing market in Mt. Hood remains strong due to the trend in recent years of buyers preferring homes in the suburbs over the city of Portland proper. To illustrate this, overall prices in Mt. Hood were 18.9% higher over the past 12 months than during the previous 12-month stretch, and as you can see below, it far outperforms the neighborhoods of North and Southeast Portland, which experienced only 0.3% and 2.5% increases respectively over the same time period. Finally, pending sales in Mt. Hood are 17.9% higher in 2023 than they reached by this time last year.

The higher inventory that we anticipate will come with summer will influence lower prices throughout the season, making spring the peak selling market in Mt. Hood this year. See Mt. Hood’s real estate market numbers at the bottom of the below snapshot from RMLS market action report March 2023. The number 153 in RMLS in the chart below covers the many small cities and towns as a part of this general real estate area up high on the mountain.

Browse all Mt. Hood homes for sale using the interactive map on Portlandhomesforsale.com.

Mt. Hood, Oregon Real Estate Market 2024 Forecast

This is likely to be the best time to sell a home in Mt. Hood this year, with the combined factors of low inventory and greater market activity contributing to higher prices as buyers compete for available properties. Prices will most likely begin to drop with the onset of summer as new inventory is added and buyer activity dwindles. While we are experiencing cooler market conditions this year, suburbs like Mt. Hood are faring better than Portland neighborhoods overall, and we expect real estate growth in this exceptionally desirable area to continue into 2024. In other words, while prices may drop again in fall of 2023 in this area, we expect prices to pick back up in spring of 2024 with a gradual rise in overall home appreciation.

Ready to Buy or Sell a Home in Mt. Hood, Oregon?

Whether you are looking to buy or sell, we would love to help streamline the process. Contact our experienced top 1% buyer’s agents who can help you find the perfect home and negotiate on your behalf. Our top 1% seller’s agents can fast-track your sale with our optimized marketing strategy that has benefitted hundreds of happy clients. Give us a call at 503-714-1111 today!