Portland Real Estate Market

Our local Portland real estate market is always changing. It takes a very busy real estate agent, top 1% in Portland, to keep a finger on its pulse. We write Portland housing market forecasts twice a year, an annual best month of the year to sell or buy a home article, population growth articles, Portland development articles, articles on real estate market trends, housing affordability, articles on Realtors themselves, and much more. Enjoy!

When will Portland sell through its Shadow Inventory?

May 16, 2012

According to Standard and Poor’s first quarter 2012 data, it will take Portland and the country 3.8 years or about 46 months to sell through all of the distressed properties waiting to come out on the real estate market. S&P is counting all the shadow inventory, the number of homes with mortgage payments that are 90 days or more delinquent (many short sales) and those properties already in foreclosure. As for active foreclosures, Portland would sell through its inventory in about 19 months according to RealtyTrac, but this does not include properties currently behind in their mortgage payments. According to CoreLogic, 5.5% of Portland is behind on its mortgage payments. What does this mean for the Portland real estate market?...

Is now the best time to buy a Portland home?

May 14, 2012

According to many Portland Realtors, buying a home may never get any cheaper than right now. Prices are down 34% nationally and even more than that in Portland. In Portland prices have dropped in luxury homes as much as 50% in the last six years (generally speaking the higher the price of a Portland home, the greater percentage of loss in a down real estate market). Other homes in Portland have seen 40% to 20% losses. Mortgage rates are historically low, holding right now at high 3% or 4% depending on your credit. This will not last. We already saw mortgage rates climb in Portland briefly this spring and then plummet down again. Very soon rates are likely to raise...

How many Short Sales and Foreclosures are there in Portland?

April 30, 2012

The reports are in. In 2011 there were 8,590 short sales listed in the Portland metro area, of which 3,668 sold. Also in 2011, 8,134 foreclosures were listed in the Portland area and 7,802 sold. 45,256 regular homes were listed in the Portland area and 22,823 sold. Last year about 27% of homes listed were distressed (short sale or foreclosure), but the sales of distressed properties accounted for 33.5% of all sales. All statistics are provided by your Portland real estate agent and RMLS, Regional Multiple Listing Service in Portland. In 2012, especially in the fourth quarter analysts are projecting a large increase in foreclosures hitting the market in the Portland area. This will not necessarily cause great damage to...

How affordable is the Portland Real Estate Market?

April 27, 2012

Nationally, you’d have to go back more than 50 years to find a more affordable time to buy a home in America. Locally, in Portland’s real estate market, you’d have to go back even farther. Affordability is an easy measurement. Basically, affordability is simply the percentage of a family’s income that goes towards a home mortgage payment. Nationally in 2010 14.2% of people’s income went to pay their home mortgage. In 2011 that percentage shrunk even farther to 13%. In the Portland real estate market the numbers are even better: 13.9% in 2010 and a huge drop in 2011, all the way down to 11.4%. It might be a good idea to talk to your local Portland real estate agent...

Portland Short Sale Timeline – Important News

April 20, 2012

Beginning June 15th of this year, all Portland short sales backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should expect to receive a bank response to any offers that come in within 30-60 days. A big push is happening at the government level to make short sales work. The FHFA, Federal Housing Finance Agency, has said that short sales are an effective alternative to foreclosures and short sales help to maintain stable communities. This push to increase the speed of short sales in Portland and across the nation will address the number one complaint of buyers in the Portland real estate market, it takes too long. The average time to close a Portland short sale transaction at the time of this...

Going Up: New Apartments, Portland Home Prices

March 20, 2012

The average price of a home in Portland is up and the total number of residential properties on the market remains low, according to the most recent Market Action Report from the Regional Multiple Listing Service. Good news for sellers, but with the city’s population climbing at a steady rate, where is the needed housing to come from? Enter the apartment developers. In 2012, 21 new apartment projects will open around the Portland area, according to a recent report in the Portland Business Journal. Those projects will alleviate the tight the rental market in the city, which saw vacancy rates fall from 5.6 percent in 2009 to 3.6 percent last year. Many of these new apartment buildings are selling out...

What sells in PDX: Short Sales, REOs, or Traditional Home Sales?

January 20, 2012

2011 Portland MLS market statistics. Foreclosures in Portland: In rough terms, nearly 100% of foreclosure properties in Portland, also known as REOs, sell in a 6 month period. If you are looking to buy or make an offer on a Portland foreclosure, know this: it won’t stick around for long. Banks do not take low ball offers, in general they sell the property site unseen. I have found banks will typically lower the sales price in Portland by 3% every 60 days or so. This means that they will eventually bring the foreclosure to a price that demands the market’s attention and gets the home sold in short order. It is common for a Portland foreclosure to sit for a...