How long does it take to sell a home in Portland? 2018 Update

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The answer is probably a lot longer than you think and with the Portland real estate market cooling, that number is about to get a lot longer, likely increasing each year for the next few years. Before I get to the answer of how long it takes to sell a home in Portland, I’d like to quickly mention that these are not my performance numbers, my top 1% selling team typically averages about half the local real estate market time to sell a home. These numbers are from RMLS, our local multiple listing service that covers the entire Portland metro area and produces some amazing reports for real estate agents and others. Also, when I say the average time to sell, this number refers to the number of days or market time before the seller accepted an offer on their home, not the total number of days until closing. The typical Portland transaction takes about 35 days to close after the offer is mutually accepted.

Inventory rating in Portland first half of 2018:

  • January: 2.2 months
  • Febuarary: 1.9 months
  • March: 1.6 months
  • April: 1.8 months
  • May: 1.9 months
  • June: 2.1 months

Inventory rating in Portland first half of 2017:

  • January: 1.7 months
  • Febuarary: 1.9 months
  • March: 1.3 months
  • April: 1.7 months
  • May: 1.5 months
  • June: 1.6 months

Overall not bad, but overall Portland real estate market time has continued to increase since 2016 and will increase for the next few years to come. It is also longer than many Portland homeowners are prepared for, since 2012 until perhaps 2017 the Portland real estate market has been exclusively a seller’s market, one of the strongest real estate markets in the country. But it is now cooling fast, the slowdown started in 2017 and it is ramping up in 2018. To see what segments of the Portland real estate market are cooling off the most or the least, read our recent article.

Fastest Selling Areas in the Portland Metro June 2018:

  1. Beaverton: 20 days.
  2. Hillsboro: 22 days.
  3. SE Portland: 27 days.
  4. North Portland: 32 days

Slowest Selling Area in Portland Metro June 2018:

  1. West Portland: 57 days.
  2. Lake Oswego: 52 days.
  3. Oregon City: 42 days.
  4. NW Portland: 36 days.

Why do all home sellers think their home will sell quickly?

  1. They like it. It was the perfect home for them (they bought it) so it is hard to see why others may not like it.
  2. They got used to a crazy Portland real estate market and are not ready to adjust.
  3. Dollar signs, they really want the money.
  4. They do not realize how many homes that go on the market actually fail to sell completely – don’t sell at all. It is an easy assumption to make that all homes that go on the Portland real estate market sell, but this is not at all true. 22% to 52% of properties that hit the market do not sell at all. Read our article here for the segement breakdown.

Tips on choosing your next real estate agent:

  1. Don’t pick the agent that gives you the highest price and the longest contract. I’ll let you draw the conclusions there.
  2. Don’t pick the agent that loves your home the most, that may simply be a tactic to get you to choose them and lead to unrealist expectations.
  3. Pick an agent with a proven track record and an aggressive marketing strategy. As the Portland real estate market continues to cool down – you’re going to need it!

Want to know more? Read my ebook, “5 Secrets to Selling Your Home in Less than 30 Days,” or if you’re thinking of putting your home on the Portland real estate market in the next year or so, have us out for a free consulatation.

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What My Clients Are Saying

Stephen was just simply a fantastic realtor to work with in selling our home. If we had another 50 properties to sell, Stephen would be in charge of all of them. He was so professional in handling every detail of our sale, and he was so responsive to every question that came up in the course of our transaction. My wife and I are very thankful that we found Stephen.

Alan