My Home is Not Selling. What can I do? – 2019 Update

Portland Real Estate Market, Then and Now

For the greater Portland metro area home prices have been increasing across the board from 2012 to 2016. In 2017 things changed. High priced homes and some high-end luxury properties started to decrease in value, but most of the residential housing market still increased in value. In 2018, high-end and middle value condos decreased in price and a significant portion of the Portland luxury market decreased in price. In 2019, the majority of condos decreased in price, nearly all homes over 600,000 decreased in price, and only lower priced homes, say under 400,000 actually saw appreciation in the Portland real estate market in 2019.

Portland Real Estate Market, The Future

We just completed our initial 2020 Portland real estate market forecast and broke it down into smaller segments depending on a homeowners price range and housing type.

What to do if your home is projected to decrease in value.

First of all, it is important to “read the tea leaves” and recognize the trend we wrote about in the first paragraph above. The Portland real estate market is not done cooling off. Right now the higher your home price is the more you will loose in value over the next 2-4 years before the housing market here rebounds up again. Honestly, the real estate market in Portland could cool off enough in the next few years that even low priced homes will stop appreciating and may even depreciate for a short spell. What does that mean? Your home is likely worth more now than it will be next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. So you need to sell. Here’s the plan.

1. Are you trying to sell with the right partner? There are more ways to try to sell a home in Portland than ever before. Does your home selling partner have the best marketing plan available to reach Portland home buyers, and home buyers from out of state? Does your home selling partner have a wealth of experience? Do they have hundreds of positive reviews?
2. You need to play the seasons. There is a good time to sell and a terrible time to sell in our metro. The best time to sell a home about every year in the greater Portland metro area is March through May. It is not June, July, or August. I promise you. The second best time to sell a home in our metro area is mid-Sept. through the end of November. The worst time to sell a home is around Christmas. The second worst time to sell a home is in late August. I can give you 10 reasons why from 16 licensed years of selling homes in Portland, but you’d have to reach out for that full explanation. A lot of our clients will have a plan A and plan B to sell before prices drop even farther. We will try to sell in the good fall season, take it off over Christmas, and hit it again in the spring, the best season to sell a home – with a plan to ensure we are sold before May of 2020. Now that is a long term plan A and plan B and some homes will need a plan like that, while other homes we can sell right away. No problem. Last year we sold 139 homes in less than 30 days on market and we are on track to do something similar in 2019. It all depends on the home and location.
3. There are a hundred little things a real estate agent can do to help or hurt your chances to sell. In the worst seasons and in the worst market segments, there may be nothing selling. (Truth is, some small cooled off areas haven’t seen a single sale this year, so give your real estate agent a break!) In hot segments and locations, everything still sells. But in-between those two extremes, what your real estate agent can do for you, will make all the difference.