The Regional Multiple Listing Service just released their stats for August 2011. I think we are still in that transitional market...moving from the bottom, ever so slowly.
As I predicted last month, we did see some positive growth in August. Closed sales grew a whopping 30.7% from August 2010 to August 2011. Pending sales also went up (29.6%) and new listings dropped (24.8%). In addition, when we look at July 2011 to August 2011, closed sales increased by 5.6% and pending sales went up 13.4%.
But...we are still seeing a decrease in prices, with the month to month average sales price decreasing 1.2% to $271,800. Year to date, the average sale price dropped from $284,600 to $264,000.
There are a few forces at play that could make these numbers a bit harder to read. First, many banks are holding off on foreclosing until inconsistencies in their procedures get cleared up. So while there may be fewer foreclosed properties hitting the market, this doesn't necessarily mean we have cleared through the backlog of unsold properties. Secondly, in an effort to standardize how short sale properties are reported, we have driven, in the last month, lots of short sales from active to pending status. At least a portion of the increase in pending sales is attributable to this change.
I expect we'll see continued increases in closed sales, and minor increases in pending sale as the short sale standardization efforts have fewer ripple effects. Fall is traditionally not a time folks put their homes on the market, but an influx of bank owned properties could increase our new listing count.
If you have questions about the Portland area real estate market, or want an market analysis of your property, please get in touch. You can read the full Portland area report from RMLS here.
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