Wow! December's numbers are better than I expected. The comparisons to last year continue to show lots of improvement in activity, while prices continue to decline. I have seen a few forecasts showing rising prices, and we do see some tiny evidence of that below.
So, when comparing last year,December 2010 to December 2011, the number of closed sales increased 10.3% and pending sales increased 11.7%. Even month to month, closed sales rose 6% from November 2011 to December 2011. Pending sales did fall, 14.4%, which we expect as fewer folks are looking at real estate and making offers in December (though I did get an offer on a listing on December 26th!).
In looking at prices, the average sale price was down 6.2% from December 2010 to December 2011, with an average sale price of $260,800. Make note though, this is a 0.5% increase in the average sale price from November 2011 to December 2011.
Also of note, there are fewer houses on the market than there have been for a long time. At the current rate of sales, it would only take 5.3 months to sell off what is currently listed. Compare that to January 2009, when it would have taken 19.2 months to sell of the inventory at the then current rate of sales.
While this makes me feel very optimistic, at least some part of the low inventory is due to the slow rate at which banks are foreclosing on loans in default. Banks, in general, are slowly streamlining their processes for both short sales and foreclosures. This has got to help get things moving.
As always, give me a call or shoot me an email if you'd like information about buying or selling in today's market.
Read the full Portland Area RMLS report for December 2011.
Thanks Leslie, as always, you are the go-to person for a good, understandable picture of what is going on in the market!!
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