Portland's Summer Housing Market

That bump in interest rates hasn't had much of a slowing effect on the housing market.  We are seeing a wee bit of seasonal slowing, as expected in July and August.  My theory is that in summer, a certain percent of buyers, sellers and agents are on vacation at any given time.  Of course things slow a tad.

Statistically, prices have continued to rise, market times are shorter than previous months, and inventory dropped a bit. The volume of sales has slowed slightly.

The median home price for the first seven months of this year up 13.7% over the same period in 2012 to $261,000.

Closed sales increased 10.2% compared to June 2013. and showed an increase of 40.2% over the closed sales in July of 2012.  Pending sales decreased 2.4% compared to June 2013, but showed an 15.4% increase over July 2012.

The number of days a house is on the market  decreased from 70 days in June 2013 to 63 days in July of 2103.  Yes, many houses are selling in their first few days on the market; houses that have it all - condition, price, location and preparation.  But with 63 days being the average, you know plenty of houses are still taking months to sell.

And inventory; measured by how long, at the current rate of sales, it will take to sell all the houses on the market, has bumped along, from 2.5 months in May 2013 to 2.9 months in June 2013 and now to 2.8 months in July 2013.  Contrast this to July of 2012 with 4.6 months of inventory and July of 2011 with 7 months on inventory.

If you've been thinking of selling, now is a pretty good time.  Rising prices and a shorter market time sound like a seller's dream.

Full Market Report Here