The Portland real estate housing market, although slowing, has been performing much better than most of the national market. While much of the country has seen real estate prices decline over the past 3 years, the Portland Metro Area has continued to increase in value until just recently.

From April 2007 to April 2008, we have just seen Portland’s first price decline in average price since 2002 (from $338,200 to $325,000). One factor that has contributed to this decrease is the drop in sales for higher end homes (over one million dollars; from 43 down to 21), which has skewed the average lower.

The number of homes for sale is 10.3 months of inventory. This is down from January’s high of 12.8 months of inventory but is still considerably higher than last April’s 4.4 months of inventory.

The average time it takes to sell a home in Portland has increased from 63 days to 82 days. This is from the first 4 months of 2008 compared with the first 4 months of 2007.

While the Greater Portland metropolitan Area has just started to decrease, there is still good news for the majority of our clients as the close-in neighborhoods and areas that we specialize in are still increasing in value. From April 2007 through April 2008 single family homes in:

North Portland increased in value by 7.7%.
Northeast Portland increased in value by 6.7%
Southeast Portland increased in value by 4.5%

Additionally, as first time buyers are waiting to purchase now, rents in Portland have really started to rise over the past 3 years. Rental vacancy rates are historically quite low. This could be a very good time to purchase a rental property or consider exchanging your single family rentals into a larger multifamily complex.

If you have any questions about the Portland market, or your home specifically, please call us at 503.238.7617 or e-mail us at info@altpdx.com