The Federal Reserve meeting ended its two day meeting today without changing interest rates.  CNN reports, “Central bank says the long decline for U.S. economy appears to have ended, although it’s likely to remain week for awhile.”

RMLS just released its latest Market Action report with some strong numbers for July:

Closed sales in the Portland metro area for July 2009 eclipsed last July’s total by 8.6%, marking the first time same month closed sales have increased since April 2007. Pending sales also grew 8.3%. New listings dropped 25.4%.

That said, the July 2009’s average sales price is down 15.2% from July 2008.

Inventory continues to decline due more to an increase in activity than a change in the number of listings.