RMLS Market Action for March 2011 in the Portland Metro area shows some strong gains from February. Inventory dropped 35% from February to 7.1 months. I’ve updated the tracking of the local Portland RMLS areas and what is most striking is that North, Northeast and Northwest (Washington County) Portland have inventory levels below six months (see graph below) and the RMLS Area Map (RMLS reports a five county zone). The average inventory for the five City of Portland areas is 6.0. That’s the traditional line of demarcation between a buyer’s and seller’s market. Portland’s local inventory has been at least one month lower than Metro’s since I started tracking it.
The average sales price also climbed from $244,500 to $261,100 which is the first increase we have seen in a number of months. One month’s gain doesn’t counter the previous losses and there is no way to way to tell if this is the start of a strong spring selling season or whether the market will continue to decline overall. The number of closed sales, pending sales and new listings all declined in March 2011 compared to March 2010 but we all up when compared to last month.
Click on the image above to view the full size version. Here is the complete March 2011 Portland Metro RMLS Action report.
Didn’t the average price increase in December, just three months ago?
I looked it up, and the average did increase in December. In fact, over the last 12 months, the average price increased 6 times and decreased 6 times. 50/50
The average price is way down since last year. In other words, when it went down the average went down more than up.