RMLS Market Action for September 2011 was released on Friday afternoon. I’d consider the report mostly neutral. Inventory, median price, pending and closed sales were up but average price and the number of new listings decreased compared to August. Note that an increase in inventory is not considered a positive though at 6.7 months it is lower than it was at any point in 2010 and all but one month in 2009.
The rolling 12 month average sales price is down 5.9% to $266,900 from $283,600. Interestingly 5.9% is the same amount reported last week as predicted appreciation for Portland between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 by Case Shiller/Firserv.
RMLS Market Action reports “Portland Metro” as a five county area. Case Shiller reports “Portland Metro” as the seven county MSA. Tomorrow I will post the more localized City of Portland inventory numbers.
One Comment on “RMLS Market Action September 2011”
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Consider:
Median sales price in September was up 2.6% from August and has been up almost every month since the spring. When these year over year stats get reported they read like “house prices went down again 8% this month.” It should read, prices were up for the fifth month in a row and another 2.6% in September but are still down vs. this time last year.”
With regard to Inventory, it is at its lowest level since the summer of 2006! Not the months of inventory the RMLS reports (which you point out is low as well) but the actual number of homes available sale! http://www.deptofnumbers.com/ asking-prices/oregon/portland/ No wonder multiple offers are common again in many neighborhoods.
The RMLS report didn’t calculate it, but the affordability ratio is the highest on record at 173 (a median income family can afford 173% of the median house price) despite the higher prices!
Another tidbit I got from the report is that the median price of a condo is exactly the same as in September 2010 AND September 2009 and has climbed steadily all year! Who knew that?