Writing for me is like going to the gym. Love doing it but get out of the habit and it’s hard to get back to. Today’s release of RMLS Market Action should get me back in the groove. Inventory is four months lower than it was this time last year. That partially because there are currently only 9,451 active residential listings and partially because closed sales are up 18.9% from November of 2010.
Average price is down 4.6% from this time last year but edged up .3% from October. Can we be cautiously optimistic about the Portland housing market going into 2012? I previously wrote about the Case Shiller article predicting gains. Yahoo/CNBC wrote “Residential Housing Ready to Waken?” on Friday of last week. We should note that Portland has typically been about a year late to the party.
“It has become increasingly apparent to us that the pieces for a housing rebound next year are beginning to fall into place,” declared Barclays Capital analyst Stephen Kim in a recent note to investors.
Affordability and interest rates are as good as they have ever been in recent years. There’s plenty of reason to be a pessimist too: jobs, politics, Europe being just a few of them.
I see the market picking up especially in the $200-500k range. Some of my listings have multiple offers on the first day. I think we have it bottom and are on the upswing especially anything in a 7 mile radius downtown. Great blog keep up the good work.