‘Tis the season to expect real estate markets to slow down. Right on cue, all indicators were off from October but that doesn’t mean the market is in free fall. Inventory remains historically low for this time of year. At 4.2 months, that’s less than half of November 2010’s 10.2 months and well ahead of last year’s 6.2 months. In both of the last two years, inventory dropped between November and December and then spiked in January so we’ll see if that trends continues. RMLS Market Action Reports:
In the first 11 months of 2012, there were 30,964 new listings, 22,726 accepted offers, and 21,546 closed sales. Compared to the same period last year, new listings are down by 4.2% from the 2011 listing count of 32,315; but pending sales are up 17.1% from 19,411 last year; and closed sales are up 19.9% from 17,968.
Days on market has dropped from 143 days last year to 112 for the first 11 months of the year (the data I just got from our corporate office reports Atlantic & Pacific Real Estate’s average days on market is 61 for the same time period).
Always keep in mind that these stats reflect the “Portland Metro” area. That’s a five county swath of land. Southeast Portland has a meager 2.7 months of inventory. That’s a clear sign of a seller’s market if you hold to the traditional thought of 6 months indicating a neutral market. My feeling is a neutral market is probably closer to five months as the market crash made buyers more willing to walk away. Beaverton has 2.9 months of inventory so the suburbs are low on listings too. Conversely, Columbia County has a 10 month supply of homes at their current sales rate.
