We’ve reached the end of one of the most exciting years in Portland real estate in recent memory. This past year was one that saw prices rise to all time highs multiple times, and saw homes go pending with multiple offers the second they went on the market.
Things have leveled out a fair amount in the last few months and the holiday season brought a little more calm to the market. The weather we’ve had in Portland lately surely hasn’t helped either!
In December, average and median sale prices came up to $399,300 and $349,900 respectively. While these aren’t records for the year, they’re both over 11% above last year’s prices. We’re not likely to see a 10% increase in prices in the coming year, we should still see some small growth as the city is still experiencing growth and is a place a lot of people still want to come to.
Inventory in December reached it’s low for the year at 1.3 months of inventory. Unlike the spring when we hit that same number, this month was not that low because of homes coming off the market, but rather the fact that people didn’t want to put their homes on the market during the holiday season. We should see inventory pop back up in the next month or two as people will finally be ready to list their homes for sale.
The slowdown may concern some people, but looking at 2016 overall the biggest takeaway is that the supply just simply couldn’t meet the demands, and the fast rising prices probably scared some people away from selling as they didn’t want to deal with the buying market. A slower, more stable market is more favorable for buyers, and most sellers who aren’t flipping a property or moving out of state. The 2017 Portland real estate market should be an interesting time, and it’s shaping up to be a very good year to buy or sell.
I find it amazing how certain parts of the country have a booming real estate market while others are just normal. It must get really cold in Portland lol. Personal I’m a Florida boy but would love to visit. Just recently my home sold in Fort Lauderdale and I was looking into buying on the other coast. I guess I should wait till things calm down a bit over there.