Dear Claire: What is a Market Action Update?
Analyzing Portland’s Real Estate Market Trends: Insights from August Inventory and Prices
Our Multiple Listing Service pulls all the data for the month and then compiles it into a nice informational pamphlet. It specifically shows the Portland Metro area, and then it has a breakdown of each of the regions, including North Portland, Northeast Portland, Southeast Portland, Southwest Portland, Northwest Portland, and all the surrounding towns.
A highlight of the update shows inventory in months. Let me explain what that means. The way that we look at houses for sale is kind of like widgets for sale. If you were selling a certain product, whatever it was, how long would it take for you to sell out of everything that you currently have on the market? That’s how it looks at inventory in months. That’s what they’re referencing. We just got our numbers for August, which were at 1.3 months of inventory. That means if we didn’t list another house today, it would only take us a month and a third of a month to sell out everything that’s currently on the market.
What you should know is that typically in real estate, six months is a normal market. It is currently a strong seller’s market. To give you some perspective, in 2019 we were at 2.3 months of inventory, and in August of 2018, we were also at 2.3 months of inventory. We are even lower than we were for the past two years.
The market time, which is typically how long it takes if I list your house today, and how long it takes for us to get an offer that you’ve decided to accept so right now is running at about 41 days. That means we list today and 41 days later, you have a contract that you’ve accepted. That is down from our year-to-date, which is 49. In 2019, to give you some perspective, we were at 55.
What all this information is telling you is that the market is accelerating. There’s more buyers. There are fewer houses for sale and prices, of course, you wouldn’t think are increasing, but they are indeed. Price: let’s see here — average and median sale price comparing 2020 to 2019 through August the average sales price has increased by 4.8% and that’s across the Portland Metro area. This particular document is going to show you a breakdown by neighborhood because that varies pretty wildly from neighborhood to neighborhood. The entire Metro area is up 4.8% and our average sales price is now $481,000.
I find this all very interesting. Of course, if you have any additional questions about it, please reach out to me and I’m happy to explain further. Of course, we’re always here for you If you have any real estate questions. Please reach out if you have any questions that you’d like me to answer in a future Dear Claire, of course, remember to subscribe to our Paris Group Realty, LLC YouTube channel. We’ve got all kinds of information and Dear Claire videos there. We have a couple of other series for Maintenance Tips and Home Happy Hour videos, and all kinds of fun stuff. I hope you’ve enjoyed our chat today, and we will talk soon. Take care. Bye.
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