The latest RMLS Market Action Report is out for January 2011, and we’re seeing some pretty interesting trends. Compared to this time last year, it’s obvious we’re still in a slow market. The average sale price for January dropped 11.9% since January 2010, and the median sale price dropped from $230,000 to $215,000 (a change of 6.5%). On the plus side, closed sales in January 2011 began the year at a higher level than in either 2010 or 2009, and inventory dropped 1.3 months in comparison to last year. Winters are notoriously slow in the Portland Real estate market (sales plummeted in the heavy snow of winter 2008/2009) but weather this winter has been pretty mild, and numbers are really better than they could be. In addition, interest rates are currently extremely low and we have a good inventory of well-priced homes, foreclosures and short sales. In fact, compared to December 2010, pending sales grew from 1,210 to 1,489 (a 23.1% increase), and new listings jumped from 1,925 to 3,128 (a whopping 62.5% leap), so it’ll be interesting so see how those transactions play out in the next months.

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