Current RMLS Market Action Report - August 2008

Finally we have a big drop in new listings with the newest August 2008 RMLS Market Action report. New listings dropped a whopping 27.1% compared to August 2007, this is the kind of change we really needed to see! Sure we've been slipping in new listings for a while in some months, but that is a significant drop that was badly needed. This however only represents a total year to date drop from 2007 to 2008 of 5% as we have seen an increase in listings in some months in 2008 that offsets that large 27.1% number. The actual drop from July 2008 to August 2008 is 16%...still, right direction.

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Inventory is down only slightly from 10 months to 9.9 months. The average sale price dropped 2.7% from July 2008 to August 2008 which sounds large except when you look at the total price drop from August 2007 to August 2008 of 6.7%. Closed sales were down July to August 3.3% and pending sales dropped by 4.7%. Year to date closed and pending sales continue their drop in the 30 percent range with closed down 33.9% and pending down 30.8%.

North Portland and NE Portland remain in the realm of appreciation in real estate values, but are significantly down from last months rates of 5.1% and 4.7% respectively now coming in an North Portland 3.8% and NE Portland 2.9%. SE Portland home values have dipped into the depreciation realm from 0.2% in July to -1.3% in August. Gresham and Troutdale areas remain almost flat, 3.2% in July and -3.4% in August. Aside from the Mt Hood & Government Camp areas most significant level of depreciation in the area at -10.9% Milwaukie & Clackamas are the Metro areas highest property values loss "winners" if you will, at -6.5% which is actually a shade better than last months -6.9% but these areas have been in the -5%+ area for months now and stand to see the largest dip in property value in the metro area come years end.

Lake Oswego & West Linn, well what can I say? Even in a depressed market they are continuing to see solid appreciation of 5.4% as well as West Portland home values at 6.5%.

On the west side Beaverton/Aloha real estate has slipped from 0.1% to -2.6%, Tigard/Wilsonville slipped significantly from -1.5% to -3.9% and Hillsboro/Forest Grove real estate has doubled their slip from -1.3% to -2.6%.

SW Washington continues to see inventory at 12.7 months, no change there. Listings are down 17% (good!), closed sales down 30.6% and pending sales are down only 10.1% all comparing August 2008 to August 2007. Sales price is down 5.6% year to date and the median sale price is down 5.5%. Throughout SW Washington it's a mixed bag of appreciation and depreciation with the biggest winner being East County at 15.6% but only 2 listings, so next best is SE County at 13% with 36 listings and next 3rd place winner with the bronze is SW Heights at 7.5% up from -1.4% last month. The biggest loser there is Yacolt 22.1%, the NE Corner -20.2% and Central County at -12.1%.

A note on this months "Days on Market" RMLS added a note to their Market Action Report this go around that says "Total Market Time is the number of days from when a property is listed to when an offer is accepted on that same property. If a property is re-listed within 31 days, Total Market time continues to accrue; however it does not include the time that it was off the market." - As a result this months days on market graph is somewhat frightening, but I'll explain below:

See that huge August spike? No this doesn't mean the bottom just fell out of the Portland market and/or the sky is falling. It means RMLS corrected their method of acquiring and displaying data on our market and it's now accurate. Previously the 70 days on market was NOT accurate and that 120 days, probably is accurate and likely should have been near 120 days last month and the month before etc.

You see, when a Realtor has a price drop on a listing a lot of Realtors will "re-list" the property as if it's a new listing. The reason for this is to get it in front of buyers who have already seen this home in automated listing update emails (several services out there and we utilize a few for our clients as well). If they simply change the price on the existing listing a lot of these automated systems will not send the listing to buyers again, where as if they re-list as if it's a new listing these systems will email it out again. This previously skewed the numbers as a current home listing could show 70 days on market, but the history of all listings could show it's been listed twice before and that the running days on market for the home are more like 120 days. RMLS thankfully corrected this obvious reporting problem.

This could cause a bit of concern in this report, however it is a positive change as the numbers are more accurate now.

To download or view the entire report click on the report image or click here

2008 RMLS Market Action Report Archives

February 2008
January 2008

Older than 2008 Archives