Current RMLS Market Action Report - March 2008

The current RMLS Market Action Report for March 2008 is out and available from the pictured link below. Previous reports are available from the bottom of this page. Seasonal trends are apparent in the report as we typically see a drop in inventory each month through late winter / early spring, from 10.4 months in February to 9.1 months in March.

One of the signs I'm personally happy to see is that new listings have dropped. In February they grew by 4%, in March it was -1.8%. This is good as we need to reduce inventory and that is what's happening.

Click Image for Report PDF

Closed sales on the other hand are only up 22.2% from February to March compared to 27.6% from January to February, pending sales are up as well though only by 5.5% so next month we should see that 22% down a little bit again. Over all closed sales were down 39.1% from 2007; so though we are seeing a decrease in new listings from March of 2007 to March 2008 our closed sales have dwindled quite a bit as well...We need to keep cutting away at that number of new listings every month and of course try to encourage more buyer activity in the market.

Appreciation rates are mixed, North & Northeast Portland continue to do well at 8.2% & 6.9%, an increase over last months report. Southeast Portland has seen a marked decrease from 7.2% in February to 5% in March. The West side overall is down, Beaverton from 3.5% to 2.6%, Tigard from 3.5% to 2.2%. Lake Oswego & West Linn are still increasing, though only slightly from 8.5% to 8.7%. Clackamas & Milwaukie are still the depreciating front runners but have seen a .03% improvement from -6.7% in February to -6.4% in March. Oregon City remains almost steady at 0.6% compared to 0.7% in February.

Clark County has seen a drop in inventory as well from 14.6 months to 11.9 months with an overall appreciation rate of just 0.2% a small, but significant decrease from February's 0.6%.

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