Current RMLS Market Action Report - February 2009

The numbers are out for February 2009 courtesy of the RMLS Market Action Report and inventory is down, sales are up, listings are down; all good but still not great compared to previous years.

There is a bit of light however as I like to find (even if I have to dig) and point out in every report though and for this one it's this: Guess what the average sales price did from January to February 2009? Went UP. That's right, we saw an increase in both the average sale price (up 0.4%) and the median sale price (up 3.6%). This is normal of course for this time of year however in a declining market it's a positive indicator that we're not just free-falling. Don't get too excited though, we're still off significantly from February 2008 with the average February 2009 sale price of $298,500 compared to $342,600 in 2008 and the median sale price of $259,000 compared to $280,000 in 2008.

Click Image for Report PDF

We're still seeing listings on the decrease, down 17.3% from January levels which is good and leads to what is a normal decrease in inventory from 19.2 months in January to 16.6 months in February. I say it every month, decrease in listings is a GREAT thing in this market so this is not a negative indicator.

Moving on to rate of sales, we seem to be stuck in the neighborhood of 35% as it's been hovering in that range for months now. Closed sales from February 08 compared to February 09 are down 38.1%, pending sales down 30.5%. Closed sales in February 09 however compared to January 09 grew 17.1%, normal, but good. Pending sales also grew 3.3% which I'd prefer to see a bit higher than that.

Getting to depreciation levels, the only notable difference I see this month is NE Portland Homes actually reversed course from -1.8% in January to -1.2% in February; other than that despite the increase in average sale price and median sale price everyone else slipped more into the red. DR stands for "Depreciation Rate":

Area	DR	Area	DR	Area	DR
N Portland	-1.2%	Oregon City / Canby	-5.5%	Tigard / Wilsonville	-7.7%
NE Portland	-1.2%	Lake Oswego / West Linn	-7.2%	Hillsboro / Forest Grove	-8.5%
SE Portland	-5.9%	W Portland	-1.3%	Mt. Hood	-8.0%
Gresham / Troutdale	-8.3%	NW Washington Co	-4.7%
Milwaukie / Clackamas	-7.3%	Beaverton / Aloha	-5.2%

Well, that's pretty much all she wrote, you can read up on more of the details, fun graphs and charts and per county information throughout the entire RMLS area(s) by clicking the report links and downloading all 52 pages of fun for your own enjoyment.

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

2009 RMLS Market Action Report Archives

January 2009

Older than 2009 Archives