Current RMLS Market Action Report - March 2009

Better late than never right? Well we were on a much needed vacation (been years!) in Florida when the March Market Action Report came out and while we work even on vacation I just didn't get to doing this until we got back into town and caught up with our clients and transactions in escrow. So, again, better late than never I suppose.

First thing here is inventory, down to 12 months again, this is a typical reduction in inventory for this time of year however in this market a reduction is a good sign none the less. That's down from 16.6 months in February and a whopping 19.2 months in January.

Click Image for Report PDF

Last month new listings we're down 17.3% from the year previous, this month they are down 28.5% which is FANTASTIC! We've needed to see listings shrink significantly and it looks like they are, finally! Comparing March 2008 with March 2009 closed sales are down 30%, pending sales down 15.5% however, compared to last month, February 2009, closed sales are UP 38.2%, pending sales are UP 28.3%...Again, normal to see an increase this time of year but those are solid increases in a troubled market; great sign! Even Ryan Frank of the Oregonian's "Front Porch" commented in a recent article in the Oregonian's home section that he feels the Portland market has hit bottom. Given, it was a one liner in an article not devoted to that subject, but Ryan has received a lot of flack (behind the scenes that I know of) for what is sometimes a pessimistic view of our market, so seeing him say the market has hit bottom I take to be a good sign.

Additionally RMLS noted that typically we see growth in listings this time of year (7% in 2008, 6.6% in 2007) not a decrease as we see now - again, great news!

We did see a notch up in sale prices in the last report, in this one however we saw a bit of a slump again, small but still in the wrong direction, -.5% from February 2009 to March 2009 and -11.8% from March 2008 to March 2009.

In terms of appreciation levels, check the levels in the previous months write up (linked below as February 2009) because the free fall seems to be slowing. Almost half of the markets actually began to head back towards the positive percentages or were unchanged, given all are still well into the negative areas still though of the 13 local Portland Metro MLS Areas 5 of them saw a slight improvement in deprecation and 3 remained unchanged (better than continuing to fall). Again, compare the below chart with last months (I highlighted in red which areas improved):

Area	DR	Area	DR	Area	DR
N Portland	-2%	Oregon City / Canby	-5.5%	Tigard / Wilsonville	-7.7%
NE Portland	-2%	Lake Oswego / West Linn	-7.2%	Hillsboro / Forest Grove	-8.2%
SE Portland	-5.1%	W Portland	-1.3%	Mt. Hood	-4.8%
Gresham / Troutdale	-8.0%	NW Washington Co	-4.1%
Milwaukie / Clackamas	-7.3%	Beaverton / Aloha	-5.0%

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

February 2009

Older than 2009 Archives