July Residential Highlights

Closed sales in the Portland metro area for July 2009 eclipsed last July’s total by 8.6%, marking the first time same month closed sales have increased since April 2007. Pending sales also grew 8.3%. New listings dropped 25.4%. Comparing July 2009 with June 2009, closed sales increased 11.9% (1,988 v. 1,776) and pending sales were up a slight 0.3% (2,170 v. 2,164). New listings fell 8.2% (3,907 v. 4,257). Inventory was down to 7.3 months, dropping for the sixth consecutive month, down from 10 months last July. Inventory is falling at a time where it has historically risen. Along with an upswing in closed sales, the drop can be attributed to the fact that the number of homes on the market (14,503 in July) has seen little fluctuation in 2009

Year-to-Date

Comparing January-July 2009 with the same period in 2008, closed sales are down 18.7% and pending sales decreased 10%. New listings dropped 23.4%.

Sale Prices

The average sale price for July 2009 was down 15.2% compared to July 2008, while the median sale price declined 13.3%.  Month-to-month, the average and median sale price were mixed when compared with June levels; the average sale price was down 3.7%

($288,600 v. $299,800) and the median sale price was up 0.04% ($250,000 v. $249,900).