Current Market Snapshot for Vancouver and Clark County WA - 2010/09/27

Sometimes standing back a bit, you can see more.

I viewed, but didn't report, the mid-September weekly numbers and then just didn't get time to look last week. So - with two weeks of change, it's not so subtly different. Sometimes, looking at a bigger slice of time helps see the trend more clearly.

Our local MLS (Oregon RMLS), reports monthly on market activity. Their data is a month and a half older than what I'm looking at so I like to guage the validity of what I track in their rearview mirror. Follow? Anyways, what I compare is the trends that I think are evident each week and what their reports reflect. Since we report different info, there's a little interpretation that needs to occur. For example, if I see a change in active/pending ratios, that may be reflected in the calculated inventory RMLS reports. Specifically, when my ratios go down, as they did in February-March (from 4.0 to 3.2), then the RMLS will reflect a decrease in inventory (11.6 to 7.7). In a perfect world, decreases in inventory will probably correlate to some upward pressure on prices - the supply-demand laws at work. However, in the real world, when 30% of the market are "have-to" sellers, there is going to be strong, STRONG, downward pressure on pricing.

Buyers still have the advantage. Buyers have the price advantage and the terms advantage. Sometimes they have an attitude too, but that's another post.

I've included a couple of the RMLS charts this week. What I want to draw your attention to is the tendency for the market to slow down as we approach the holiday season. Does this mean it's too late to get your home on the market or too late to buy? Not at all. What you will notice from the seller perspective is that you'll have less competition. Same thing from the buyer perspective - fewer buyers, greater advantage for you.

Stay tuned for next week. We'll take a look at price-point activity in the Vancouver and Clark County Washington real estate market.

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