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Data Geek Speak: Salem Oregon real estate market report January 2010

By Melina Tomson

Real Estate Agent with Tomson Burnham, llc Licensed in the State of Oregon

February 20, 2010 03:01 PM

I'm a bit behind on my real estate market reports. It happens...

Salem Oregon home prices

So what's the news this month? Did we start of the year with a bang or bust?

The good news...median home price was down (Yep...that's good news in these parts as home prices need to be more in line with incomes)

The good news…Salem Oregon homes sales were up 6.25% over January 2009.

The bad news…the current home inventory as I write is 15.9 months for Salem Oregon which is a huge surge upward from December's 7 month inventory. Now this really isn't a huge surprise. With the tax credit ending April 30 (to be under contract), home buyers are out in force early and sellers responded by getting their homes on the "winter market" instead of the spring market.

Wha Number of homes sold in Salem Oregon t do these numbers mean? The median home price drop doesn't help underwater sellers, but homes are so much more affordable and in-line with median incomes. With the median Salem Oregon family income running around $43,430 and the current median home price as $152,250 we are inching closer to the coveted 3.0 income to home price ratio. Right now we are at 3.5. So close...

If you are thinking about diving into the Salem Oregon real estate market, but want to watch it for a bit, I can get you started. You can start your home search on your own, just email me to get MLS listings sent to your in-box, or read more about the Salem Oregon real estate market trends.

P.S. All data used on this post was crunched from the data on the WVMLS. Thanks WVMLS!

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Sharon Alters

ONE Sotheby's International Realty 904-673-2308 - Jacksonville, FL

Realtor - Homes for Sale Fleming Island FL

Melina, your statistic on incomes vs. median home price is very telling. I am going to check to see what it is for our area to see how much further we have to go to get inline with incomes.

Feb 20, 2010 03:08 PM

Jim Hale

ACTIONAGENTS.NET - Eugene, OR

Eugene Oregon's Best Home Search Website

Melina-

I don't want to rain on your theory. But I believe mean and median prices are very undependable in terms really knowing what is going on in a market.

I don't know about the market data published by your MLS. The Portland Regional MLS reports mean and median monthly. But it is hard to tell from these measures of central tendancy whether we are dealing with apples or oranges from one report to the next.

In my area, there has been a disproportionately high number of sales at the low end - perhaps due to the tax credit. There is very little activity at higher price ranges/square footage values.

The remaining inventory for high/price, bigger homes is hugh, measured in years. The inventory for smaller, cheaper homes is in the low single digits -- similar to the overall inventory at the height of the boom.

Apples vrs. Oranges.

Feb 20, 2010 07:13 PM

Melina Tomson

Tomson Burnham, llc Licensed in the State of Oregon - Salem, OR

Principal Broker/Owner, M.S.

Actually Jim the statistic is a very important one. It is the interpretation of the statistic that matters. I disagree that it is apples to oranges. There is a large number of sales at the low end because that is what people can afford. What will happen at the high end is that when someone finally gets it that home prices have dropped they will drop their price accordingly. The whole market is being pulled down. The median just shows where the supply and demand is.

Feb 21, 2010 02:09 AM

Data Geek Speak: Salem Oregon real estate market report January 2010

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