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The Latest Symptoms: Corvallis, Oregon Real Estate

By
Real Estate Agent with Results Realty

The Latest Symptoms: Corvallis, Oregon Real Estate and National Economic Indicators 

With broad brushstrokes, we bring you an update on the real estate market and economic factors involved both nationally and locally. Here is a fact to be proud of:  The Wall Street Journal lists Corvallis as one of the 10 Best Cities for Millennials, citing an unemployment rate which is 2.5% less than the national average.

 

One factor we keep an eye on is the simple observation of how many homes are for sale and how long it is taking them to sell. We have not had as much housing inventory in BentonCounty as we do at this moment since February of this year when the statistic was 12.4 months to sell what was currently listed. Right now we are at 10.4 months. There was an interesting burst of activity in March, April and May where the inventory dropped to 6.6, 6.7 and 6.9 months consecutively.

 

CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX)*, a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its July CoreLogic MarketPulse report. The Home Price Index (HPI), including distressed sales, posted the largest year-over-year spring price gain in the last 25 years.  Nationally, prices increased slightly and temporarily on a national level, particularly in lower priced homes this made a big difference so that underwater homes were no longer underwater. A greater number of lower priced homes have made up the load of distressed properties, so this shift is a sign which is good to see. Because of the economy and the current state of wage growth, however, we shouldn’t get too optimistic just yet.

 

Home prices correlate to median incomes, which according to Corelogic, have not increased nationally on an inflation adjusted rate since 1996. Harvard School of Business did a study of Corvallis in which one of the findings was a 4.87% wage growth indicator as compared to 4% nationally. Despite other ways in which Corvallis is more stable than most cities, we hold no significant advantage with wage to home value correlation. This contributes to home values being lower than most Corvallis sellers find satisfactory.

 

The steady flow of distressed properties is keeping home values low. Banks release REO properties to refill those which have sold. Just how steady is this flow in Corvallis, Oregon? An online article posted in April from Willamette Housing on assistance programs comments on the local foreclosure rate, “They were forced to continue their wait in their water-logged houses, or, as many others were forced to do, jump ship and leave their homes behind.” That may be true, but fewer are jumping off our ship than in other oceans.

 

If you look at the foreclosure rates as of June 2012 and compare us to Philomath, Albany and Eugene, you will quickly see that we have stemmed the tide better than our neighbors. Consider these facts (source: RealtyTrac)

 

Foreclosure Rate Based on Prevalence by Ratio

 

Corvallis – 1 in 4670

Philomath – 1 in 3357

Eugene – 1 in 2117

Albany – 1 in 1169

 

 

*The monthly CoreLogic economic publication provides insight into the current and future health of the U.S. economic climate with particular focus on housing and mortgage metrics. CoreLogic Senior Economist Sam Khater, along with members of the Mortgage Analytics & Economics team, authored the articles.

 

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