Real Estate Market Update

Residential Highlights
Portland metro area market activity continued to grow over last month, but fell short of reaching March 2008 levels.

Comparing March 2009 with the same month in 2008, closed sales dropped 30%. Pending sales also fell 15.5%. New listings decreased 28.5%.

On the other hand, when comparing March 2009 with February 2009, closed sales grew 38.2% (1,184 v. 857) and pending sales were up 28.3% (1,637 v. 1,276). New listings grew 6.2% (3,685 v. 3,471).

Pending sales typically rise from February to March, but this year it increased at a steeper rate (28.3% in 2009 - vs. 5.5% in 2008 and 8.3% in 2007).

Inventory also dropped to 12 months, its lowest point since October 2008. Active residential listings in March numbered 14,158 – down slightly from 14,188 in February. This is notable, as active listings have typically grown over that same time
frame (7% in 2008 and 6.6% in 2007).

Sale Prices
The average sale price for March 2009 was down 11.8% compared to March 2008, while the median sale price dropped 14%.

Month-to-month, the average sale price and median sale price are both down when compared with February levels; the average sale price decreased a slight 0.5% ($297,000 v. $298,500) and the median sale price was down 4.9% ($246,400 v. $259,000).