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Market Update June 2019

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Our stats are here! The Portland market is still performing incredibly well and is slowing significantly less than we anticipated and actually picking up speed in some areas. I you want the full breakdown, read below!

The Portland market stayed strong through June as we continue into Summer time. Last month we mentioned that June is frequently the time that most people list their homes for sale, and while we saw some great numbers, we actually had fewer homes listed in June that we did in May. The interesting thing is that we saw many more homes go pending than they have in precious months. This means that more people are out shopping than before. If you have been house hunting, you have likely noticed this first hand. We have been experiencing multiple offers on almost all the homes we have been in to see. This also means that average days on market dropped. With more people out hunting, homes are not lasting as long before they go pending.

The average sales price went up in June while the median sales price did not change. The disparity in these changes comes from the fact that we have a denser pricing pool. There have been fewer very low or very high priced homes to affect the median, but home prices are climbing.

All in all, things in Portland are going well and we expect these trends to continue for at least the next couple of months.

If you are thinking of selling or buying, don’t hesitate to reach out and we can discuss how these stats will affect our strategies in the current market!

CMA vs. Zestimate

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Watch below to learn about the differences and what might be the best fit for you! If you don’t want to see the video, read below for a breakdown. Enjoy!

When you want to know what your home is worth there are a couple different options for you. You can reach out to your favorite realtor and ask them to send you a comparative market analysis also known as a CMA. Or you can use a instant home value finder like the one on Zillow called a zestimate. We will break these both down for you.

The simplest thing to do is log in to a website and enter your address for a computer generated home value. The upside of this method is that you get the information almost instantly and its very easy to input the basic criteria. These systems use a general radius from your home instead of taking into account the rapidly changing neighborhoods that we know and love here in Portland. It also doesn’t consider any upgrades you may have done or whether your home is nicer than your neighbors, it just averages all the figures across a broad range.

The better option is to reach out to your realtor and have them run the numbers for you. We know the neighborhoods, what you have done to your home and what value those projects bring to your property and we can get laser focused on the recently sold homes to give you a much more accurate number of what your home will sell for in the current market. While the most accurate way to do this would be to walk through your home with you, we can still get you a better number with just a phone call.

No matter what choice you decide to make, we will be here to help you when you decide to sell!

Market Update May 2019

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May Stats are finally out and we can look back on the past month to reflect on how healthy the Portland market is. The short answer is that we are still in a strong market and homes are still increasing in value! If you want to read about the full breakdown, continue below.

The Portland market continued to pick up through May as we head into Summer time. Historically people believe June is the best month to list their home so we should see even stronger numbers coming out next month, but we had 700 more homes listed in May than we did in April. We also had more homes close and go pending than in April so we are maintaining a healthy balance. Average days on market dropped slightly which is likely due to the home : buyer ratio dropping slightly as well as homes being priced more accurately. We are still seeing homes under the $500,000 range frequently sell in only a few days and often with multiple offers, so be sure to consult your realtor before touring homes or writing an offer.

The average and median sales prices both went up in May, showing a continued appreciation of home values in the area. Many people are reporting that the market is slowing drastically and some people are even calling it a crash. Rest assured that homes that are priced within their market range are selling and still appreciating. We are seeing closer to 5-6% over the year as opposed to the 12-15% we have seen the past couple years. This is good for everyone, we needed the market to slow and stabilize to keep us out of a bubble and that is exactly what is happening.

If you are thinking of selling or buying, don’t hesitate to reach out and we can discuss how these stats will affect our strategies in the current market!

How to Sell and Buy at the Same Time

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Many people need to sell their existing home before they are able to buy the one they want next, but how is it done?? I’ll run you through three ways we can make this happen (without you having to move twice) in the video below.

No time for the full video? No problem. Read on below!

1 – Write a Contingent Offer

If you find your dream home before your home sells, we can write a contingent offer on it. This means that your offer is contingent upon the sale of your existing home. However, contingent offers aren’t as strong as non-contingent offers, so if we are competing, the likelihood of the contingent offer being accepted is much less.

2 – Ask for Rentback

If you want to accept an offer and then find your perfect house, you can ask the potential buyers of your home for rentback. In this situation, you continue through the sale and then the new owners ‘rent it back’ to you for a specified period of time. This frees up your finances and gives you some extra time to find that perfect spot.

3 – ‘Subject to Finding a Suitable Property’

In this method, we would accept an offer with a contract clause that states that the offer is being accepted only if/when you find your new home. This one gives you as the seller the most flexibility, but is the most daunting option for the buyer, as they have no guarantee of your motivation to find something new.

As always, if you would like to chat about any of these options in more detail, we would be happy to sit down with you!

Portland Market Action – February 2019

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It’s statistics time! February’s stats came in right where I expected them to. We saw a slight softening in median home price, slightly less homes come onto the market, and slightly less inventory. This is all very typical for the end of winter here in Portland. Here is a quick glance at what the market is doing. Keep reading if you want a more in depth take!

The first thing you likely see on my graphic is that the median sales price is down nearly $15,000 in one month. That may seem like prices are tanking, but the average sales price actually went up by just over $6,000. There is such a difference in these prices because of what is happening in the lower price ranges. There were quite a few “fixers” listed in February that are really dragging the median price down. If you look at the homes that are selling throughout the Portland area, it is hard to find anything under $400,000.

The days on market dropped by only 1 day. 75 days seems like a long time to be sitting on the market, but if you are in a “hot” neighborhood and the home is move in ready under $500,000 or so, the homes are still going pending in a matter of days. Pricing is still really important in this market because buyers are well educated on the market and know when something is priced well.

March has been off to a super strong start and I expect that the average sales price will go up, inventory will go down, and we will see a ton of new listings. Subscribe to the blog to stay up to date with all the latests stats and for fun things to do around town!

January Market Update

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The January market stats are in! Everyone knows I am not much of a statistics girl, but I love these ones. They come in halfway through the next month so it allows me to reflect on whether the trends I was feeling were taking place across the metro area, or just in localized neighborhoods. For January, my market predictions were pretty accurate! The simplified version for those of you not wanting to read on: There are lots more listings, prices are still normalizing, and the market is still leaning toward a seller’s market.

For everyone wanting to get a bit more in-depth, here is my breakdown: We saw the median home price drop just slightly from December, which is something we expect after the holiday season. Almost every year between October and January we see prices fall. Seasonality effects even the strongest markets and this is certainly not a sign that the market is crashing. Despite this slight drop, we had a huge surge of new listings come on the market, more than double what we had in December. There are likely many reasons for this big push but my guess for the biggest reason is that sellers are scared. The media has been stating over and over that we are in for a crash, another recession is imminent, and housing is doomed!! Well, the good news is that nothing that drastic is going to happen. If you have been a buyer, or known a buyer in the last 3-4 years, you know that everyone has been hoping the market would slow down, pricing would stop skyrocketing, and that multiple offers would be a thing of the past. The good news is we all got what we hoped for! I find the best analogy for this is that the market is slowing like a car, we were going 100 miles an hour and now we are going 60. We are still moving forward, just not accelerating. The bad news is, we are on our way into the spring market, and things are going to pick up quickly again.

The average days on market is the most surprising number for me. 76 seems like an exceptionally long time for something to sit on the market, especially when we are seeing so many homes sell on the 3rd day. Truthfully, this number should be much lower, it is skewed primarily by homes that are overpriced with sellers who aren’t willing to negotiate. I’m looking at you, home that needs to be torn down but is listed over 600k! If a home is priced well, “pinterest perfect,” and in a neighborhood close in on the east side, expect it to be pending by the end of its first weekend with multiple offers.

I anticipate we will be in a seller’s market through the rest of our busy season and then we will see the market slow through the end of the year. We may even have a bit of time where we shift into a buyer’s market right around the end of summer. If you are thinking of buying, I would still recommend doing it now. Interest rates are low, but expected to climb, and they affect your affordability more than a slight increase in home prices. If you have questions about affordability, talk to your lender, they have lots of info and stats for you!

Why preapprovals matter

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Chances are if you have ever had a conversation with a Realtor you have been asked “are you pre-approved?” A pre-approval is a letter from a lender that states you have the ability to purchase a property within a certain price.  They take a quick look at your debt, income, and what you want your monthly payment to be. Then they are able to give you an accurate price range. Not only does this give you criteria for your home search, but it allows you to shop confidently without wondering whether the house payments will be too high.  While your peace of mind is important during the real estate transaction, that isn’t the main reason that pre-approvals matter.  We will get to that in a moment.

In Portland houses are selling faster than hotcakes!  If you are looking for a home in a desirable neighborhood, that is move in ready, you are going to have a lot of competition.  statsAs an example, here are the stats for the Richmond neighborhood.  As you can see, the average days on market before a home went pending (upper box) is 10 days.  That is less than 2 weeks on the market before the seller has negotiated and accepted an offer.  If you look at the closed sales (bottom box) you can see that the average is only 3 days!  While I did select a specific neighborhood, this trend continues into almost every neighborhood of Portland.

So, Back to the importance of the pre-approval. Say we are out looking for houses and you fall in love with one of these cute homes; 47th 30th

if you didn’t already have that pre-approval on hand, you wouldn’t be able to write an offer in time to even be considered. There are a lot of people out looking for the same homes and the only way to win is to be more prepared than your competition is.  The first home that you lose is always the hardest, and while sometimes there really is nothing more that you can do, if you lose a house because you missed a step in the beginning, you will always regret it.  Calling a lender and talking numbers for 20 or so minutes may not be the most fun thing in the world, but it is a lot more fun than losing a house.

If you are getting ready to enter the real estate market and need some referrals to lender, I would love to help you out. And as always, if you or anyone you know has any real estate needs, I am never to busy to help!