Home sales up, prices down in October

Pamplin Media Group, Nov 13, 2009, Updated Nov 13, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

The string of good months for the local real estate market continued in October, with Portland-area home sales increasing by about 40 percent from a year ago.

The Regional Multiple Listing Service reported Friday that pending home sales in the Portland area also were up by 64 percent from October 2008. Closed sales went up 37.1 percent from a year earlier.

It was the Portland area’s largest increase in closed sales since January 2005, and the highest total of closed sales since August 2007.

Even better news: RMLS reported that the region had a 6.4-month supply of unsold homes on the market (13,101 houses), the lowest inventory of homes the area has seen since August 2007.

At the same time, new listings of homes for sale dropped by 4.5 percent in the region.

Compared with September’s numbers, RMLS reported that closed sales increased 11.6 percent, but pending sales dropped 9.1 percent. New listings also fell 4.3 percent from September.

The average sale price for most Portland-area homes were also down about 12.6 percent in October compared with a year earlier. The median sales price for the region dropped 10.9 percent from October 2008, RMLS reported.

From September, however, the average sales price was down only 2.3 percent ($283,500 v. $290,100), and the median sale price increased 1.5 percent ($245,000 v. $241,400).

The most expensive homes were again in the Lake Oswego-West Linn area, where the median price was $381,500. That was followed by West Portland, where the median price was $333,700.

The region's least-expensive homes were listed in Southeast Portland (median price $206,500) and the Gresham-Troutdale area (median price $209,500).

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