July sales up in Portland!

What a great way to start the weekend! DQNEWS reports a jump in home sales for the month of July in Portland!

Portland Region July Home Sales
Portland region home sales jumped in July, marking the first year-over-year increase in sales for any month since early 2006. The surge in activity was strongest for homes selling below $300,000, and the shift toward more sales of lower-cost homes helped push the median sale price down nearly 2 percent from June and down 13 percent from a year ago, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 3,375 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow last month in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area (see included MSA counties below). That was up 9.3 percent from June and up 5.8 percent from a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

The number of homes sold in July was the highest for any month since August 2007, when 4,242 sold. July's year-over-year sales gain followed 14 consecutive months where sales were at a record-low level for that month since at least 1994, when DataQuick's complete (all home types) Portland region sales statistics begin. In addition, up until July sales had fallen on a year-over-year basis for 40 consecutive months.

Mirroring a trend seen across the West, foreclosed properties continued to play a meaningful but lesser role in the Portland resale market last month. Foreclosure resales - homes resold in July that had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months - accounted for 14.2 percent of all resales, down from 16.4 percent in June and down from a peak of 18.9 percent in March. The July figure was the lowest since it was 10.1 percent last October, and it remained well below levels seen in many other major Western markets, where foreclosures accounted for 40 percent or more of all resale activity.

The regional median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined in July was $240,478, down 1.8 percent from $245,000 the month before and down 12.6 percent from $275,000 a year earlier. July's median was 16.7 percent below the peak $288,858 median in August 2007.

Portland continues to post some of the nation's lowest price declines - from a year ago and from the cycle's peak.

The median price paid last month for resale single-family detached houses rose on a month-to-month basis for the third consecutive month, to $249,925. It was down 10.7 percent from a year earlier and was 15.6 percent below its August 2007 peak.

Another price gauge, the median price paid per square foot for resale detached houses, rose for the third consecutive month: Buyers paid a median $148 per square foot in July, up slightly from $147 in June, but still down 14.7 percent from a year ago and down 20.8 percent from the $187 peak in June 2007.

Last month about 37.5 percent of all Portland-area buyers used government-insured FHA loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers, according to an analysis of public records. Absentee buyers, including many investors, made up 13.7 percent of all purchases - a relatively low percentage in the West and a reflection of the relatively small number of deeply discounted foreclosures on the market in Portland. In addition to investors, absentee buyers include second-home buyers and any others who indicated at the time of sale that the property tax bill will be sent to a different address.

DataQuick's Portland area statistics reflect sales in Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington.


Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA MSA*

Number of sales Jul-08 Jul-09 %Chng
Resale houses 2,450 2,697 10.10%
Resale condos 235 240 2.10%
New homes 505 438 -13.30%
All homes 3,190 3,375 5.80%

Median sale price Jul-08 Jul-09 %Chng
Resale houses $280,000 $249,925 -10.70%
Resale condos $179,700 $169,500 -5.70%
New homes $282,500 $237,000 -16.10%
All homes $275,000 $240,478 -12.60%

*Data reflect sales in Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington.

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157

Copyright 2009 MDA DataQuick Information Systems. All rights reserved.