Market Conditions Ending April 30, 2008

The overall real estate market in Portland, ending April 30, 2008 remains slow for Portland. There are currently 10.3 months of inventory. This means that with the current inventory levels available in Portland it would take 10.3 months to sell off all the current active listings that are available at the current month’s rate of sale. From the beginning of the year thru April new listings are up 5.8% compared to last year. While closed and pending sales are down 35.1% and 34.6% respectively compared with last year’s January-April numbers. The average time on market has increased to 75 days from 58 days last year at this time. Now is great time to buy because inventory levels are high and interest rates are still low. Buyers do have power and for the first time since August 2002 the average sales price declined by 3.9% year to date.