Portland April 2007 Home Sales

May 28, 2007

Portland area home prices inched up to a new record in April, proving the region's housing market continues to hold up better than most. Still, the market lost steam last month: Both the number of sales and the rate of price appreciation slipped below prior-month and year-ago levels, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 4,225 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow last month in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area(see included/excluded MSA counties below). That sales total fell 2.4 percent below March and 7 percent below April 2006, according to DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Last month's sales were the lowest for an April since 3,706 sales in April 2003. Sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for 14 consecutive months. These annual declines have generally eased each month since sales dropped 26.3 percent last September.

The Portland area's median sale price for new and resale homes combined was $275,500, which set a new record by inching 0.2 percent higher than the previous peak of $275,000 in March. Last month's median was 6 percent higher than the $260,000 median in April 2006.

Though strong in a national context, April's 6 percent year-over-year gain in the median price was the region's lowest for any month since January 2004, which saw a 5.1 percent increase. Beginning in August 2004 the Portland area's median price rose at a double-digit annual pace for 26 months before slipping into single-digit territory last October. The past five consecutive months have posted single-digit year-over-year gains in the all-home median.

Multnomah County's $269,000 April median for all homes sold was also a record, besting the prior $264,500 peak reached this March. The region's other counties remained 0.6 percent to 4.4 percent below their peaks reached over the past year.

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*
	# of sales			Median sale price
	Apr-06	Apr-07	%Chg	Apr-06	Apr-07	%Chg
Resale houses	3,452	3,094	-10.4%	$262,000	$280,000	6.9%
Resale condos	320	276	-13.8%	$175,000	$205,000	17.1%
New homes	771	855	10.9%	$281,000	$280,000	-0.4%
All homes	4,543	4,225	-7.0%	$260,000	$275,500	6.0%

*Data unavailable for Columbia (OR) and Skamania (WA) counties in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA MSA.

 

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157 or John Karevoll (909) 867-9534

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