May 2017 Portland Real Estate Update
The Portland metro area saw some mixed real estate activity this April, while the year to date still remains cooler compared to 2016. New listings, at 3,759, fared 4.3% better than last month in March 2017 (3,604), but fell 7.9% short of the 4,082 new listings offered last year in April 2016. Similarly, pending sales (3,088) were 10.0% cooler than in April 2016 (3,432) but showed a modest 1.5% gain over last month in March 2017 (3,043). Closed sales, at 2,219, fell 11.0% short compared to last month’s 2,494 closings and 15% short compared to the 2,611 closings recorded last year in April 2016. Inventory crawled upward in April, ending at 1.7 months. Total market time decreased by four days, ending at 42 days. There were 3,753 active residential listings in the Portland metro area in April.
Comparing the average price of homes sold in the twelve months ending April 30th of this year ($406,500) with the average price of homes in the twelve months ending April 2016 ($365,200) shows an increase of 11.3%. In the same comparison, the median has increased 11.6% from $318,500 to $355,500.
Our home of the month is a condo off Macadam just south of the south waterfront in the coveted RiverPoint condo community. This fabulous home is two bedrooms plus a den, and overlooks the river, downtown and Mt Hood, and its on the ground floor with a two car garage! Check it out here at http://www.roblevy.com/Property/6116-SW-RIVERPOINT-LN-Portland-17683285
This article in the Oregonian last week talks about even though the Portland area has grown, we have recently been leapfrogged by both San Antonio, Texas and Orlando, Florida in population. The Portland metro area's population now is over 2.4 million, up 1.7% from last year. 
This article in the New York Times recently talks mostly about the boom in Denver (a city with similar price increases and inventory woes as Portland) But I can tell you as a Realtor for almost 30 years now in Portland while we have always been known as "pot friendly" and I have always had 3-5 people a year asking me about grow operations this last 12 months or so its coming up all the time! Oregon has some specific laws on what you can do personally (grow up to four plants) but we have had several real estate sales recently for buyers in the cannabis industry. 
March Residential Highlights The Portland metro area hada sunny month for new listings this March. At 3,604, new listings outpaced March 2016 (3,409) by 5.7% and February 2017 (2,521) by 43.0%. This was the strongest March for new listings in the area since 2010, when 4,987 were offered for the month. Pending sales (3,043) warmed 28.5% over last month in February 2017 (2,369) but fell 1.1% short of the 3,076 offers accepted during this month last year in March 2016. Closed sales, at 2,494, similarly outpaced February 2017 (1,669) by 49.4% but still ended 2.8% cooler than in March 2016 when 2,565 closings were recorded for the month. Total market time decreased by four days this March, ending at 58 days.
Here is a great article from USA Today with a solid 50 things that a home buyer (and also seller who is selling to buy) can and should do to prepare for the exercise. I can honestly say in my almost 30 years as one of Portland's top selling Realtors that every one of these can trip someone up. Check out the list on the USA Today site..... 
Average and Median Sale Prices:
