Portland Real Estate Market Update - May, 2020

We’re in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic and April has finally provided us with one full month of market data to review and to get a picture of where the Portland real estate market is currently…and where we might be headed.

Given this is the first pandemic in a century and how different the world is today, these are essentially unchartered waters. No one can say with certainly how the market will look a year, or three, from now.

What we do know, is that showings dropped by more than half from mid-March until early April. There was a seismic shift in market activity and showings in that time frame. Since then, showings have picked up substantially, and we’re now down just about 24% from the peak showing activity in mid-March.

The National Association of Realtors came out with an article with some interesting data, in particular that about 77% of would-be sellers will be listing their homes once the stay-at-home orders subside. That matches up fairly evenly with buyer activity, so it’s possible we’ll see the amount of buyers and sellers shift in unison with each other. If that happens, inventory levels should stay fairly even and prices shouldn’t drop too terribly far.

One really important item to keep in mind, is there are many subsets to a local real estate market. Location, condition, price points, property types, etc. I believe we are going to see the higher price points drop in price more significantly that the lower price points. The reason is two-fold – there is both lower demand (less buyers) and lower amounts of liquidity in the market due to jumbo loan issues (any loan over $510,400 in 2020).

The condo market, for example, was already softer then the single family home market before the pandemic. I’m still seeing multiple offers for houses at lower price points that are in good condition and priced fairly. Of course each situation and listing is its own entity, but you can expect lower priced single family homes to weather this storm fairly well, at least for the time being.

Take a look at the video I recorded above, it has more detailed information and some good links for you to explore if you want to take a deeper dive into what’s currently happening with the Portland market. I hope you find it helpful and informative!

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Drop Andy a line with any questions and/or if he can be of service to you with your Oregon or Washington real estate goals! Andy Harris – Broker – Licensed in OR & WA 503-504-2369 | andy@portlandreagent.com Premiere Property Group, LLC