January Portland Region Press Release

Portland Region January Home Sales

The number of homes sold in the Portland area during January rose to the highest level for that month in four years, while the median price paid for those houses and condos dropped to a seven-and-a-half-year low. Distressed property sales and purchases by absentee buyers hovered near record levels, a real estate information service reported.
 
A total of 1,729 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during January in the five-county Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area. Sales fell 23.5 percent from the prior month but rose 10.5 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
 
A drop in sales between December and January is normal for the season, with the decline averaging 23.9 percent since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Portland-area statistics begin.
 
The January sales total was the highest for that month since 2008, when 1,985 homes sold. This January's sales fell 29.3 percent below the average sales tally for the month since 1994.
 
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos that closed escrow in the Portland region during January was $195,000, down 4.9 percent from the prior month and down 8.4 percent from a year earlier.
 
January's median was 32.5 percent lower than the peak $289,000 median in October 2007, and it was the lowest for any month since it was $193,000 in June 2004.
 
Another price measure analysts track, the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses, fell to $123 in January. That was down 3.1 percent month-to-month and down 4.7 percent year-over-year, while it was 36.2 percent below its June 2007 peak of $193.
 
The region's median price paid per square foot for existing (not new) condos was $113 in January, up slightly from $112 the prior month but down 8.1 percent from a year earlier.
 
Among the Portland region's counties, the median paid per square foot in January for resale single-family detached houses fell 1.4 percent from a year ago in Clackamas County, while the median rose 3.1 percent year-over-year in Multnomah County. The price per square foot figure dipped 7.3 percent year-over-year in Washington County, dropped 8.3 percent in Yamhill County and fell 10.4 percent in Clark County, Washington.
 
Sales of distressed properties represented roughly 42 percent of the resale market in January - just off the February 2011 peak of 43.4 percent.
 
Foreclosure resales - homes foreclosed on in the prior 12 months - made up 26.0 percent of January's resale market, up from 21.2 percent the prior month but down from 30.4 percent a year earlier. January's figure was the highest since it was 26.3 percent last May.
 
Short sales - transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property - accounted for an estimated 15.8 percent of January's resale market, up from an estimated 14.4 percent the prior month and 11.8 percent a year earlier.
 
On the foreclosure front, lenders foreclosed on 487 single-family houses and condo units in the five-county Portland area during January, up 0.4 percent from the month before and up 3.7 percent from a year earlier. During all of 2011, foreclosures totaled 5,940, down 21.7 percent from 2010. The foreclosure figures are based on the number of Trustees Deeds filed with county recorder offices. The document signals that a home was lost to foreclosure.
 
Many foreclosed properties are bought by investors and first-time buyers.
 
Absentee buyers, which includes investors and vacation-home buyers, accounted for 23.7 percent of total January home sales, up from 18.2 percent the month before and 20.9 percent a year ago. The peak for absentee buyers was 24.4 percent in January 2006 (the data series goes back to 2000). Absentee buyers paid a median $165,000 in January, up from $155,000 the month before and $163,450 a year earlier.
Among these investors are many buyers who pay cash - a group that accounted for 27.3 percent of all homes sold during January. That was up from 26.1 percent the month before but down from 31.6 percent a year earlier. Cash buyers paid a median $152,000 in January, down from $165,000 the month before and $173,238 a year earlier.
 
Government-insured FHA loans, a popular, low-down-payment option for many first-time buyers, represented 28.8 percent of all home purchase loans used in the Portland area in January. That was up from 27.5 percent the month before but down from 31.5 percent a year ago. The peak for FHA use during the current housing cycle was 42.3 percent in November 2009.
 
The Portland metro area statistics in this report and in the table below reflect sales in Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington.

See chart at DQNews.com

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157

Source: DataQuick; DQNews.com