Portland Region April Home Sales
Portland-area April home sales rose more than usual from March and sold at the fastest pace for an April in seven years amid strong condo resales and a signficant overall increase for mid- to high-end homes. The median sale price rose to a five-and-half-year high, although the gain from a year earlier was single-digit for the second consecutive month, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 3,168 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during April in the five-county Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area. Sales rose 18.8 percent from the prior month and rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm, which is now owned by Irvine-based property information company CoreLogic, tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
April's increase from March was larger than normal. On average, sales between those two months have increased 3.7 percent since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Portland-area statistics begin.
Although April's sales tally was the highest for that month since 2007, it was 10.6 percent short of the average sales total for all months of April since 1994. Sales of existing (not new) single-family detached houses were 12.0 percent below the historical April average, while new-home sales were 32.0 percent below average. April's condo resales, which rose 26.6 percent from a year earlier, were 71.0 percent above the April average.
Investors aren't as active as they were a year ago but their market impact remains significant. Absentee buyers - mostly investors and some second-home buyers - purchased 27.9 percent of all homes sold in April, down from 28.3 percent the prior month and down from 28.2 percent a year earlier. The absentee buyer rate peaked at 31.7 percent in April 2012, and the monthly average for absentee purchases since January 2000 is 19.9 percent.
Sales of mid- to high-end homes continued to rise year-over-year, while lower-cost deals declined. April sales below $200,000 dropped 24.4 percent from a year earlier, while sales below $300,000 fell 7.4 percent. April home sales above $300,000 rose 20.2 percent year-over-year, while sales over $500,000 rose 21.4 percent.
The Portland metro area statistics in this report and in the tables below reflect sales in Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos that closed escrow in the Portland region during April was $267,500, which is the highest since the median was $269,900 in October 2008. Last month's figure was up 2.9 percent from the month before and up 9.2 percent from a year earlier. The median has risen on a year-over-year basis for 26 consecutive months, including an 11-month string of double-digit increases as high as 18.1 percent between January 2013 and November 2013. In four out of the last five months the median's year-over-year gain has been single-digit.
This April's median sale price was 7.4 percent below the peak $289,000 median in October 2007, and it was 37.2 percent higher than the post-peak trough of $195,000 in January 2012. During the most recent housing bust the Portland area's median fell 32.5 percent from peak to trough.
To view additional Portland region April highlights, please view DQNews.com.
Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157
Source: DataQuick; DQNews.com
Copyright 2014 DataQuick. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment