Market Statistics: November 2019

Every month RMLS publishes statistics on the Portland Metro real estate market. Here's our take on last month's numbers:

November was an interesting month for the Portland real estate market. The median sale price increased by 1.1% from October - the first time since 2016 that we’ve seen an increase in prices from October to November. Typically, this time of year is fairly quiet and prices slowly decline through the end of the year. This year Thanksgiving was very late in the month, helping to boost activity for November. When we look at prices compared to last year, the median price increased by 6% - the largest increase we’ve seen in a single month all year. In fact, we haven’t seen prices increase that much year-over-year since early 2018. Another surprising development is the increase in pending sales: they went up by nearly 20% in November compared to last year. This means it’s likely we’ll see an increase in closed sales next month - another unusual situation for this time of year. 

Does all this mean the market is heating up again? Maybe. But we would need to see a few more months of higher-than-expected prices and activity to say for sure. For now, we can say that the historically-low interest rates and a shortened holiday season have had an impact on the market and we’re curious to see what happens in December.

—by Laura Bower, Think Real Estate