543 homes were sold in Portland in November, down from 579 in October.

Wild cards: Inventory has been on a steady decline which has kept time on market shorter; I expect a spike in new listings in spring which should increase sales as well.

I’m predicting around 500 closed sales in Portland (RMLS areas 141, 142, 143 & 148) in December. Watch for inventory and sales volume to bottom out in January or February and then increase through summer.

Sales volume is a leading indicator for price. To help predict where the market is going I publish this sales volume trend report. The wisdom is that price follows volume so when you see a market trending higher in sales, prices will soon follow up and when sales volume is low, prices will stay flat or fall.