Sales Volume Hits 24 Month Low

493 homes were sold in Portland in January, down from 630 in December. Rising prices mixed with low inventory have the number of homes changing hands at a two year low.

Wild cards: Interest rates have dropped again which should help buyers afford higher purchase prices. Sellers are listing earlier this year so expect to see the slowdown bounce back before we get to mid-Summer.

I’m predicting around 600 closed sales in Portland (RMLS areas 141, 142, 143 & 148) in February.

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.