Sales Start Spring Climb

551 homes were sold in Portland in February, which is 34 more than January. The market bumped up in December but the seasonal drop in sales finally showed up in January. Pending activity is picking up so expect the number of sales to be higher for March 2015.

Wild cards: As prices go up more buyers are priced out of the market which could slow the pace of sales. Inventory is still very low.

I’m predicting around 625 closed sales in Portland (RMLS areas 141, 142, 143 & 148) in March.

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.