Low Inventory = Low Volume… But Prices are Going UP

539 homes were sold in Portland in March, up from 524 in February. The close-in market volume is being held down by low inventory, while numbers in the suburban markets saw a jump in sales. Stories about the low inventory are now commonplace and many price points are garnering multiple offer situations and less than one month on market. I expect to see a substantial rise in average sales price into summer.

Wild cards: Multiple offers are back with inventory at a 5 year low.

I’m predicting around 650 closed sales in Portland (RMLS areas 141, 142, 143 & 148) in April. Seasonally speaking, average prices generally start to drop after the summer peak, bottoming out in winter.

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.