Sales Volume Hits 12 Month Low

550 homes were sold in Portland in February, down from 619 in January. Based on the continued low inventory of homes I expect sales to stay level or rise slightly. Watch for the sales volume to make a big jump in April on early Spring listings this year.

Wild cards: Prices are rising rapidly and that will bring many dormant sellers back to the market. Every month more and more homes are back above water!

I’m predicting around 650 closed sales in Portland (RMLS areas 141, 142, 143 & 148) in March. 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.