Sales Volume Dips into Winter

646 homes were sold in Portland in November, down from 838 in October. The number of homes sold in the last month dropped due in part to the seasonal slowdown that occurs as we head into winter and also a continued drop in inventory.

Wild cards: Government shutdown was short enough that it didn’t affect the mortgage market. New lending rules could make Q1 in 2014 shaky.

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

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.