Year End Bump

783 homes were sold in Portland in December, which is 98 more than November. The market bumped up when it typically drops down. Pending activity is light so expect the number of sales to be lower for January 2015.

Wild cards: Prices are close to the peak values last hit in 2007. 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 600 closed sales in Portland (RMLS areas 141, 142, 143 & 148) in January.

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.