January 17, 2017
Jon Bell, Portland Business Journal
Schools, businesses, and skiers weren’t the only entities affected by Portland’s chilly and snowy December.
Residential real estate cooled a bit during the month as well, at least partly because of the weather, according to Scott Halligan, vice president of residential operations for John L. Scott Oregon and SW Washington.
“The record snowfall accumulations and ice/wintry mix in the last month have slowed down buyer activity,” he said, “but we expect those same buyers to come out in full force as the sun shines down soon on the Portland metro and Vancouver area.”
The latest Market Action Report from the Residential Multiple Listing Service, out on Friday, found that closed sales in December were down 3.3 percent from December 2015; new listings were also down nearly 8 percent, as were pending sales, which dropped 9 percent.
Price wise, the average sale price rose more than 11 percent in the past 12 months to $395,000, while median price was up nearly 13 percent to $347,000.
“Though not the monster numbers we have been boasting about throughout the year, this is the true measure of a solid place to live,” said Dustin Miller, a broker with Realty Trust Group.
Read the article online here.
