In Oregon, Significant Buyer’s Market Provides Home Loan Seekers an Advantage
People looking for houses to buy in Lane County right now are enjoying more of a buyer’s market than the area has seen for years, with more homes to choose from and more time to make up their minds.
The number of houses put on the market in Lane County last month jumped by 25 percent, compared with February a year ago, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service. Oregon mortgage applicants had about 1,500 listings to choose from in central and eastern Lane County. That’s an increase of 9 percent since December, and a whopping 39 percent more than the number on the market a year ago.
The Florence-Mapleton area had 357 listings on the market in February, up 13 percent since the end of the year. The multiple listing service just began reporting coastal figures in mid-2006; therefore, February comparisons were not available.
The February statistics compiled by the multiple listing service also offer some good news for sellers in the Oregon housing market, though. The number of deals closed last month were up more than 7 percent from the year before. The only dip in the figures came in the pending sales category, where the number of sales agreements signed in February dropped by just over 2 percent from the same month last year.
Norm Brock, principal mortgage broker with Brock & Associates Real Estate, says both buyers and sellers should take care when trying to read the local real estate market.
“At the moment, things are slowing a bit, and the number of houses on the market has increased, but it’s a situation that could turn around quickly,” Brock said. “Sellers have to be more competitive to close a deal, but the increase in closed sales means the inventory may start to go down, so buyers shouldn’t wait too long to make their decision.”
For the year to date, new listings are up 16 percent compared with last year, while closed sales are up 4 percent.
Home prices in Oregon continue to rise, although not as sharply as the way they did in 2004 and 2005. In February, the median sale price for houses in Lane County stood at $233,800. The median sale price of homes sold in January and February taken together was $225,000.
The time it takes to sell a house also has slowed substantially, providing home mortgage loan shoppers with more time to think about their purchases. The average number of days on the market in February was 73 this year, compared with 60 for the same month last year.
The inventory of homes for sale also is higher than it’s been for years, with more than 5.5 months worth of homes available for the first two months of this year. But Brock said he’s confident that the housing market will be good this year.
“We’ve gone through this kind of slowdown many times before, then all of a sudden it turns around and the market heats up again,” he said. “I think we’re in for a good year all the way around - I think everyone’s going to be happy.”
SOURCE: The Register-Guard