Nick Krautter

Here is your Fall 2008 update to inventories by zipcode. This shows which parts of town and which types of property are selling and which ones are sitting. Inventory is figured in months with 6 months being balanced, less than 6 months favoring sellers and more than 6 months favoring buyers. If I missed your area just let me know and I'll add it in.

Trend: Detached homes close in are trending in favor of sellers with many sellers waiting until Spring to list. Condo inventory continues to go up in many areas due to more constrictive lending rules.

Detached Homes:
97214 - 2.8 months Ladds / Colonial Heights / Hawthorne - This are also clearly favors sellers
97217 - 3.7 months Arbor Lodge / Kenton
97202 - 3.7 months Sellwood / Eastmoreland / Abernathy
97212 - 4.9 months Irvington / Grant Park
97203 - 5.7 months St. Johns
97211 - 4.4 months Concordia / Piedmont
97227 - 2.1 months - Lowest inventory in the city! Overlook
97213 - 5.5 months Rose City Park
97206 - 5.4 months Foster/Powell / Brentwood
97232 - 4.6 months Kerns / Laurelhurst
97210 - 6.8 months Nob Hill / NW
97219 - 6.4 months Multnomah Village / SW
97201 - 11.8 months Downtown

Condos

97232 - 4.8 months
97213 - 11.7 months
97209 - 9.4 months The Pearl District
97211 - 19 months
97210 - 10.9 months
97206 - 9.8 months
97212 - 11 months
97214 - 13 months
97203 - 13.2 months
97219 - 8.5 months
97202 - 8.2 months
97217 - 44 months - Wow, this area was clearly over built
97201 - 9 months

There are a couple of interesting changes this year that are making for an exciting year end in Portland. As foreclosures rise and bank owned properties are hitting the market many people with well maintained homes are holding off listing until Spring 2009. This is a change from last year when new listings dropped in December and January but were otherwise level. Now that buyers are back in the game after a few weeks on hold there is more competition for the homes close-in that show well and are priced well. I have been in multiple offer situations on 7 out of the last 8 offers I have written in the last month or so.

I'm predicting that bank owned properties will continue to rise and there will be fewer good homes to look at this winter. Come Spring there will be a glut of new listings and a couple months of lower sales histories [due to more distressed sales] which will make for interesting appraisals in Spring. If you have a nice home and are considering selling, this winter might be a great time to go on the market.

One of the things I love about my job is knowing the market and all the things that affect it. People use numbers all the time to try to understand the relative value, trends, and history that affect real estate. But with all the numbers in the world, every home is its own story.

The perfect example of this is when you have a truly unique home that all the neighbors pine over, joggers stare at and passerby's take photos of. I've listed a few homes like this and it doesn't matter what the market is - someone is going to buy it and love it and pay whatever it takes.

Lately I've been seeing two markets: Distressed and Normal. Sometimes these ‘markets' exist on the same block.

Distressed: Short Sales, REO, Deferred maintenance properties. These are generally cheaper on paper but don't usually show as well. They certainly have different methods of sale which can be daunting or jam packed with red-tape.

Normal: Properties being sold by the actual owner that has maintained and properly set the home up for showing and for sale. These look more expensive on paper but generally show better and the sales process is much more streamlined.

Just as an anecdote, the last 6 offers I've written for buyers have been on properties with at least one competing offer, sometimes more.

Welcome to the end of Summer 2008 update to the inventories by zipcode. This shows which parts of town and which types of property are selling and which ones are sitting. Inventory is figured in months with 6 months being balanced, less than 6 months favoring sellers and more than 6 months favoring buyers. If I missed your area just let me know and I'll add it in. Condos for 97201 have been added to this report. I am also adding neighborhood names to the zipcodes.

Detached Homes:
97214 - 3.5 months Ladds / Colonial Heights / Hawthorne
97217 - 4.3 months Arbor Lodge / Kenton
97202 - 4.3 months Sellwood / Eastmoreland / Abernathy
97212 - 5.2 months Irvington / Grant Park
97203 - 5.2 months St. Johns
97211 - 4.4 months Concordia / Piedmont
97227 - 2.5 months - Lowest inventory in the city! Overlook
97213 - 5.8 months Rose City Park
97206 - 5.9 months Foster/Powell / Brentwood
97232 - 6 months Kerns / Laurelhurst
97210 - 6.6 months Nob Hill / NW
97219 - 7.4 months Multnomah Village / SW
97201 - 13 months Downtown

Condos

97232 - 3.8 months
97213 - 10 months
97209 - 8.3 months The Pearl District
97211 - 10.4 months
97210 - 11.8 months
97206 - 14 months
97212 - 17.5 months
97214 - 14 months
97203 - 10.6 months
97219 - 10.3 months
97202 - 11 months
97217 - 32.6 months
97201 - 10.4 months

I've been asked quite a few times for REO + Foreclosure info so I thought I'd just put up all the best links in one place.

A list of different banks direct REO lists:
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/wiki/REO_Database_List.asp

Aggregates all the bank lists out there but they want you to pay for details:
http://www.foreclosure.com/index.html

A free site that combines many of the banks lists:
www.reotrans.com