Updated: Nov. 22, 2021, 9:43 a.m. | Published: Nov. 19, 2021, 5:12 p.m.
By Jayati Ramakrishnan | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Homebuyers found an even smaller supply of homes to choose from in October as new listings dropped in the Portland metro area.
New numbers from the regional listing service RMLS show that homes are staying on the market for a shorter time, with fewer sellers entering the market even as the demand for homes goes up. The number of new listings dropped 8% from a year ago.
Meanwhile, the median home price climbed 12% since last October, hitting $516,000.
For the month of October, RMLS reported a 0.9-month supply of homes, meaning that if sales continued at the current pace, it would take just under a month to sell everything already on the market. An inventory of less than six months is historically considered a seller’s market.
But some agents predict things are only going to get more difficult for buyers. Dustin Miller, a real estate broker with Windermere predicts that there could soon be just half a month’s worth of inventory on the market — a number said he’s never seen.
Even in the long run, Miller said he’s not sure things will return to the days of 4 to 6 months of inventory on the market.
“Unless something drastic happens like huge amounts of housing being built to handle the supply/demand issue,” he said. “I would say it looks like we have a new normal.”
Eduardo Reyes, a broker with John L. Scott Real Estate, said he’s observed a slowdown from the surge of competition he saw for homes this summer.
“There were instances where there were up to 20 or 30 offers per house,” he said of the summer. “I’ve never had as many offers or had houses selling as fast as they did.”
When he takes clients out now, he said, there are fewer homes to tour, but he’s not seeing quite the same rush of competing buyers he did in June or July.
The report shows that homes are selling faster than they did at the same time last year, but the pace slowed somewhat from last month. The typical home sold in October was on the market for 26 days before it attracted an winning offer, according to RMLS, about two days slower than homes sold in September. The data showed a 2-day increase in total market time since September.
The short supply of houses has changed the way buyers approach the process, Miller said. Many may have to adjust their idea of what’s “non-negotiable” in a home, such as buying a home with a kitchen they don’t like, in order to live in a neighborhood they do.
“Everything has become new territory for us as agents,” Miller said. “We’re trying to get creative in hunting down houses for our buyers, and giving sellers new expectations of what could happen in the marketplace.”
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; [email protected]; @JRamakrishnanOR