Portland Housing Market

Ryan Frank of The Oregonian has the story today of home sales in Portland hitting a record low in January. They also have a pretty frightening picture of how long it would take to sell all the available houses at current rates. Here is their graphic:

But this is a bit misleading, home sales will pick up and inventories are adjusting to the new reality. Here is a chart made using the tools available at Altos Research:

Average days on the market started to decline in mid January and the inventory has declined quite a bit likely because of people who once might have sold when the market was robust are keeping properties off the market by delaying moves, renting, etc.

The full brunt of the unemployment situation has yet to hit real estate, however, so this all might start to change rapidly this spring...