December Monthly Market Check In- Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
December 12, 2024
We hope your 2024 was fortunate, and full of peace and joy. We wish you an exciting and prosperous 2025!
All Real Estate is local. Here is a snapshot of our current local market and the trends to pay attention to.
| Current Active Listings (All Types) | 2718 | Down 6.5% from last month & up 7% from this time last year |
| Current Pending Listings | 876 | Down 9.7% from last month & up 14.5% from this time last year |
| Sold Listings Last Month | 664 | Down 11% from last month & up 20% from this time last year |
| New Listings Last Month | 665 | Down 30% from last month & up 3% from this time last year |
| Months of Inventory | 4.00 | Down 7.6% from last month & up 8.7% from this time last year |
| % List to Sold Ratio | 98.40% | Down .5% from last month & up .2% from this time last year |
| Absorption Rate *Based on current active listings vs sold listings for the past month | 24%* | Down 4% from last month & up 9% from this time last year |
| Average Sales Price in All Categories | $471,000 | Even from last month & up 3.7% from this time last year |
| Median Residential Sales Price Average Residential Sales Price **Based on Willamette Valley Multiple Listing Statistics | $450,000** $501,543** | Even from last month & up 1.3% from this time last year. Down .05% from last month & up 2% from this time last year |
| Average Owner Occupied Interest Rates ***Based on Freddiemac.com Statistics of 30 year fixed mortgage | 6.69%*** | Down 1.4% from last month & down 9.5% from this time last year |
| Consumer Price Index (CPI) **** All items-FED’s Goal is 2% | 2.7%**** | Up 1.4% from last month & down 20% from this time last year |
+Some numbers are rounded
We are seeing 2024 come to a close to a year that has seen many challenges in the Real Estate market and industry. We are excited to enter in a new year and are expecting the housing market to continue to weather some of the challenges, but be advantageous for many people who desire to make a move. Interest rates continue to be the headlines to our industry as we see inflation struggle not to be a problem. The latest CPI report shows that inflation increased .3% to 2.7% last month, however the CORE number was as high as 3.3%. This is the number that the FED wants to see closer to 2% even though they prefer to use the PCE data over CPI. The next PCE report is due to release on December 20th. With inflation heading the wrong direction the FED and this new administration has some work cut out for them. Their next meeting is scheduled for December 17-18.
We saw a fairly good slowdown in activity in our local market last month with inventory continuing to decline on the downward trend. For two years we have seen inventory generally increase steadily. The last 3 months inventory has lowered slightly, but this could be because of the election year phenomenon. We may be poised to see a strong selling season this Spring if interest rates cooperate. Nevertheless, many of our buyers are taking advantage of this window of opportunity with others being preoccupied with the elections and holidays. As we see affordability continue to be a challenge, we also see many in our local community finding ways to purchase homes as needed. Most people have come to the realization that a 7% interest rate may be the norm for a while and if they can structure their living expenses around this; they are taking advantage of some opportunities. Although our inventory is hovering around 4 months at the moment, many homes in that inventory have substantial challenges. We continue to see price reductions, however the Days on Market statistics are still holding pretty strong overall. Sellers are understanding that pricing is the most important aspect to get right. Listing a home too high for too long proves to backfire on them as they can easily sell for less than if they would have priced it competitively from the start. Staging, presentation, marketing & exposure continue to be important not to cut back when servicing a seller in the process of selling their home. We call this our PEP Talk. So if you are planning to sell in the near future, you can’t start too early on the packing up and staging process. Give us a call for more details and we will be happy to discuss all of the intricate details to selling and buying a home.
Here is a flowchart or process map to the listing & selling process for our office.
Here is a flowchart or process map of the buying process:
