May Monthly Market Check In ~ What Goes Up Must Come Down?
May 13, 2026
We have been discussing a lot within our company about the tools of AI and how quickly this innovation is moving forward in the Real Estate industry. It is said that AI won’t take away real estate jobs, but people who are using AI will take away those real estate jobs. Last month we highlighted the value in AI staging and how that is giving sellers another option to showcase their homes providing the virtual comfort of staging within photos and videos. This is also a service to buyers as many people do not have the ability to visualize how a space could look or feel and virtual staging gives that extra element to provide some confidence when making one of the largest purchases in their lives.
Another form of AI that we are integrating is through marketing and advertising. Certain keywords and phrases give higher exposure in marketing our listings, and we focus on using certain phrases that people are using to attract the AI web scraping tools. When buyers search for certain amenities and demographics for a prospective home in their desired area, the AI platforms can weed through the criteria to expose the highest level of prospective homes available for clients. Instead of searching through the big Real Estate technology platforms by using filters, they can simply type in what they are looking for and expose a list of homes that match closely to their desired outcome.
This technology is moving quickly and is being sharpened as we speak. Where will be next year or 10 years from now? It is exciting to see how AI is helping our industry as we serve our clients’ needs.
Unfortunately we are still trending to higher interest rates and higher real estate costs this month. Inventory continues to creep up at 4.5 months, which is technically still a seller’s market by definition; however we are experiencing buyers act like it is more of a buyers market than it really is. Most of that reasoning is because many buyers are holding off on the sidelines as they witness interest rates continue to bounce along week to week and are currently sitting in the mid 6’s. Values are staying fairly flat, but with a minimal uptick as median and average sales prices increased from last month. The Spring selling season is upon us and as families close out the school year we should see more people focus their attention on making moves in the early Summer months.
What is going on with inflation?! Up .6% for the month and 3.8% YOY, this is not good news. Energy is the leading cause of that as we continue to pray for a resolution to the Iran conflict. How can prices come down when Oil is up 54%, Gasoline is up 28% and energy commodities are up 29%? Of course everything else is going to go up, as we see food is up 3.2% and apparel is up 4.2%. Shelter is also up 3.3%. Eventually this trend will shift and prices will come down, however it can be argued that once a new benchmark is set, it is difficult for the markets to retract without some kind of correction. Although inflation rates are on a rollercoaster, many prices seem to continue as established.
It seems people continue to shop! Consumer debt continues to soar as the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis nicely graphs it for us to track.
As a whole, our market continues to stay resilient. There are some properties that sell quickly, but the broad story is that it is taking longer for most homes to sell. Pricing continues to be an interesting target to hit. Our days on market are at 111 days on average as most homes are taking a few months to sell. As of Year to Date we continue to slide slightly lower in total sales over the past 3 years. In 2022 we had 2398 sales, 2024 we had 2429 sales, 2025 we had 2354 sales and this year we’ve had 2305 sales at the end of April. Overall the market seems to be moving sideways even though our Average Sales Price hit another all time high at $515,423.
Here is a snapshot of our Real Estate trends in the valley…
| Current Active Listings (All Types) | 3017 | Up 7.4% from last month & up 5% from this time last year |
| Current Pending Listings | 1085 | Up 2% from last month & up .6% from this time last year |
| Sold Listings Last Month | 709 | Up 11% from last month & .4% from this time last year |
| New Listings Last Month | 1178 | Up 5% from last month & down 4.5% from this time last year |
| Months of Inventory | 4.5 | Up 4.5% from last month & up 8% from this time last year |
| % List to Sold Ratio | 98.01% | Down .2% from last month & even from this time last year |
| Absorption Rate *Based on current active listings vs sold listings for the past month | 24%* | Up 4% from last month & down 4% from this time last year |
| Average Sales Price in All Categories | $497,000 | Down 2% from last month & up 8% from this time last year |
| Median Residential Sales Price Average Residential Sales Price **Based on Willamette Valley Multiple Listing Statistics | $456,000** $515,423** | Up .2% from last month & up 1% from this time last year. Up .4% from last month & up 3% from this time last year |
| Average Owner Occupied Interest Rates ***Based on Freddiemac.com Statistics of 30 year fixed mortgage | 6.52%*** | Up 2% from last month & down 3.5% from this time last year |
| Consumer Price Index Average (CPI) **** FED’s Goal is 2% | 3.8%**** | Up 15% from last month & up 65% from this time last year |
+Some numbers are rounded
We hope you have a continued pleasant Spring and that this Summer brings you a lot of sunshine and Joy. If there is anything we can do for you, we are here to help.