Lake Oswego Market Trends
Feb 24th 2010Dianne GregoireBuying Advice & Market Activity & Selling Advice
I thought it would be interesting to do a couple of snap shots of various price points in the Lake Oswego real estate market. These each cover all listing/sold activity for the last six months and are divided into value ranges. These are for single-family, detached homes and are all located in the 97034 and 97035 zip codes. Click on any of the graphs to see a larger, easier-to-read version:
Houses priced from $200,000 to $400,000
- 166 were offered for sale
- 88 sold
- There is currently a listing inventory of 6.3 month
- The average sales price was $324,773
- Among the sold homes, the CDOM (cumulative days on the market) averaged 129 days
Houses priced from $400,000 to $600,000
- 156 were offered for sale
- 71 sold
- There is currently a listing inventory of 10.7 months
- The average sales price was $480,964
- Average cumulative days on the market to sell was 165 days
Houses priced from $600,000 to $800,000
- 76 were offered for sale
- 36 sold
- There is currently an inventory of 10.7 months
- The average sales price was $701,924
- Cumulative days on the market to sell was 234
Houses priced from $800,000 to $1,200,000
- 76 were offered for sale
- 30 sold
- There is an inventory of 17.2 months
- Average sales price was $947,899
- Cumulative days on the market to sell was 373 days
Homes priced $1,200,000 to $2,200,000
- 52 were offered for sale
- 16 sold
- There is a 24.5 month inventory
- Average sales price was $1,552,281
- Cumulative days on the market was 323
I like these little snap shots. It allows you to visually see the market. It is very apparent that the first-time-home buyer tax credit that was originally supposed to expire in November had a big impact on the less expensive homes (we will probably see something similar this April with the extension). It’s also very easy to see that less expensive homes sell more easily than more expensive homes. Cumulative days on the market in the expensive homes is out and out ugly.
One reason for doing this post, this week, was so that I could play with the new statistics function being offered to Realtors by the RMLS. Our local multiple listing service was the first in the entire United States to go completely web-based about 8 years ago. Since then they have continued to push the functions of the website and the new statistics function is the latest enhancement. It still has some limitations, but it is really cool. Linda and I can now take snap shots of pretty much any part of the market, depending on what our clients needs are, and produce these spiffy graphs and statistics. Besides being fun, I think it’s going to be extremely helpful.
I hope you found something useful in the information presented today. If you have any other areas of the market you’d like studied or questions you’d like answered, just let us know.
Dianne





First impressions seems like the ideal subject for my first editorial post of 2010. It’s time to take that big step forward and I don’t know about you, but I want to make the most of it.
I think the best thing I can say about the Lake Oswego real estate market of 2009 was that it wasn’t 2008. Remember a year ago? We’d seen the collapse of some of the Nation’s largest banks, the first bailout/stimulus package had been put into play, and the entire Nation was in a wait and see mode as the country transitioned to a new Presidency. It was a very difficult time. And it makes today’s market feel, well, pretty darn good.
The open house, a long standing tradition for marketing and selling a home, or a total waste of time? It’s actually a pretty controversial subject among Realtors. Some believe in them and others refuse to do them. I fall into the first category. I hold open a house pretty much every Sunday and some Sundays I will do a couple of open houses. I make a commitment to people who list their homes with me that I will promise one advertised open per month, at a minimum. I will do more if my time allows. This commitment keeps me pretty busy. It means that I do LOTS of open houses. And that is probably why I think that they work.
So…. you’re moving, or getting ready to sell, or in the middle of a home inspection on either end of the transaction. One of the myriad things that may cross your path is the issue of insulation. Some homes have it, some don’t. Some have it in the walls but nowhere else, some have it in the floors and ceilings. A lot depends on the era of the home and whether and how much updating has been done. If you are selling your home and your home has insulation, say underneath, that has been damaged (squirrels, etc), you may be asked to repair or replace it. If you have an older home with blown-in insulation in the attic, you may want to know what the material consists of. If you are buying a home without insulation in the walls, you may be wanting to add some after the purchase is complete. Here are some hopefully helpful tidbits on insulation:
The last 12 months have been a pretty rough time to be selling a home. Your home may have even been on the market for a period of time longer than you ever thought possible. But now you’ve gotten a good offer that you have accepted. This is a key time in any home sale. You must now get your home to pass the home inspection. I want to give you a list of 10 simple repairs you can do to prepare your home as well as a few things to do on the day of the inspection.
While today I am posting our regular list of the Lake Oswego Open Houses as advertised in the RMLS, I want to take a moment to discuss open houses in general. Open houses are probably one area in which Realtors really differ on their opinions. I have known agents who absolutely refuse to do them. One man in particular had a sign he took to listing appointments that had the words “Open House” with a big red circle and a diagonal line across the words. He was making it very clear that there was no way he would ever do an open house. I happen to have the exact opposite opinion. I happen to think that they work. Sure, you get the neighbors and the “Lookie Lou’s”, but you also get lots of great exposure to a property that needs to be sold. I think the key is to advertise the open house so that a good percentage of the people who show up are real buyers who know the price and size of the property before they get there. I hold homes open pretty much every Sunday. I believe that on average I sell at least one listing a year off of my open houses. In fact, I sold a house in Lake Oswego about 3 weeks ago as a result of my open house. So I think that open houses do have value.
