I think that there is a general perception that the market has picked up a bit of steam. I have personally seen this in multiple offer situations and short market times. But I have to say that I’ve seen it in the more affordable price ranges.
I did have a sale recently for a $625,000 house that sold in 1 day with multiple offers. But I found myself wondering, was that a fluke? Is that really happening in the higher price ranges? So I took some time today to compare the more expensive homes (purely arbitrarily I chose $500,000 and higher) today versus what was happening a year ago in the same 6-month time period. Here are the results:
| Price Range | Sold 2/11-8/11 | Active Today | Pending Today | Sold 2/12-8/12 | Current Months of Inventory |
| $500,000-$600,000 | 29 | 36 | 17 | 53 | 4 |
| $600,000-$700,000 | 25 | 32 | 3 | 27 | 7 |
| $700,000-$800,000 | 23 | 35 | 7 | 17 | 12 |
| $800,000-$900,000 | 17 | 18 | 4 | 18 | 6 |
| $900,000-$1,000,000 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 11 | 9 |
| $1,000,000-$1,500,000 | 19 | 38 | 6 | 15 | 15 |
| $1,500,000-$3,000,000 | 3 | 22 | 4 | 5 | 26 |
| $3,000,000-$20,000,000 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 55 |
Pretty interesting. The $500,000 to $600,000 is selling strongly. So is the $800,000 to $900,000. 4 to 6 months of inventory is a pretty healthy market. Pricing over a million is where it really hits the skids. And that way tip-top price point of $3,000,000 and more is barely moving. This is when we look at the closed sales. But then when you factor in the pending sales, and there are several, it looks a bit better. When the pending sales in the top price bracket close, and this should happen in 45-60 days, the inventory drops from 55 months to 22 months. In the $1,500,000 to $3,000,000 it drops the inventory from 26 months to 14.
Bottom line, it’s still too soon to tell. And it can still be said that the higher priced homes just take longer to sell as there are fewer people financially qualified to buy them.
So what are these high priced houses like?
The most expensive, recently-closed sale was a house on the Willamette River. It sold for $3,600,000 and went pending in just 33 days (seriously!).
The most expensive pending sale is on the North shore of Oswego Lake. Priced at $4,695,000, it took 428 days to receive an accepted offer.
The most expensive house currently for sale is NOT Jantzen Island. That house has been withdrawn from the market. It was price reduced from $19,500,000 to $15,000,000. The new king of the most-expensive- house-fo-sale-in-Lake-Oswego-pageant is a house on Northshore that is listed for $11,600,000. It was built in 2009 and has 13,462 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 6 full baths and 2 half baths.
I hope you find this information of interest. It’s always a kick to try and figure out the market and its trends. Let me know if you have any questions.
Dianne