National Sales for June 2007

The national numbers for June 2007 came out and they shouldn't surprise anyone. Existing home sales are down 3.8% from May 2007 and down 11.4% from June 2006. New home sales are down 1.6% from May 2007 and 15.8% from June 2006. The Chief Economist of the National Assoc. of Home Builders says, "The ball is still rolling down the hill". He believes that home construction will not rebound until 2010 or 2011. Ouch!

As sales figures for the Portland area come out, I will be posting them.

The Riskiest Housing Markets

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.'s new U.S. Market Risk Index believes that Portland has a 38.9% chance that it's real estate market will decline over the next two years. "On average, there's a 34.6% chance that home prices will drop in the nation's top 50 markets in the next couple years, with many of the riskiest markets falling in areas that saw steep run-ups in prices in recent years, followed by decreased affordability and drops in the rate of appreciation."

June 2007 Portland Real Estate Statistics

June's median home prices dropped to $295,000 from $297,000 in May. Worse, is that July 2, 2007 had 60.4% more homes on the market than July 2, 2006. There were also 18.5% less closed sales in June 2007 than a year ago. This is telling me that the real estate market is definitely different than in the past few years. It is currently a Buyer's market. I'm not alone in this belief, as Tuesday's article in the Oregonian has a few thoughts from other real estate professionals.

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, we'll discuss what a Buyer's market is and what it means to you as a buyer, seller or investor.

Welcome to The Portland Real Estate Guy

So I finally decided to put up a blog about Portland, Oregon real estate. The desire is to keep people informed about what is happening with all things related to real estate, concentrating on the Portland area. Hopefully we'll have discussions about real estate agents, lenders, the job market, the stock market, the fed and as well as the Portland real estate. This is not to say that there won't be some other non real estate related posts, as we all find occasional other interests to post about.

As for myself, I am a graduate of the University of Oregon with a B.S. in Business Administration. I got my real estate license in 1990. Have participated in real estate on and off since. Have worked for a home builder. Been a lender as well as a real estate agent.

So welcome and please participate. Your opinions and thoughts are welcomed.