Displaying blog entries 141-150 of 353
January 2016 saw a slight decrease in the record breaking 2015. Thirteen sales closed for the first month of this year. Several condos were sold and two forest service cabins. The balance of the properties were scattered here and there throughout the area.
2015 was a great year for home sales in the Mt. Hood area. Compared to 2014 sales were slightly up. 193 sales in 2014 and in 2015: 204. Here is a brief summary of the comparison of both years:
sales 193 204
forest cabins 27 30
condos 27 19
Govy Condo 23 10
Welches condo 4 9
Govy homes 16 4
Bank Owned 16 13
Short Sale 3 0
Land 13 25
Government Camp really slowed down in 2015 compared to 2014. Over a 50% drop in condo sales and a 75% dip in home sales. That second home market took a big dive but that could have all been snow driven due to a pathetic ski year.
One big surprise was the increase in land sales nearly doubling last year. Finally some new construction will be in the works and considering there isn’t that much land in our area available this is good news for the market.
All indicators are that 2016 will be an excellent year again for mountain sales. With Oregon as the hot spot in the United States for the third year in a row we expect more folks to head to Mt. Hood to live full time and to pick up their second homes to get relief from PDX congestion!
The close of 2015 produced 21 closed sales for the month. Surprisingly, three of those sales were bank owned properties. The mountain had 13 bank owned properties sell in 2015 which was down from 16 for 2014. Three Timberline Rim properties, a popular subdivision along the Sandy River, changed hands.
Inventory is down in all pricing points right now and many sellers are getting their properties ready for the 2016. State regulations and lender financing requirements make preparation a must to get a property prepared to go on the market. Getting any repairs completed prior to going on the market is a great idea because finding a contractor during summer months is nearly impossible causing delays for closing.
Here are the 21 sales that closed in December:
The multiple listing service has released the sales numbers for 2015 December.
December produced 20 closed sales making the year totals for 2015 at 203 sales. It's not that far off from 2014 totals with 10 more sales than last year. Real estate on the mountain is stable and working towards recovery of 2007 values. Two out of every three homes that came on the market sold in 2015. Nationally predictions are that 2016 will be as good as 2015. Despite a small increase in interest rates, many buyers are opting in for a purchase now before rates continue to creep up.
Here are the fifteen sales for November 2015.
Mt. Hood National Forest cabin sales once again took off with four completed in November. It seems this year more cabins sold at the first half of the year, summer time slowed down and then fall picked up again.
Five creek front and riverfront homes sold. Any waterfront properties are the top sellers in our area. Two distressed properties were closed for the month. Although rarely do we have any distressed sales on the mountain any more. One or two to creep into the market
Next month I'll have total numbers for 2015.
The multiple listing statistics just came out for Mt. Hood sales for the month of November 2015.
November stats show 15 closed sales with the number of pending sales down 20% compared to November 2014. In December we currently have 16 pending sales so with the traditional holiday slow down I expect sales numbers to be close to the same for December's closings.
There's no doubt 2015 has been the best year we've had for sales on Mt. Hood since the crash of 2008! Interest rates will begin to inch. The reality of low interest rates over the past seven years is going to be a major wake up call for anyone who hasn't experienced historically normal rates of 7 or 8%.
I'm optimistic about 2016. Usually when interest rates begin to rise more buyers hit the market to take advantage of lower rates so we are expecting increased activity for 2016.
The market conditions report in RMLS were a surprise for April with five closed sales for the month. Inventory surged in April with a whopping 31 new properties to hit the market. Although this news was a bit unnerving, there's currently 24 pending sales in line for closings so it could be a matter of the slower winter contracts in January and February that finally closed in April. I expect May and June's numbers to be substantially higher.
Recent surges in purchases have caused longer inspection periods due to scheduling home and septic inspections. The second delay is the appraiser delays. They are backed up due to the number of buyers purchasing this spring.
Although it's not reflected in April's closings, we will be seeing a great summer of activity this year. I've posted the five closed sales under the RMLS chart below.
April 2015 Sales
Recent numbers came in from RMLS for March 2015 mountain area sales.
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Area 153, as defined by RMLS, compromises the Mt. Hood market and is physically a smaller area than probably most as listed in RMLS stretching from Government Camp to the Cherryville Hill area between Brightwood and Sandy. This space stretches around 30 miles as the crow flies from one end of Highway 26 to the other.
I'm bringing this up because despite what these numbers tell us, our market is hoping and it's not really reflected in the RMLS numbers. The thirteen closed sales is consistent with the numbers we've seen through 2014 for a very strong market.
March stats were a bit surprising considering the amount of activity our office has seen. Pending sales are down nearly 40% from last year from March 2014. Marketing time is improving as inventory that had been sitting for sale a long time is moving out. Nearly a third of the current inventory came to market in March with 26 new listings! Our amazing spring like weather has led sellers to getting started early in the marketing process. We predict a very busy spring of sales.
The Mt. Hood real estate market is still strong with eleven sales in the month of February closing for the Welches, Government Camp, Rhododendron and Brightwood areas. As more inventory is coming to the market, sellers are getting their properties ready for the 2015 selling season. Nationally, this past winter saw three times the buyers out shopping for homes compared to the year before.
Here are the local sales in February:
Most of the pricing points were under $200,000 with two Mt Hood National Forest cabins selling. Cabin inventory is low for this time of the year but several sellers are preparing their cabins to hit the market soon.
Mt. Hood real estate sales for February 2015 show that pending sales were down nearly 36% from 2014. Although last year was really a break out year for real estate all over the country as the recovery of 2012 took up speed, all news on the real estate front point to 2015 as being even a bigger year than 2014. With three times the buyers out in force this winter to purchase this year compared to last, I would expect the pending sales to be up from 2014 than down in our area. Most of that buyer demand must be for urban areas though and the majority of our buyers tend to be second home owners.
The lack of inventory is showing that some of those homes that have been for sale FOREVER are finally getting sold. February sales had an average marketing time of 236 days! This could indicate that prices have risen a bit with less inventory and some homes on the market a long time are finally at an attractive price for buyers.
Displaying blog entries 141-150 of 353
