Sales activity in the Portland metro area continued an upward trend compared to same-month sales from a year ago.  Pending sales were up 64% compared to October 2008 and closed sales rose 37.1%. New listings dropped 4.5%.  The 64% jump in pending sales is the largest same-month increase since February 1996. The 2,009 closed sales this October was the highest total since August 2007 and its 37.1% same-month increase is the largest since January 2005.

Compared to September 2009, closed sales increased 11.6% (2,009v. 1,800), but pending sales dropped 9.1% (2,079 v. 2,286). New listings also fell 4.3% (3,443 v. 3,599).

At the month’s rate of sales, it would take approximately 6.5 months to sell the 13,101 active residential listings. This is the lowest mark for inventory since August 2007.

Comparing January-October 2009 with the same period in 2008, pending sales are up 1.8%. Closed sales are behind last year’s total by 8.8%. New listings are down 20.5%. 

The average sale price for October 2009 was down 12.6% compared to October 2008, while the median sale price declined 10.9%.

Month-to-month, the average and median sale price were mixed when compared with September levels; the average sale price was down 2.3% ($283,500 v. $290,100) and the median sale price increased 1.5% ($245,000 v. $241,400).