The housing market in the Portland area is accelerating faster than most other major cities, according to a new report from the home listings website Realtor.com.
The “Turnaround Towns” report compares shifts in for-sale inventory, median list prices and the time properties spend on the market, as well as search and listing activity on the National Association of Realtors-affiliated website.
Portland comes in at No. 8, between No. 7 Detroit and No. 9 San Diego. Oakland, Calif., tops a list that includes six California metros.
The median list price in Portland has jumped 12 percent in the past year. The number of homes on the market has dropped 23.5 percent, while the amount of time those homes have spent on the market has dropped 45.8 percent. Homes here spend an average of 39 days on the market, compared with a national average of 83 days.
Allison Schwartz, a vice president at Realtor.com operator Move Inc., said some of the top-10 markets are rebounding from the bottom of a very deep crash. Others are seeing more widespread economic improvement, many because of strong industries like technology or energy.
She puts Portland, with its slightly-lower-than-average unemployment rate, in the second category.
“Town by town, each one has a little bit of a different reason why it’s recovering faster,” she said.
But fast growth in housing prices, driven largely by the low inventory since housing started its recovery, have made some nervous.
Zillow, a listings site that competes with Realtor.com, warned last month that Portland is among the areas beginning to see a “local bubble,” where home affordability may soon rise above historic norms.
— Elliot Njus
