I have reviewed the February RMLS Market Action for residential property in Douglas County, Oregon. We received some good news today! Real estate sales were up 5% since the first of the year! However, lending is becoming more complicated. They are overly cautions on what they are lending on and who they are lending to. It is becoming frustrating to say the least but I fully understand their predicament as well in light of all the foreclosures nationwide. Until those properties are sold and off the books, we have not truly hit bottom yet. Foreclosure sales in Douglas County amount to about 3% of total sales.

In Douglas County, new listings decreased by 12.7%, closed sales decreased by 29.2% and pending sales decreased by 17.2%. However, comparing February 2009 to January 2009, pending sales grew by some 9.1% and closed sales rose by 27.7%. This indicator is postive and it is showing the market is improving slightly. The hard truth however is that all of our sellers who need to sell have to adjust their prices downward to meet the market. In fact, our market data shows us that the sellers who reduced their prices on the average of 32.7% were able to sell their properties in January and February. Sellers are having a hard time swallowing the downward trends of the real estate market because we have had a 10 year climb in real estate prices and we are now back to 2000-2001 prices.

It is taking over 5 months to sell a property at 165 days on the market. The average sales price in February jumped by 22.8% to $184,500 v $150,300 in January 2009. This is another postitive indicator tht the market is improving. Furthermore, we have over 24.4 months of listings for sale right now which is down from 30.3 months in January 2009. Historically, spring and summer are our busiest months in real estate sales so I am looking forward to more sales in the next 6 months.

It appears that the stimulus package has been allocated to the lending institutions. Now the rules and regulations are being written about how the money will be spent. We can only wait and watch right now before we all know what is in store for the buyers and sellers out there. My advice is to plant a summer garden with lots of vegetables that you enjoy eating. It may be a wise investment.

Regards, Neil

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