Greetings:
Amid Oregon’s housing crisis, the Oregon Senate passed a bipartisan bill to streamline housing development. Under Senate Bill 974, local governments would have 90 days to make decisions on land use development applications for housing in urban areas. “Cutting down the timeline to break ground is a game changer for families waiting for housing and builders ready to get to work,” said Senator Dick Anderson who led the bill. He went on say that the passage of this legislation sends a clear message: “Oregon is ready to build!” We will have to wait and see how receptive our local and county officials are to help the developers get more housing in our communities. SB 974 has teeth because if local governments fail to meet a 90-day deadline, they could end up paying developers’ engineering and attorney fees.
Closer to home, the Governor has signed into law the passage of the Urban Growth Boundary land swap, HB 3921, which is vital to our growth by providing more land available in the Hucrest area of Roseburg. “Roseburg and its surrounding areas need close to 100 new homes constructed a year to keep up with the shortage of housing,” according to Rep. Virgil Osborne, (R-Roseburg) during his testimony. The bill had an emergency clause and went into effect upon the Governor's signature. In my opinion, this is great news and is one step in the right direction to begin building desperately needed homes.
In Douglas County new listings continue to increase in May 2025 by +4.8% (217) from the 207 listed in May of last year. Also, new listings in May increased +8.0% from the 201 listed in April 2025. Pending sales for the month of May were the same as April 2025 at 131, however, have declined -14.4% when you compare May 2024 to May 2025 when they were 153. Comparing year-to-date, the pending sales have decreased (-4.8%) to 579 from 608 in 2024. Closed sales were also down -14.4% in May 2025 at 107 from the 120 closings in April 2025. Year-to-date our closed sales are down -3.5% from 520 in 2024 to 502 in 2025.
The average sales price continues to increase to $372,000 in May 2025 up +9.7% over last month and +9.1% higher than May 2024 when it was $340,900. We currently have a 5.1 month of inventory of houses on the market for sale, which is the second highest level of inventory available in over 2.5 years.
The average price per square footage is now $230, which is down slightly compared to March of this year when it was $235. The Winchester area seems to be the most affordable with the average sales price of $269,700 (which is skewed somewhat since it includes many manufactured homes in MH Parks,); followed by the Green area at $289,900; then Myrtle Creek at $301,700. Glide continues to see the highest average sales price at $514,000 so far in 2025.
Cathy and I along with 200 other residents of our area attended three Memorial Day events held in Roseburg with each very reverend and respectful. We memorialized all our Veterans that are buried in Roseburg VA Cemeteries and recognized the ultimate sacrifice they made for us. Please continue to keep all our Armed Forces men and women who are serving, our First Responders, and Veterans in your thoughts and prayers for remember our “FREEDOMS ARE NOT FREE!” GOD BLESS THEM AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!
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