Portland's Desperate Sellers – August Update
Here’s this month’s summary of what’s going on in the Desperate Sellers Database – broken down by the four areas covered. To access the Database and find out more about the methodology click here. To read last month’s summary click here.
Pearl District/Old Town – As expected, the poster child of urban revitalization continues to show the highest levels of Despair among all areas tracked in the Desperate Sellers Database. Desperate condo sellers in the Pearl have typically dropped their asking price by 18% (median) up from 11% one month ago. Roughly a third have reduced their ask by more than 20% since listing their properties, with the highest drop reigning in at -32%. Median prices for properties tracked in this area have come down to $325k, largely driven by a high number of Desperate Sellers at the McCormick Pier Condos and the Lexis – both with substantial entry-level inventory and a growing number of foreclosures . Despair also appears to be somewhat prevalent at the Edge and the Bridgeport. Almost two thirds of all Pearl District/Old Town properties tracked have been on the market for more than six months.
Downtown/South Waterfront - Frequently cited as fertile ground for despair, the South Waterfront only contributes 9 sellers to this month’s Database (roughly in line with last month’s count), most of whom are trying to get rid of their units at the Meriwether. Bear in mind, the Desperate Sellers Database does not include new construction. The situation would change considerably if you were to include developer inventory at the John Ross or the Atwater. That said, overall Despair is still fairly high, with a median price drop in the 12% range and selected sellers reducing their ask as much as 30%. Interestingly the actual median price of properties in this area is considerably higher than in the Pearl District. A substantial contribution of higher end units at the Strand, Meriwether and University Park has pushed up the median price to $569k.
Inner Southeast - the “no-drop” zone – as this part of town has become known – nonetheless contributes almost 50 Desperate Sellers this month, up from 42 in July. In fairness, however, all other indicators for this area would suggest that this is indeed one of the strongest housing sub-markets in the Portland-Metro area. The median price reduction is 10%, with only a handful of sellers dropping their ask by more than 15% and only one Desperado being pushed beyond the 20% mark. Richmond, being the largest neighborhood in this area (tracked by the Database) contributed 13 Desperate Sellers, followed by Laurelhurst. The median price for properties tracked in this area is now at $469k, well above the actual median price of ALL properties sold in these neighborhoods over the last six months.
Inner Northeast – In many ways the inner Northeast mirrors its sibling south of the border. On average (i.e. median) sellers in this part of town have reduced their ask by 9%, a couple have found it necessary to venture into the mid-twenties. Alameda has passed on the baton to Beaumont, which now leads the inner Northeast as far as # of Desperate Sellers is concerned. The biggest difference is in pricing. Currently the median ask among Desperate Sellers is in the $550k range, confirming the overall assumption that most of the Desperate activity is concentrated in the higher price ranges i.e. if you’re waiting for a lot of action in the first-time homebuyer category, you’re probably not going to see it for a while.
Hope this provides you buyers out there with some ideas! By popular demand we’ll soon be extending the Desperate Sellers Database to include Nob Hill. Stay tuned…
