Portland Zip Codes Among The Best And Worst Performing Areas In The Nation

Posted on 09/12/08 7:30 AM

Share-it Square in Sellwood, Photo Courtesy of Portland Ground

According to a report by Newsweek, selling a home in Portland zip code 97202 is about as good as it gets nationwide. This southeast section, that includes neighborhoods such as Brooklyn, Sellwood, East and West Moreland as well as parts of Woodstock ranked 5th, behind prominent zip codes in Austin, TX and San Diego, CA among others.

Top Ten Zip Codes In The U.S.

Here’s a list of the Top Ten Zip Codes:

The ranking was based on the age of the average active home listing in each Zip Code on Aug. 22. The average age of homes listed in 97202 is 77 days (according to Newsweek). Essentially all of the top ten zip codes are established, affluent communities, close to job centers and major transportation nodes. Portland’s 97202 is no exception. At 350k, median sale prices are roughly 25% above the Portland-metro median (283k, year-to-date). Home prices are significantly higher in East Moreland – the 97202 choice among Portland’s wealthy – where more than half the homes have sold in excess of 550k over the last six months (source: RMLS). Not surprisingly even the best performing areas are a long way from their peak, the numbers being down (or up as far as time-on-market is concerned) from last year for every single zip code that made it into the top ten.

But wealth alone does not guarantee a good performance (isn’t that refreshing!). Take 97034 for example. With 15 months of supply (i.e. the amount of time it would take to sell all current listings at the current sales pace if no new listings became available) the Lake Oswego zip code is among the worst performing areas in the nation. Supply for 97202, by contrast, is currently hovering around 6 months. When homeowners actually sell in LO’s 97034, they’re typically looking at a 125 days wait, up 12% from a year ago and more than three times as long as their counterparts on the other side of the river (numbers based on median # of days-on-the-market for properties SOLD over the last six months as opposed to Newsweek’s ACTIVE listings count).

New Construction Mania in LO

So why does one affluent zip code perform so much better than the other – in the same metro area? While not entirely to blame, much of LO’s problems can be attributed to the new construction wave that was permitted to flood this area over the last couple of years. Rather than providing a healthy mix of price points, most of the new inventory consisted of high end homes often squeezed on tiny lots. (Roughly a quarter of the current inventory consists of million dollar mansions, with only a handful of homes selling in the 300k range.) In an upward trending market, buyers may be inclined to put up with oversized homes on flag-lots, but when the tide turns this kind of product will inevitably struggle.