Another Solid Month for Home Sales

The October existing home sales numbers look a lot like September: flat overall but with big gains in the west. Across the country existing homes sales were down 1.6% versus last year and were flat at 0% for single family homes only. However, the west saw a 37.5% increase overall and 38.8% for single family homes.

Of course this means that the rest of the country is doing worse than they were at this time last year, but we're focusing on Oregon so we'll call it good news. Last month's numbers were very similar, so now we have two solid months of sales growth in a row.

There's still a lot of inventory out there, but these are the kind of sales numbers we need to burn through it. Prices are still down significantly, but once again selling through the inventory is the only way to bring the market back in balance to where we can see prices recover.

It seems possible now that the volatile markets out west that were the first to fall may also be the first to recover. Let's hope the trend continues as the big California markets are a good part of what drives our small Oregon market.