PORTLAND, Oregon. September 1, 2020 (KPTV) — The real estate market took a hit at the beginning of the pandemic, but the National Association of Realtors is reporting it’s well past the recovery stage now. The NAR said the number of sales they’re seeing are even higher than in pre-pandemic days. One local principal broker, Becky Jackson, said the same is true here in Portland.
“Highest number of sales ever and that’s true for our company,” Jackson said. Jackson works at The Agency Realtors in northwest Portland and she said there are a number of factors that play into the recent increase in home sales. She said one big factor is low interest rates. “I think that was a big motivator for a lot of people to get back in the market as soon as we realized we could in fact do it safely,” Jackson said.
She said another driver in the increase is a new group of clients entering the market. “Millennials, if you will, and even a little bit older even, have postponed buying homes because they came off the recession, or they were coming into the homeownership age after the recession, so they’ve been waiting 10, 12 years, and now they’re ready,” Jackson said. “With the interest rates as low as they are, they can afford it now more than ever.”
While the National Association of Realtors said inventory was down in July, Jackson said she’s currently seeing a lot of homes on the market locally. “It’s really more about the demand, which is greater than the inventory, and the inventory is the biggest we’ve ever had,” Jackson said. That’s something recent home buyer Brandon Cantrell experienced himself.
“It’s a crazy market, I’m just surprised at the market out here,” Cantrell said, laughing. “The interest rates are, I mean, being below three it’s just pretty absurd considering what it was back in ’08.” He’ll be closing at the end of the month, but Cantrell said the home-buying process was very fast-paced.
“Couple of ones in the area we were looking at were highly competitive, but stuff moved really fast, faster than I was expecting. We would go look at it Friday and they’d want offers in by Sunday,” Cantrell said. Due to the current high demand, Jackson said there’s also been an increase in the average price in the Portland area, up to over $500,000.
