Roots Realty

Portland, Oregon

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Licensed in Oregon

SE Portland Housing Market, Distressed Properties vs Traditional Sales

SE Portland Housing Market, Distressed Properties vs Traditional Sales

Today I want to look at just how many properties are for sale and have recently closed in SE Portland, and how many of those are what is now commonly called “distressed.” A distressed property is one that has either been foreclosed upon and is now owned by a lending institution (sometimes called REO, or Real Estate Owned in bank language) or it is a property that is a short sale. Most people now know that a short sale is when the selling price of a property is not enough to pay back the liens against the property (mortgage, line of credit, taxes, etc). In order to complete a short sale, the lien holders must consent to receiving less than they are owed. It is important to note that it is usually true that it is the owner of the property that is distressed, the property itself may or may not be distressed.

I picked SE Portland because that is where I live and work, and it is also an area where many of our clients choose to live. For this study, I looked at what is commonly known as “close in” SE, and then all of SE Portland. Close in SE is sometimes defined by the zip codes 97214, 97215, 97202 & 97206, and is the area west of 82nd Avenue and east of the Willamette River. I purposely left out condos, townhouses and bare land as those tend to be less in number and distinctly different regarding statistics and lending guidelines.

As of today, in all of SE Portland there are 808 single family houses for sale. Of those, there are 287 (potential) short sales and 58 properties are bank owned. This means that 36% of these listings are short sales and 7% are REO, for a total of 43% of the listings being distressed. This shows that 57% of the available houses are traditional, or not distressed, sellers.

Now let’s look at closed sales within the last month in the same area. There were 166 total closed sales in SE Portland in the last 30 days; 42 were REO (25%) and only 20 were short sales (12%). A total of 63% of the sales were traditional, non distressed sales.

The numbers skew a bit differently when you look at the close in neighborhoods, which have held their value better than areas further from down town, and they remain very popular areas to live & play. As of today, there are 322 single family properties for sale in close in SE Portland; 92 are short sales (29%) & 16 are REO (5%). That means 66% of these listings are not distressed.

Looking at closed sales within the last month in the same area, we see 91 sales closed. Of those, 19 were REO (21%) & 7 were short sales (7%) with a total of 71% of the sales being traditional, non distressed sales.

I see a few obvious take aways here. Sales continue to be brisk, in fact we are experiencing a bit of a shortage of available houses for sale. Many short sales are not closing, for a variety of reasons which I can discuss at another time. Lastly, the close in, dense, older neighborhoods retain their values and allure more than other areas that are more spread out.

I can run these numbers for any area around the Portland Metro region, and for almost any type of property. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

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