Market is Just Minding its Own Business

The real estate market locally in the Portland-Vancouver Metro Area is rolling along fine, just going about its daily business. It is neither crazy nor slow but just in a word, healthy. Listing agents are starting to whine a bit about things as buyers are less likely to bust down the doors with a fists full of offers. Buyer's agents are sighing with relief as now they can relax and let their clients take more than a few seconds to decide whether to write up a house or not.

Friends, this is a healthy market. Sellers actually have to "sell" their homes, and buyers can be a little more discretionary with their purchase choices. That doesn't mean the market won't go nuts if a well priced home that checks all the boxes, so to speak, pops on the system. No good deal goes unpunished ;) Some sellers are still testing the conditions with their overpriced listing and most of the time for the last several months they have been met with a long and rather convincing 'silence' from consumers.

The media loves bad news and this relative slowdown has them frothing at the mouth like rabid animals. They want to say "the party is over" but our local economy continues to churn out new jobs, better pay, and perky consumers. This bodes well for real estate as these are conditions that support a healthy real estate market. Crazy periods of rapid run up in pricing is not sustainable long term and this is playing out now as many buyers are slowly getting priced out of our area. Thousands of new apartments have been built in Portland and Vancouver and that has led to a little less tension in the purchase market.

So is it a good time to buy or sell a house, once again in a word; YES. In fact these neutral market conditions are well suited to both buyers and sellers. This is a time that neither side needs to feel excess pressure and that is a good thing.