When comparing the week of October 26 – November 1 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 0.3% in Washington and decreased 4.1% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
When comparing the week of October 19 – 25 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox decreased 11.9% in Washington and 15.4% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
Our latest release brought some relatively minor changes to Listing Load on RMLSweb. The first change is that the “Save and Add” function is now called “Publish”. The other change is that we now allow you to enter a future list date.
We thought this would be a good time, however, to re-introduce you to a time-saving feature in Listing Load. This feature has been around for awhile, but we often hear that subscribers don’t know about it.
When you’re entering a listing, you can click “Finish Later” and it allows you to print the listing agreement form with the information you entered in Listing Load on the form.
So, instead of having to fill out a listing agreeement form prior to entering it in Listing Load, you can actually just start by entering the information that you know in Listing Load and if you need more time or more information from your clients, you can click “Finish Later”. Just follow these steps:
1) Enter your listing information in Listing Load and click the Finish Later button to save it for your eyes only.
2) Then, with the Preview/Print button, print out the Listing Input Form, as well as the Contract, and present it to your seller.
3) After reviewing the forms with your seller, you can make any necessary changes to the In-Progress listing in Listing Load.
4) Next, simply click the Publish button when you’re ready to start marketing.
Watch “Printing Listing Agreements from Listing Load” for a short demonstration. If you have questions the staff at the RMLS™ Help Desk is happy to walk you through this process. Call them today at 877-256-2169.
When comparing the week of October 12 – 18 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox decreased 5.5% in Washington and Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
I recently read that in Phoenix, 93% of September Home Sales were below $400k. The author says that Phoenix is essentially a “tale of two markets”, one where homes in the lower priced spectrum are selling & where high-end homes are sitting.
We’ve looked at similar numbers before to see how the homebuyer tax credit was effecting the Portland market, so I figured it was time to take a look at these numbers again & see how we compare to the Phoenix sales by price range – here’s what I found:
% of Portland Home Sales by Price Range (September 2009)
| Sept. 2009 | % of Sales | Sept. 2008 | % of Sales | |
| $0-$150k | 190 | 10.4% | 115 | 6.6% |
| $150-$200k | 383 | 20.9% | 235 | 13.6% |
| $200k-$250k | 416 | 22.7% | 420 | 24.3% |
| $250k-$400k | 569 | 31.0% | 633 | 36.6% |
| $400k-$500k | 142 | 7.7% | 170 | 9.8% |
| $500k-$750k | 96 | 5.2% | 114 | 6.6% |
| $750k – $1 million + | 38 | 2.1% | 44 | 2.5% |
% of Sales by Price Range, Combined (September 2009)
| Sept. 09 | Sept. 08 | |
| Below $250k | 53.9% | 44.5% |
| Below $400k | 85.0% | 81.1% |
| Above $500k | 7.3% | 9.1% |
As you can see, not quite as high as Phoenix, but still 85% of sales in Portland were below $400k, which is up about 4% from last September.
Also note that sales below $250k are up 9.4% from last September. I suspect a lot of those sales can be attributed to the $8,000 tax credit (although some investors may also be cashing in on some lower priced homes as well).
The tax credit is set to expire on November 30, and the debate rages on in Washington over its extension. It seems to have given the market here a boost, so it will be interesting to see how the market fares if/when it expires.
If the tax credit does indeed expire, it would still take a lot for things to get worse this winter compared to last year. Last January we saw sales activity drag to the lowest total in the Portland metro area that we had seen since RMLS™ began keeping records in 1992.
What do you think? Did the tax credit help? Should it be extended? Leave a comment, we’d love to hear your opinion!