My client has her home for sale in Portland at 2518 SE Belmont, Portland 97214. (Scroll down to see the flier.)

To download a flier of this great piece of Portland real estate Click Here.

This is a beautiful property at an awesome price ($285,000).

Here are the highlights:

The charm of a 100 year old building. It has leaded glass window, wood burning fireplace, and claw foot bathtub. The  formal dining room has pocket doors, a bay window and built-in cabinet.

The ease and efficiency of living in a remodeled building. In 2005 the kitchen and 2 full bathrooms were completely redone. A 90% efficient gas furnace was installed along with new electric service and new plumbing. A new roof was also put on in 2005.

It’s hard to find more space for the price. The main floor of the condo is about 1300 square feet with two bedrooms and two full baths.

There’s also a semi-finished basement. It’s about 490 square feet and includes the washer & dryer and furnace. The basement is accessed from the kitchen of the condo and has its own outside entrance too.

With a walk score of 85, the condo is close to everything, including Zupan’s, the Avalon Theater, Cricket Cafe, Theater Theater, Hawthorne shops, and much more.

Want to be part of a neighborhood? There are just four condos in the building. Going to a HOA meeting is like hanging out with your neighbors.

If you’re searching the MLS it is #10058750.

To see all the homes for sale in Portland (and the whole metro area) check out my Home Finder Service or use the Portland Quick Home Search box to the right.

To see inside, just give me a call 503 320-3163.

The first time home buyer tax credit deadline has definitely skewed the numbers. Many people buying a home in Portland Oregon bought in April (instead of July) to take advantage of the tax credit. It will take a few more months for us to see if the market is worsening or just reacting to the artificial influence of the tax credit.

To compare with last month check my previous market conditions blog.

On to the July numbers for Portland real estate. Compared to the same month last year, closed home sales are down 29%. Also pending sales are down 24.9%. New listings (homes for sale in Portland) are up slightly–by 3.1%.

Compared to June 2010, July closed sales also fell by 29.8%. (Remember, the tax credit original rules were to close your first time home purchase by June 30, 2010.  Until the deadline was extended, July closed sales would not receive the tax credit. Lots of people purchased their home in June rather than July.)

Now let’s look at the sale prices of homes for sale in Portland real estate. The Average sales price for July 2010 increased 2.9% over the previous July. It increased 2.5% over June 2010.

The months of inventory for Portland real estate is currently at 10.3 months. (See the chart below.) This is firmly in the buyer’s market for homes for sale in Portland. So if you are looking at homes for sale in Portland Oregon, there are lots of homes to choose from.

What does all this mean? The numbers are confusing. Closed sales and pending sales for homes for sale in Portland are down. It’s a buyer’s market, yet prices are up slightly over last month and last year. It’s hard to explain except that we are still feeling the effects of the tax credit’s artificial influence on the Portland real estate market.

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market; 4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.

These are great questions. Determining answers is tricky. We’ll only know the bottom of the market when we see it in the rear view mirror. But there are definite signs of stabilization.

To compare with last month check my previous market conditions blog.

Homes are starting to sell faster and for slightly more money than they had been. This is good news. We see this in two sets of real estate statistics. Let’s look first at real estate home prices for sold homes with our latest market figures. June 2010’s average sales price was 3.3% lower than June 2009’s. But it’s up 2.4% over January 2010’s average sold price. In addition the total market time (a loose basis for how long homes take to sell) was 121 days in June, 145 days in January 2010 and 147 days in June of 2009.

The months of inventory (see chart below) is a measure of whether the real estate market favors buyers or sellers. While we’re still in a slight buyer’s market with 7.3 months of inventory last month, this is way better than January 2009’s 19.2 months of inventory.

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market; 4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.

FIRST THE GOOD NEWS FOR HOME BUYERS

Interest rates are the lowest they have been since the 1950′s!  Home buyers take note: I know of several people who have locked in a spectacular rate of 4.375% for the next thirty years.

Locking in a rate this low makes better financial sense than waiting a few months for a lower purchase price but having higher interest rates. Even if home prices continue to slide a bit lower, as a home buyer you’ll still do better taking advantage of these great rates. But that’s another blog topic.

THE NOT GOOD NEWS–WILL YOU QUALIFY FOR A HOME LOAN?

1.  GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES ARE NOW VERY TIGHT

Background: Today 95% of all home buyers use government insured loans through FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s rigid guidelines. Lenders must follow these guidelines to sell newly made loans on the secondary market. This frees up money for lenders to make new loans. These guidelines continue to get tighter and tighter.

Here’s one example: Lenders are now running a second credit report on buyers 3 days before closing.

TIP: Wait until AFTER closing on your new home to buy a new refrigerator or furniture for that new family room. Buying large items on credit before your home closes could mean the loan (and the house) will not close. Increased borrowing may push your debt ratio out of the government guidelines.

2. CHANGES TO FHA REQUIREMENTS

At this time 25%-35% of home buyers use FHA. And stimulating home ownership stimulates the economy. So would you think that FHA would make it easier for buyers to use FHA loans? Nope.

REDUCTIONS TO SELLER PAID CLOSING COSTS FOR BUYERS: Home buyers will get less help from sellers on closing costs. Sellers have been allowed to help their home buyers by paying up to 6% of buyer closing costs. Early this summer FHA will cut that contribution to 3% of the loan amount. On a $200,000 loan, the additional $6000 a buyer will have to come up with may mean the difference between being a home owner and remaining a renter.

INCREASES TO MORTGAGE INSURANCE PREMIUM (MIP): This is not the “If I die the mortgage is paid off” kind of insurance. It insures the lender for losses if the buyer is unable to make loan payments. (Do you think mortgage insurance companies have seen their claims go up the last few years?) Each month the borrower pays MIP as part of their monthly mortgage payment. MIP for FHA loans has traditionally been .55% of the loan amount paid each month for about 5 years into the loan. There is a bill in Congress now to raise that rate to .9%. This will raise the monthly payment enough to keep many borrowers from qualifying for a loan.

3.  QUALIFYING CONDO FINANCING:

The percent of condo buyers using FHA loans is probably much higher than for detached homes. FHA has scrapped its previous list of approved condo associations (condo buildings it will loan on). Now each condo association must start a new approval process before any more FHA loans can be used.

Learn more about buying a condo here.

If you remember, buyers needed to have their first home under contract by April 30, 2010. That’s a Pending Sale. The transaction needs to close by June 30, 2010. That’s a Sold statistic.

As expected, April saw a surge in pending sales and May has an increase in homes sold (43% more sold homes than May 2009). Look for June 2010 sold statistics to be higher also. But the market seems to not be sustaining this growth. Pending sales for May 2010 are down 24% compared with May 2009. And they’re down 50% from April 2010. People who would have bought in May had their offers accepted in April to qualify for the tax credit.

For May 2010 we have a seven month supply of homes for sale. (See the chart below.) That’s the lowest it’s been since October 2009. That is a good sign and brings us more in line with a neutral market–neither Buyer’s Market nor Seller’s Market.

The most optimistic news I pull out of the May 2010 numbers is that month to month price declines are slowing. If this continues, the housing market price tumble may be bottoming out.

May 2010 average sold price is down 5.5% from May 2009 but only down 2.3% from April 2010 average sold price. And the median sales price for May 2010 is down 4.4% from May 2009 but only down 0.4% from April 2010′s median sold price.

The next few months will help us see if the real estate prices are bottoming out.

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market;  4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.

April 2010 compared with April 2009

April 2010 had closed sales up 49.1% over April 2009. In addition, pending sales were up a huge 60.8%; new listings were up 23.8%. The average sales price went down 3.1% and the median sales price decreased 4%.

( We’ll have to see May 2010’s numbers to see how much of that increase was generated by the rush to qualify for the first time home buyer tax credit before 4/30/10.)

April 2010 compared with March 2010

In looking at April 2010 compared with the previous month, closed sales were up 7.9% and pending sales increased 24/5%. New listings were down 5.5%. the average sales price went up 0.6% over March figures; and the median sales price increased 0.5%.

Prices are still low. Interest rates haven’t crept up too much yet, although they are expected to rise over the coming months. If you qualify for a loan, this is an excellent time to buy.

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market;  4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.

I would have to say that the information they used to do the ranking makes it one of the best cities for home sellers too.

Forbes looked at which cities in the country had the lowest mortgage rates. Then they added the 1/2008 to 1/2009 change in percent of homes in foreclosure and change in percent of homes that were delinquent for 90 days or more on the mortgage. Portland is number ten on the list ( The data for Portland is shown below.)

This news is good for sellers too because our foreclosure rate is low. Short sales and foreclosures lower the market value of homes. Sellers who are not in foreclosure must lower their prices to compete with bank owned and short sale properties.

The less foreclosures in Portland, the better for us all.

Here are the details for Portland:

Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR.-WA.

Average Effective Home Mortgage Rate: 5.03%

Mortgages 90+ Days Delinquent, January 2009: 1.82%

Mortgages 90+ Days Delinquent, January 2010: 3.63%

Foreclosures, January 2009: 1%

Foreclosures, January 2010: 1.86%

(To see the other top ten cities check out this link )

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market;  4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.

The February stats aren’t great. But the number of new listings, pending sales and closed sales are all better than in February 2009. So the market is moving in the right direction.

Is it a buyers market or a seller’s market? See the chart below.

It’s all based on the number of months of inventory. How many months would it take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new property came up for sale? Less than 4 months inventory is a sellers market;  4-6 months is a neutral market; and more than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. All information is courtesy of RMLS.

But there’s a one year extension of the program for some members of the military and certain other federal employees. Service people qualify if they are:

• members of the uniformed services, Foreign Service and members of the intelligence community. They are eligible for this one year extension if they serve on qualified official extended duty service outside of the United States for at least 90 days during the period beginning after Dec. 31, 2008, and ending before May 1, 2010.
• spouses qualify if the service member is married

For this special extension, military members must have their signed, binding contract to purchase their new home by April 30, 2011 and close on the property by June 30, 2011. The rest of first time home buyers must have a signed, binding contract for their new home by April 30th and close on the sale by June 30th, 2010.

Learn more details at the IRS website.