Portland Real Estate | Why the Northwest is Beating the Housing Slump

Purchasing property now in Portland is a gamble. You have got to have all the right cards. These include credit, capital, and long term security. Sure, these may sound obvious, but in today's market, home sellers and the banks issuing loans are looking closely at potential investors. Real Estate is still a commodity. People are just taking a higher level of morality and opportunism to it. If you are in the market to buy, be sure to work with a trusted real estate professional. Then, if all the cards are right, you can bet on a big win

Sales of newly built homes were flat last month, but were 7 percent above the rock-bottom lows of January as the battered U.S. real estate market appears to be starting a slow and gradual recovery.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that sales rose 0.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000.

But the increase came from a downwardly revised rate of 351,000 in March, and sales were still down 34 percent from a year earlier.

The median sales price fell to $209,700, down almost 15 percent drop from a year earlier, but up nearly 4 percent from March. Prices are likely to remain weak for months as builders try to price their stock of unsold homes against bargain-priced foreclosures.

"It's still tough to be a builder," wrote economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. "New home sales remain near the bottom."

There were 297,000 new homes for sale at the end of April, down 4 percent from 310,000 in March and the lowest number of properties on the market in nearly eight years. At the current sluggish sales pace, it would take more than 10 months to exhaust the supply of new homes on the market.

"We aren't seeing a huge upswing in market conditions, but we aren't seeing things fall apart again, either," wrote Mike Larson, real estate analyst at Weiss Research. 

So there you have it, Portland is in the midst of major change. But with the right preparation and the appropriate capital, credit and security, it is as good as place as any to beat the housing market crunch.

MIchael Russell writes about a variety of subjects. This article discusses Portland real estate. For more information, visit the Real Estate Book.