Portland's Real Estate Market: 2024 in Review

Portland's 2024 real estate season debut was received with a cold shoulder. Literally. This time last year thousands of Portland Metro residents were without power for days, whole neighborhoods paralyzed by the elements, and streets that looked like an evergreen graveyard as the city endured it's worst ice storm in history. Needless to say, we had a rough start. After enduring 18 months of climbing interest rates, consumers and realtors alike were hoping for a break in the inflation storm with all eyes on Spring 2024 as the potential turning point. But much like our first weeks of the new year, both National and Portland Metro home sales proved to be frozen in place.

In this series, we'll unpack what went right, who predicted wrong, and what we at Abode West are anticipating for 2025.

What Went Right.

The good news is that despite having interest rates at a 20 year high coupled with hefty price tags and limited housing inventory, home values managed to make a very modest gain along with seeing a few more consumers reentering the market.

One interesting data point from the year in review, is the days on market. Portland saw a 22% increase, from 47 to 57 average DOM (days on market), which is a fairly significant jump. Typically when listings accrue more shelf life, what usually follows is a drop in value. It's true, that by Decemeber 2024, 44% of sold properties had performed a price drop at some point. However, even with the cuts, Portland sellers still made more money than the year before.

This tells us two things. One, sellers and/or their Brokers were not realistic about what the homes were worth, caught in the covid fever dream of double digit year over year appreciation. And two, in the game of chicken where buyers held out hoping for steep discounts and pre-pandemic prices, it was sellers that won in the end, eventually giving only 5% off listing price on average. On a generous day.

The economic realities of supply and demand continue to have the last say in the value of this highly prized product.

*Neighborhood Winners*

According to Portland Monthly some Portland neighborhoods came out as real winners in the year over year value gains from 2023 to 2024.

Some notable neighborhoods making the list were well known PDX staples such as Irvington (NE), Laurelhurst (SE), and Multnomah Village (SW). But we also saw a few under dogs finally getting their moment in the spotlight, Brooklynn (SE) I'm looking at you!

Stay tuned for part two, where we'll break down who predicted wrong, and why the country is still finding itself in the housing stalemate.