I like to use the Case-Shiller monthly report to examine the health of our market and to examine where we're headed. Based on the most recent report, we look to be headed in the right direction.
Selling your Portland home? Check out our free home value report
Buying a Portland home? Search all homes for sale
To examine the market on a monthly basis, one tool we like is the Case-Shiller S&P Index that you can get online. It continues to show us appreciation across the country at a healthy 5%. The report is broken down into 10 and 20-city composites, with Portland in the 20-city composite.
Portland is leading the way in this report. The 20-city composite was actually down slightly in this last report from 5.1% to 5%, but Portland is at 12.4% appreciation. Before you overreact to that, understand that we were even higher than that at one point. We're starting to see it trend downward, but that's a good thing.
The report also notes that most analysts are expecting the Fed to raise interest rates this December. Even if they do, though, the impact on mortgage rates and the mortgage industry are going to be so minimal that we'll still see these historically low rates, so there's nothing to get too worried about.
“
”
Portland is leading the way.
”
We also get questions all the time about whether we're in a bubble that's going to pop soon. We're so programmed with bubbles these days that I believe we just overreact. We know we're not in a bubble by looking at outstanding mortgage debt and seeing that we're about 12.6% lower than what it was at its peak in the 1st quarter of 2008, and we're not seeing much growth there.
In the video above, you can see a table that demonstrates how healthy the indexes are compared to the peak of the market in 2006 and the trough of 2012. We're starting to see the market shift, and we need to see the market shift. We're not seeing up to 10 offers on almost everything, and that's a good thing.
If you have any questions at all about where our market is going and what it means to you as a buyer, seller, or homeowner, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you!
