Portland could be headed for its busiest homebuying season in years, as house hunters acclimate to stubbornly high mortgage rates and a market flush with inventory keeps prices in check.
The nearly 2,700 new listings added throughout the Portland-area in March represent a 10% increase over the same month last year, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service, which publishes a monthly sales digest.
Economic turmoil rippling out from the White House could dampen buyer enthusiasm, brokers and housing economists said, but for now, competition remains stiff, particularly within Portland’s city limits.
Slabtown neighborhood apartment tenants Tory Moore and Simon Thornton hoped to stay in the city when they commenced their search in January.
Spouses who moved to the city two years ago here from Santa Barbara, California, they’ve enjoyed the urban nightlife and strolling Portland’s parks and neighborhoods, said Moore.
They budgeted $400,000 to $600,000, a range that covers the median Portland-area home price of $542,000, according to March data from RMLS.
But Thornton said their methodical prep work of attending homebuying workshops, reading books on purchasing, and interviewing several real estate agents didn’t seem to be paying off.
The would-be first-time buyers submitted offers in the Woodlawn and Concordia neighborhoods but were outmaneuvered by other bidders willing to waive contingencies or pay far above asking.
“We felt reduced to naive toddlers,” Thornton said.
That’s because they were elbowing against others who’d waited on the sidelines over the fall, particularly in the runup to the 2024 election, and winter months.
Buyers have grown tired of putting their life plans on hold, said Hope Beraka, owner of Think Real Estate, the Portland brokerage where Moore and Thornton’s agent works.
Election uncertainty last year, regardless of one’s political leanings, “literally slowed people’s behaviors,” Beraka said.
“They were slower to make appointments, slower to make a decision.”
Today, a flood of new listings is drawing buyers to showings.
Nearly 2,700 new listings came on the market in March as the spring selling season ramped up.
“They’re in the car looking at things as soon as they come on the market,” Beraka said.
“That’s a big shift.”
The bountiful new inventory, however, is keeping a lid on price appreciation, said Jeff Tucker, principal economist with Windermere Real Estate.
RMLS reported the median home price only rose 1.3% from last March.
At the same time, national economic uncertainty generated by President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and the resulting wild swings in the stock markets, could prompt some buyers to hunker down, he said, undercutting the pickup in the housing market.
“I could see it pushing some buyers into delaying at least until the summer, to see if we settle into a new normal before committing to a home purchase,” he said.
Even so, “it already feels like the market has winnowed down to people mostly moving out of necessity, who have already been putting it off as long as they can in hopes of lower mortgage rates.”
The fixed rate on a 30-year mortgage has hovered around 6% to 7% over the last year, most recently sitting at 6.62%, according to Freddie Mac.
But mortgage rates are likely to stay in the upper 6% range, Tucker said, thanks to recent volatility in 10-year Treasury yields, which influence mortgage rates.
The boom in inventory hasn’t unlocked a great deal more options within Portland’s city limits.
Buyers like Moore and Thornton would likely have to make concessions, Beraka said, like giving up extra bedrooms or bathrooms, considering homes on the far outskirts of the city, or lowering expectations for the condition of the home.
“We have a lot of vintage housing stock” that might need significant work, Beraka said.
Thornton and Moore found themselves touring homes farther and farther east.
And there was the small matter of Thornton, 6-foot-2, bumping his head in the snugger homes.
He’s “not a bungalow sized man,” his wife said.
“I would get really annoyed with him for, like, not fitting in the house.”
After several consecutive disappointments in Portland, their real estate agent encouraged them to broaden their search to the suburbs.
That’s when they found the 1,700-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath home with a large backyard that they’re scheduled to close on later this month in Washington County’s Cedar Hills.
The couple is paying $600,000, the top end of their budget, but Moore said it’s worth the cost.
Even though it’s a suburban property, they’re not making compromises on quality or size.
Moore, an accounting manager at Nike, can now walk or bike to the sportswear company’s nearby campus.
Thornton, who currently cycles to his job as a judicial clerk at the Multnomah County Courthouse, will try riding the MAX into downtown and see how it goes, he said.
But the commute serves as a reminder of the gulf between their original goal and where they landed.
“We will feel a bit removed from the city,” Thornton said.
“That’s just a compromise that we’ve had to make, based on our experience in the market.
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