In a typical real estate season, home inventory peaks in the fall before decreasing through the holidays and picking back up in April. But, of course, many factors can disrupt the dynamic, as we witnessed last year with the surge in home sales through the pandemic. Nevertheless, with the Fall Equinox only three weeks away, this season looks more typical than last. Homes for sale increased again this week to 623, with a median list price of 748k. Signaling the return of seasonality, 44.6% of the homes listed for sale have reduced the asking price by a median of 5.13%. The last week of August from 2016-2019 shows an average sales volume of single-family homes in Deschutes County of 150. Last year in this period there were 222 sales, compared with 100 deals this week.
Why has the market slowed? Mortgage interest rates are certainly not to blame, with rates essentially unchanged over the last three weeks. However, labor Day weekend could be impacting transactions at the moment as everyone enjoys the end of summer. Once we are clear of the holiday weekend, it will be interesting to see if the recent patterns have become a trend.
