Just about everything you buy is on sale today but there are a few heavily market driven items that typically ignore Black Friday and real estate is one of them. Reports from the local MLS show that Clark County saw a nearly 15% year over year increase in the median home price. That is a very large increase. Although I feel a little less upward pressure in the market right now, I have no reason to believe that 2022 will not also be robust. I did not predict a 15% boost in 2021 and I certainly don't think we will see that repeated in 2022. But one never knows.
Locally Clark County is getting pressure from two key areas where people are leaving. NO! I'm not going to call out California, because that is not where our market pressure is originating. Number one is Portland, OR. More than ever before Portland is experiencing a bit of an exodus and in fact PSU does a routine data analysis of population trends for the whole State of Oregon and they have seen a dramatic slowdown in the growth of Portland. But the population according to their data is not shrinking.
There is still a positive migration but there is significant turnover happening with Portlanders moving out of the city to areas like Vancouver, Beaverton, Hillsboro, etc. The reason population still shows positive growth is that there are still people moving to Portland mostly from out of the area. Seattle, California, and even mid-western states are a source for new migration to Portland to offset the migration out.
The second source of pressure on our local market is coming from the Puget Sound Region where housing costs are DOUBLE what they are locally. There is a strong migration from the greater Seattle area to Portland and Vancouver as employees are relocating for a better quality of life. The advent of remote working has freed people to move far away form the office to areas with a lower cost of living.
So as long as we remain a desirable spot to live, we will see upward pressure on housing. So no Black Friday deals here in Clark County.
No comments:
Post a Comment