Houses Taking Longer to Sell in Southern Oregon

Current turnaround spikes to five times longer than last year
Current turnaround spikes to five times longer than last year

RISMEDIA, December 12, 2006?(MCT)?The watch and wait real estate market is in full swing, or on hold, depending on if you are a buyer or seller, real estate brokers say.

Figures released this week by the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service show that existing single-family residences are sitting on the market nearly twice as long as they were a year ago and it’s taking newly constructed homes nearly three times as long to sell.

November figures from the SOMLS show the median sales price for a single-family residence in Jackson County has declined modestly over the past year. The SOMLS formula combines sales figures for a three-month period, September through November in this case, and compares them with the corresponding period a year earlier. The latest compilation for the county shows a 3.6% decline to $268,000 for the quarter ending Nov. 30, compared to $277,950 for a similar period in 2005. Sales activity for the year is down 35.3%.

White City and the Rogue River-Gold Hill area are the only zones where the median prices have risen over the past year. White City’s median edged up 3.5% to $215,250, while Rogue River-Gold Hill jumped 28% to $307,250.

“The entry level here is almost $300,000 and you’re not going to find much under that,” says Jim Ward, an agent with Bradley Realty in Rogue River.

“When something comes up for $350,000, that’s very desirable.”

Ward says the turn-around time for listings was 30 days in mid-2005, now it’s 150 days.

“We’re consistently seeing price decreases more than actual new listings right now,” Ward says. “If sellers want to sell, they’re going to have to lower their prices.”

With houses languishing on the market, buyers remain more apt to take their time.

Ward has a Pasadena, California, client, who has made several recent shopping trips to Southern Oregon.

“We drive around for a week and look at 15 or 25 houses at a time,” he says “I’ve written four offers so far and if there is one little glitch, he cancels and says there are more homes to see.”

Jeremy Neff, an agent with John L. Scott’s Medford office, says attractive interest rates are drawing buyers into the White City area, when they find a house priced right.

“The only way to get a house sold fast is getting the price down,” Neff says.

A three-bedroom, one-bath house with just over 1,000 square feet built 30 years ago, drew an offer for less than $180,000.

“The house next to that one sold last February for $205,000,” Neff says. “There are houses on the same street, built about the same year, that are sitting and sitting.”

He thinks the pace of activity has picked up.

“I kind of think everything bottomed out,” he says. “My head’s been spinning with buyer activity the last two weeks. I’ve made a second offer on one place and another offer has been accepted.”

Entry-level buyers will gravitate to where they perceive the best deals are, says Jim Geiger an appraiser with Cunningham & Associates in Jacksonville.

“There may be some areas that are doing well in general,” Geiger says. “But that’s the attraction for entry-level buyers. When White City jumps up $10,000, they they’ll go to Central Point or West Medford, wherever they see more value.”

The median price has stayed above the $400,000 mark in Ashland. But in neighboring Talent, where the median price has gone up more than 100% over the past five years, prices have fallen 12.4%, according to the three-month rolling measure, in the past year.

In the tourist towns of Jacksonville and Shady Cove the declines have been 20.9% and 23.8%, respectively, over the past year.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.