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It's a New Year, and that means it's time to dust off the old crystal ball again and offer our Eugene real estate market forecast, this time for 2024. As [...]

It's a New Year, and that means it's time to dust off the old crystal ball again and offer our market forecast, this time for 2024. As usual, much is [...]

Bend's market saw a significant slowdown in November, but sale prices stayed relatively flat, dropping 1% month-over-month to a median of $729,000. Only 118 properties went pending, down 15% year-over-year [...]

November saw a significant drop in Eugene's median sale price, from $457,500 all the way down to $400,000. However, it's important to put this number in context.In November, homes sold for an average of 95.2% of their original list price, compared to 94.6% of their original list price in October. In other words, it's not that sellers are making more concessions. Rather, more of Eugene's lower-end inventory is selling than its higher-end inventory.That's fairly typical for the colder season here, but it's also something to pay attention to. Buyer activity is down more than new listing activity year-over-year. As a result, inventory is up to 2.2 months. In November, $600k+ properties spent a median of 36 days on the market, compared to 22 days for all Eugene homes.If you're thinking of listing a higher-end property, it may make sense to wait until the spring of 2024 if at all possible. If you do need to be on the market in the winter, though, the general rule of thumb is to be patient and to take whatever steps you can to make your home stand out. Don't be too aggressive on list price, but don't be too eager to make concessions, either.

In October, inventory dropped slightly in Eugene from 2.2 to 2 months, and meanwhile, prices stayed pretty much flat at a median of $457,500. We expect a similar trend heading through the fall and into the winter: inventory isn't going to shift significantly, and prices shouldn't shift too much.What has shifted, however, is the amount of time that properties are spending on the market. In October, homes spent a median of 20 days on the market, double what we saw a year ago. The important thing, if you're a seller, is not to panic: Eugene's market has not shifted fundamentally even as mortgage rates have. 2 months of inventory is still quite low, and inventory is even lower in some of Eugene's more desirable neighborhoods.We offered the same advice to Bend sellers, but we'll repeat it here too: don't be too eager to offer buyers concessions straight out of the gate. We're very, very far from fire-sale territory in Eugene, and it's important to maintain a perspective that's supported by the market data.

Prices and inventory levels have both stabilized in Bend, at least for the time being. In October, homes sold for a median of $740,000, just slightly lower than August' and September's sale prices.Meanwhile, inventory has hovered at close to 3 months. While buyer activity is down a fair amount year-over-year, new listing activity is down even further. Expect that trend to continue into the winter months. Homes that have sat on the market may continue to sit on the market as we experience a slower winter than we've seen the past few years, when things stayed relatively hot even as temperatures dropped.October's market data shows that sellers have come around to the new reality of Bend's market, with median list prices down to a median of $750,000. Median days on the market continue to hover around 20, and that number should increase as we head into the cold season. If you're trying to sell your home, it's important to be patient. Even if buyers demand steep concessions right out of the gate, we are still far from a high inventory market, and sellers may have more leverage than they realize.

In September, Eugene's market climbed above 2 months of inventory for the first time in at least the past several years. It's probably a bit easier to find a home here than it has been in the past while, but it really depends on what you're looking for and where you're looking.Homes are still scarce in the Friendly and Amazon/South University neighborhoods, for example, with a total of only 9 properties currently on the market. Choices are much more plentiful, though in North and Southwest Eugene.Wherever you're looking, prices haven't really shifted all that much, hovering around a median of $460,000. That's down a bit from the highs that we saw over the summer, but in general, that's to be expected as Eugene's busier buying season winds down. Eugene's market continues to be remarkably stable, even as Oregon's average 30-year fixed mortgage rates climb above 8%.

The current state of Bend's market would have been difficult to predict just a short while ago. Prices heated up in the summer, approaching a median of $800,000 in spite of mortgage rates climbing higher than 7%. We're back in the $750k range now, but the summer's price action showed that plenty of buyers still have an appetite for Bend properties, as long as the home is right. &&&With inventory above 3 months, there's a lot more homes to choose from now, and properties with less desirable features are sometimes languishing on the market with significant price reductions. In September, homes spend a median of 20 days on the market and sold for an average of 95.5% of their original list price, meaning that sellers are starting to make more concessions. &&&List prices were signicficantly less aggressive in September than what we saw over the summer, falling to a median of about $750,000. Meanwhile, active inventory sits at a median of $890,000, an all-time high, meaning Bend's higher-end inventory is sitting on the market longer than it's lower-end inventory. Even more high-end homes could accumulate as the weather shifts, so that's a number to watch out for in the months ahead.