Eugene Market Report

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.

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%.

Over the summer, sale prices in Eugene have ping-ponged between a median of $450,000 and $480,000. We're back up to $480,000, even with inventory increasing slightly and properties spending a bit longer on the market. &&&We've say this a lot, but here it is again: Eugene is still very much a low-inventory market. Plenty of buyers are willing and able to pay the premium to buy a home here, even with mortgage rates increasing as much as they have. Buyer activity is now on somewhat of an upward trend, while listing activity is on a downward trend, an indication that Eugene's market is unlikely to become less competitive in the fall.

After reaching an all-time high in May, prices are back down 6% month-over-month in Eugene to a median of $455,000. That movement doesn't appear to have any statistical significance. Homes sold for 98.9% of their original list price in June, compared to 98.4% in May. That means that people simply bought slightly less expensive homes in June. &&&With that being said, inventory is up in Eugene to 1.6 months. New listings were up 27% month-over-month, while pending sales were down 4%. If you're a buyer, you're probably hoping that this trend will continue and that prices will flatten heading into the summer and fall. At the same time, if mortgage rates do start to drop, that could lead more buyers to enter the market, driving prices back up again.

Buyer and seller activity remain relatively muted in Eugene relative to last year. However, prices have continued to rise, reaching a median of $485,500 in May. That's an all-time high for Eugene. Inventory is higher than it was a year ago, and homes aren't selling quite as rapidly, but Eugene is still a highly competitive market. &&&There are plenty of people looking at properties right now who may have missed out last year and are eager to get into a home regardless of high mortgage rates. Prices in Eugene aren't quite high enough - yet - that it's reached the same level of unaffordability as Bend. For that reason, and for a multitude of other reasons, the landscape of Eugene's market hasn't shifted dramatically over the past year. &&&May's sale prices probably aren't a fluke. With that said, we don't expect prices to necessarily climb from here through the remainder of the year. 30-year fixed mortgage rates in the 7% range again and inventory will most likely increase as we get into the summer.

Buyer and seller activity have both remained pretty flat heading into the spring months in Eugene. As has been the case for the past five years, a lack of inventory is the primary factor impacting Eugene's market. Buyers aren't turning out because people aren't listing their homes, and there's a huge lack of new construction. &&&With that said, sale prices are up 3% month-over-month to a median of $452,500, down just 6% from the all-time high we saw in April of 2022. When all is said and done, Eugene's market has proved remarkably resilient, which shouldn't come as a surprise. Although homes are spending longer on the market than they did last spring, sellers with move-in-ready homes in desirable locations have little to worry about, except for finding a replacement property.

Inventory is holding steady in Eugene as we approach the warmer months, with buyer activity roughly on par with seller activity. Basically, while Eugene's market isn't as hot as it was a year ago, there are still less homes to go around than there were at pretty much any point prior to the pandemic. High interest rates are keeping a lid on prices, but March's median sale price of $441k is still 1% higher than it was last year. In March, homes sold for an average of 97.8% of list price, compared to 95.7% in February. &&&Homes still aren't selling as quickly as they've tended to in Eugene over the past few years, but we're seeing buyers start to get more eager than they were during the winter months. In March, new listing activity increased significantly in the $500k+ range, indicating that sellers in the middle to upper end of Eugene's market are starting to warm up to the idea of selling their homes. &&&During the spring, we expect these trends to continue. Prices will increase somewhat, though they won't reach the highs that we saw last summer and early fall. Still, especially if mortgage rates continue to drop, there may be a decent surge of activity both for buyers and sellers.