Home Foreclosure Sales in Jackson Had Huge Impact on Market

Home foreclosure sales in Jackson County, Oregon put contrasting impacts on home sales and prices in the 3-month period ended February, pushing up sales but pushing down prices.

Based on sales reports from the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors and the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service, sales of previously owned homes in the county in the 3-month period ended February soared by 29.9 percent to 374 units, up from 288 units during the same period in 2009. The sales performance also marked the 13th consecutive month that home sales increased by two digits year-over-year.

Despite the increase in home sales, the median home price decreased. Over the period from December 2009 to February 2010, the median price dropped by a total of 12.3 percent. At the end of February, the sales price median fell further, eventually falling by a total of 19.5 percent to $167,500.

Steve Blanton, head of the Rogue Valley realtor association, said that homebuyers know they now control the market so they dictate the price levels. Sellers, on the other hand, need to consider the reality that prices are being pulled down by home foreclosure sales and short sales so they need to price their homes accordingly.

In addition to the increase in sales, the time spent by homes on the market has also dropped on the average from 115 days in the 3-month period ended February 2009 to 92 days in the recent three-month period. Total inventory of houses on the market also fell by 12.6 percent from 2,157 units to 1,886 units.

The number of homes for sale declined the most in Ashland and in Talent while housing inventory increased in Gold Hill, Rogue River and in the upper part of Shady Cove and Trail.

Statewide, foreclosure activity persisted in January this year, putting the state of Oregon ninth in a ranking of the 50 states according to their rates of foreclosure. The nearly 4,900 Oregon households hit with delinquency notices and foreclosure deeds in January marked a 14-percent jump from foreclosure postings in December 2009 and a 6.7-percent rise from postings in January 2009.

Out of these postings, a total of 1,422 homes were already repossessed by the banks and counted as REOs in their books.

Home foreclosure sales also affected the prices of new homes, pushing the sales price median to $217,900 in the 3-month period ended February 2010, a drop of 5 percent year-over-year.