There is a familiar refrain that, Portland real estate trails the national real estate market by months if not years. The national market moves and Portland eventually follows. The graph, which compares the Portland market (PORX) to the 10 (CSXR) and 20 (SPCS20R) national indexes, suggests that that’s not necessarily true.  The appear to mirror each other pretty closely.

Even when taking the previously hot markets of San Francisco, Miami, and San Diego compared to Portland, the ups and downs are close but not as extreme.

Can Portlanders find comfort in recent optimistic real estate news?  Yesterday, it was reported that pending sales are up 3.2 % nationally. Even NAR economist, Lawrence Yun, isn’t willing to call it a bottom but its some of the first positive news to come out of the housing market in a while. The Dow jumped 214 points yesterday.