RMLS Market Action for June 2011 was released just before happy hour on Friday afternoon.  I’ve updated our graph of housing inventory levels in the Portland and local market areas and the trend continues that City inventory averages about a month less than Portland Metro as reported in Market Action.  North Portland has just 4.2 months of inventory whereas West Portland is at 7.1 months.  Metro reports in at 6.0, the lowest level since July 2007.  Southeast Portland, which I wrote about last week, has 4.7 months of inventory.  The average sales price in Southeast Portland is $218,600 compared to West Portland’s $408,500.

Market Action reports an average sales price of $267,000.  That’s up from last month but down from $289,800 a year ago (down 7.8%).  Last year at this time listing inventory was 1.3 months higher (7.3 months) than it is today.

What this means for the Portland housing market is hard to say.  Interest rates remain low, lending rules are largely static and home prices are down around 2005 levels, if not 2004 levels.  Home prices increased last summer but then declined through most of the fall, winter and spring.  We have personally seen signs of market strength but our clients represent just a small portion of the overall market.  The national budget (or lack of) and job strength (or lack of) in Portland remain concerning.