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Single-family home sales remain steady By GREG STILES Mail Tribune The inventory of single-family residences on the market in Jackson County has remained stable over the past decade even as dozens of houses are built and occupied monthly. The number of houses being offered at any given time through real estate offices has been consistently in the 850 to 950 range, according to figures compiled by Medford real estate appraiser Roy Wright. That means a thinner slice of the housing pie is on the market than in the past. While neither county nor private sources can render a precise count, property tax accounts and property filings in the clerk's office have risen substantially. County assessor's office statistics show an increase of approximately 4,700 improved residential accounts since 1994. Wright says the last time he can recall the area having an inventory with more than 1,000 homes listed was in the recessionary early 1980s. Real estate listings don't take into account owner-sold transactions, which keeps a significant number of home sales off the statistical radar screen. At the end of April, 922 units were listed by real estate agents - up 4 percent from April 2001. As Wright randomly pulled out a file, he noted there were also 922 houses listed in December of 1996. In April of that year there were 821 on the market and 911 in April of 1995. "Apparently more people are staying put," Wright says. "We have a large number of retired people in the valley. They tend to turn their houses over less often, their family size stays constant and they don't have a need for a larger house." Rich Humphrey, managing broker with Coldwell Banker Pro West Real Estate in Medford, says a consistent market for the past 10 to 15 years has made for a consistent inventory. He adds another factor: governmental restrictions that have kept development within urban growth boundaries. "Central Point has been where development has gone on pretty freely and that's where a lot of new houses have been built in the last few years," Humphrey says. "Demand has been steady and growth has been somewhat suppressed by limitations of having to build within urban growth boundaries." Countywide, excluding rural properties, 642 houses exchanged hands through the first four months of 2002, down 38 from last year. East Medford, west Medford and the Phoenix-Talent area are all off-pace from a year ago. But Central Point's 42 transactions last month matched August of 2001, the best of last year. Ashland's turnover was flat. Historically, when the last six months of any year are down, the first six months tend to be down as well," says Wright. "Then somewhere around June it breaks out and we start getting an increase in sales. Looking at Central Point and Ashland figures for April, it appears we're getting close to the bottom and turning upwards. "It's the time of year when people start listing or decide they are selling, so they start marketing around May. "The past 10 months have been an ideal time to be a buyer and not a good time to be a seller," Wright says. "If I were a seller, I'd probably wait until we got further into summer with higher prices. It's a good time to buy, because the prices haven't taken any real jump yet. The last six months, sales were down, there was room to dicker and interest rates were still low, giving buyers more purchasing power." The median county home sale price in April was $229,000. "There has been little if any increase in (median) home prices in the past 12 months," Wright says. Central Point saw an 8 percent jump year-over-year in April to an average price of $163,507 and an upward bump of $3,200 from March. Ashland's average April sale increased by 5 percent to $259,055 from a year earlier, but it was well off March's $266,504 average. The average $169,998 sales price in east Medford was up 1 percent year-over-year in April and rose by $1,200 from March. West Medford prices rose 8 percent year-over-year, but the $121,391 April average was below March's $123,372. The Phoenix-Talent area saw a decline in average price to $134,602 year-over-year in April. The figure also was nearly $1,000 less than the March sales average. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.