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STEPANKOWSKY The Wall Street Journal LONGVIEW, Wash. — Housing-price increases may have slowed in many parts of the country, but in Oregon and Washington, the median price through mid-year is still up sharply over last year and looks likely to continue at a strong, though moderating, rate throughout the rest of 2006. Although unit sales are starting to slow a bit along with other parts of the country, Northwest housing prices are remaining relatively strong because of continued regional economic strength, in-migration, and growth management laws and geographic features that limit sprawl, regional-housing experts say. "What the data is reflecting is still a fairly decent demand for housing," said Tom Potiowsky, chief economist for the state of Oregon. "The expectation that I can slap a 30 percent increase on a house even though I've been in it only a year isn't going to fly. But a 15 percent increase still isn't bad." Median housing prices in Washington's King County, which includes Seattle and Bellevue, increased 16 percent in July, while in Snohomish County, which includes Everett, they were up 18.2 percent. Overall, within the 17-county area covered by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service in Washington, the median price of a house sold increased 15.45 percent in July over last year's figures. In the greater Portland metropolitan area and in the Vancouver, Wash., area across the Columbia River, median home prices increased by 17.4 percent in June, according to the latest statistics from the Regional Multiple Listing Service in Portland. Advertisement On a national basis, the median existing home price for all housing types is forecast to grow 4.3 percent this year, according to statistics from the National Association of Realtors. Oregon and Washington's economies were among the last to recover from the recession in the early part of the decade, which meant that the two states also were later to the housing euphoria that engulfed much of the nation, said Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University. Now, continued strong job growth at Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp., and other large and small companies is fueling in-migration, increasing demand for housing, Crellin said. "The Washington economy is doing better than many parts of the country," he said. "Technology is doing fine and aerospace is doing fine, and those are clearly the two drivers of the urban economy in Washington." Oregon's economy also has resumed steady growth after spending much of the early part of the decade in the doldrums, Potiowsky said. While houses in some areas are taking longer to sell than they were last year at this time, the time on the market is still well below average, said J. Lennox Scott, chairman and chief executive of John L. Scott Real Estate in Bellevue. That is particularly true for houses close to major job sites in Seattle and Portland, he said. "In both of these cities, you have commute times to work, and with commute times, you get enhanced demand to live closer in, so the market has been holding up really well," Scott said. While new housing inventory in both states has grown in the past six years, growth-management laws in both states have limited large-scale developments of new homes. An abundance of rivers and wetlands in western Oregon and Washington also has limited large-scale tract housing development. As a result, the region hasn't seen the overbuilding now plaguing some parts of the country, such as Las Vegas, Florida and Phoenix, said Bob McMurtrey, vice chairman of the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. "Our growth boundaries are so tight that there isn't that much land, and that has a tendency to keep our pricing more level," McMurtrey said. "There is a lot more control about where you can build and add homes, so we keep the resale market strong." While rising interest rates have played some role in cooling per-unit sales and increasing inventory in some areas in the Northwest, buyers and sellers still are subject to price expectations that play a role in what a house ultimately sells for, said Crellin of WSU. Typically, buyers have an idea of how much they want to spend and expectations about what kind of features that money will purchase. When they find the market has softened a bit, they find their dollar can go further. But then they have to decide if they want to "buy more house" for the same price they expected to pay or buy the features they expected and pocket the difference. Not surprisingly, the consumer usually decides to buy more house for the same price, he said. As a result, the median price will stay where it is or go up compared to a year ago, but consumers are getting more house for the dollar. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems California Casinos Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews