The latest Jackson County Residential Statistics report states that we’ve seen a 10.7 percent increase in sales over last year (66.8 percent over the last 5 years), with the average price changing from $233,500 up to $258,500 in median sales price year-over-year. Northwest Medford is up 12.7 percent, West Medford up 0.2 percent, Southwest Medford up 8.7 percent, and East Medford up 14.4 percent in price over last year. Another interesting statistic is the average “days on market” has decreased from 43 days as the average time a home stays on the market, versus 35 days 2017-which means homes are selling faster and more quickly as soon as they hit the market.
For new homes, construction has been uneven but is expected to jump to 8.4 percent in sales from 2016 on a national level. In Jackson County, we are seeing most of the activity happening in Central Point, White City, and Southwest Medford with an average price of $311,995 at a 15.4% increase over last year’s average sales price of $270,445.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors presented the midyear forecast for 2017 and projected existing home sales are poised to climb 3.5 percent in 2017. First-quarter reports show we had the best quarterly existing sales pace in a decade (5.62 million), with expectations to finish around 5.64 million – the best since 2006 (6.47 million) and 3.5 percent above 2016.
With many areas seeing price growth, it is expected for the national median existing-home price to rise about 5 percent this year. He says, “The housing market has exceeded expectations ever since the election, despite depressed inventory and higher mortgage rates. The combination of the stock market is at record highs, 16 million new jobs created since 2010, pent-up household formation, and rising consumer
confidence are giving more households the assurance and ability to purchase a home.”
NAR also foresees two more short-term rate hikes by the end of the year and for mortgage rates to average around 4.3 percent before gradually climbing towards 5.0 percent by the end of 2018.
Shanon Pewtress
Real Estate Broker, Licensed in the state of Oregon
Published July 2017
Shanon holds an MBA in International Business, loves writing in her “At Home with Shanon” column that has been delivered to 47,000+ homes in Medford since 2014, has appeared on the Real Estate Radio Show, and was also featured on A&E TV network’s Real Estate Reality TV show.