PORTLAND, Ore. — As most Portlanders have holed up in our pandemic palaces, antiviral villas and socially distant digs these past few months, some have apparently been venturing out to look for new places to hide out from COVID-19.
Among 98 ZIP codes in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties in Oregon as well as Clark County, Washington, there were 8,273 houses sold during the second quarter of the year, while stay-at-home orders were hitting their peak and business activity across the region was most limited. Not surprisingly, this total was a 17.6 percent drop from the second quarter of 2019 when 10,039 homes sold.
During this quarter, though, available housing inventory on the Oregon side of the metro area hit at least a 30-month low of 1.5 months, as fewer sellers put their houses on the market. As a result, the median time on market across the metro area decreased to 11.5 days in Q2 2020 compared to 13.4 days in the same quarter last year, a 14.1 percent quickening of sales pace.
Meanwhile, the median home price continued to inch upward to $445,506 last quarter, a 2.9 percent rise from the same quarter in 2019.
Of the 50 ZIP codes in the "Heat Index" viewable in the gallery above, just 18 were located primarily in the city of Portland, though Portland proper neighborhoods comprised nine of the top 10. The only suburban ZIP code in the top 10 was 97007 in Beaverton/Aloha. Ten other westside 'hoods joined it in the top 50. Six ZIP codes south of the city including a few in Lake Oswego, West Linn, Oregon City and Wilsonville made the cut, while five eastside areas such as Gresham and Happy Valley did as well. Ten ZIP codes north of the Columbia in Washington were also in the latest top 50.
Six ZIP codes jumped into the Heat Index in the second quarter included:
- 97027, Gladstone
- 97055, Sandy
- 97089, Damascus
- 97113, Cornelius
- 97210, Nob Hill
- 98664, Vancouver Heights/Marrion, Washington.
Click on the link below to see if your ZIP code is among the 50 Portland-area ZIP codes that performed best in the second quarter of 2020 in terms of three equally weighted factors: homes sold, sale price and days on market. Data was provided by the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS).
The Portland Business Journal is a KGW News partner.
