Have we reached the bottom of house prices? Market peaks and troughs can only be seen in retrospect, but the pundits are saying we’re at the bottom. For the last 3 months, median housing prices nationally, in the Western region and in Lane County have risen. If the trend continues, we were at the bottom this spring.
The drop in median prices for the last year was much more muted in Lane county than either the nation or western region. Compare 6.6% (Lane County) vs. 15.4% (US) vs. 20.8% (Western region). The western region’s big drop was because places like California, Nevada and Arizona are part of the statistics, and they were hammered in price.
Are we likely to see huge rates of appreciation? Not anytime soon. There is still too much unemployment in the area and sales of distressed properties (namely short sales and foreclosures) will continue. I expect the market to stay flat at least until the end of the year.
Median House Prices up for Last 3 Months
Eugene Oregon Real Estate Blog by Craig Tomlinson 
Craig great information to share with people buying or selling in Lane County. From what I have seen on the lending side is with the IRS First Time Home Buyers credit of up to $8,000 the market up to $225,000 should stay strong up to the deadline of 11/30/09. After this date and also the end of the government buying up mortgage backed securities coming to an end in 2009 I feel that will keep things going this year. With the economy, the flood of short sales, and foreclosures it will be tough to say when we will see a stable market above the first time home buyers price point.
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