Mortgage interest rates have remained remarkably stable since adjusting after the last Federal Reserve meeting, with the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgage steady at 6.37% this morning. While this may be slightly higher than the pre-meeting lows, this rate is the lowest since January 2023, and buyers are responding. There is no doubt buyers have been waiting for conditions to improve, and increased inventory, lower rates, and motivated sellers as we head into winter have created opportunities.
This week in Deschutes County, we experienced the largest drop in available listings of the year, down 57 to 1,331. On this week last year, there were 1,192 listings of single-family homes, still considerably less than this year's inventory. Seventy-four pending sales this week are up eight from last week, averaging $937,930. Ninety closed transactions are the most since July, averaging $942,319. The data proves that buyers are more active this fall than in the past few years. Seven hundred ninety-six of the active listings in Deschutes County show price reductions.
Crook County Inventory increased by two this week, now at 232 single-family listings. Today's inventory is down from its peak of 256 in late July, but the selection remains high for this time of year. There were seven pending sales, averaging $471,557, and twelve closed transactions, averaging $633,616. With 144 of the active listings showing price reductions, this fall in Crook County is favoring buyers more than any of the past few years.
The Jefferson County inventory is down by five to 131 single-family listings. There were four pending sales averaging $387,450, and three closed transactions averaging $403,555. Two of the pending sales were new construction, showing no price change, with the average price drop of the remaining two pending sales at 19.97%! Of course, not every property is subject to a twenty percent price decrease, but these pending sales are indicative of the deals negotiated today. Seventy-three of the active listings show price reductions.
The activity in today's market, spurred on by lower interest rates, offers a glimpse of the significant pent-up buyer demand that exists. A revealing metric to watch in the coming months will be the extent to which inventory levels drop during the winter and how quickly they rebound in the spring. Considering the downward trend in mortgage interest rates, it seems unlikely that there will be this level of inventory at this time next year.
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