What does the Portland Metro real estate market actually look like right now — and what does it mean if you’re thinking about buying, selling, or making a move in 2026?
TL;DR: Inventory is up 8.9% from last year and homes are sitting about 8 more days on average than they were at this point in 2025 — but buyer demand is running 10–18% stronger year over year on every measure that counts. Prices are holding within 1% of last year. This is a normalizing market with real opportunity on both sides, provided you understand what the data is actually saying.
Why the Data Matters More Than the Headlines
Most market commentary you see is built on one week of numbers. One week of data is noise. Before I get into this week’s figures, let me explain the framework I use — because without it, the numbers can genuinely mislead you.
Every week I receive fresh data from the RMLS, our area’s multiple listing service. And every week, those numbers swing — because of holidays, closing surges, one-off listing blitzes, or nothing in particular. If you look at a single week and declare the market has shifted, you will be wrong more often than you are right.
The tool I rely on is the 12-week rolling average. It takes the most recent 12 weeks of data and steps forward one week at a time. This smooths out the noise and reveals the underlying trend. When a rolling average turns up or down, something real is happening. When it holds steady, the market is genuinely stable. Think of it like monitoring the temperature on a manufacturing line — one spike on a sensor doesn’t stop production, but a sustained trend change absolutely does.
That’s the lens. Here’s what it’s showing for Portland Metro and Clark County, Washington for the week ending April 22, 2026.
Mortgage Rates: Holding Steady at 6.000%
- Rate: 6.000% (30-year fixed conventional, OnPoint Federal Credit Union)
- Points: 0.500
- APR: 6.101%
- Direction: Steady — unchanged from last week
The context matters here. In mid-February, this same rate was 5.625%. It climbed through March, hitting 6.250% in late March before pulling back. We’ve now held at 6.000% for two consecutive weeks. That’s a pause, not a reversal — but it’s stability buyers can plan around.
For a buyer purchasing a $555,000 home (this week’s median) with 20% down, the monthly principal and interest at 6.000% is approximately $2,664. At the February low of 5.625%, it was about $2,571 — a $93/month difference. Not nothing, but not a deal-breaker for a motivated, qualified buyer.
Supply: More Inventory Than Last Year, Still Building
- Active listings: 6,708 (vs. 6,158 at this same week last year — +8.9%)
- 12-week rolling average: 6,010 (vs. 5,393 last year — +11.5%)
- New listings this week: 726 (vs. 746 last year — essentially flat)
- Price reductions (last 7 days): 695 total | 332 at $15,000 or more
- 12-week rolling avg, price reductions: 574 (vs. 524 last year — +9.5%)
Think of housing supply as a bathtub filling with water. The faucet is new listings; the drain is buyers pulling homes off the market. Right now, the water level is rising — not because the faucet is running harder (new listings are flat year over year), but because homes are sitting longer before selling. The accumulation is a function of days on market, which I’ll cover below.
The price reduction data reinforces this. Almost 700 sellers reduced their asking price in the past week — with nearly half of those cuts exceeding $15,000. The 12-week rolling trend on reductions is running 9.5% above this time last year. Sellers who are adjusting are doing the right thing. Sellers who are not are watching the market walk past them.
Demand: Stronger Than Last Year — This Is the Number That Surprises People
- Homes sold this week: 542 (vs. 458 last year — +18.3%)
- 12-week rolling avg, homes sold: 458.9 (vs. 425.4 last year — +7.9%)
- New pending sales this week: 740 (vs. 625 last year — +18.4%)
- 12-week rolling avg, new pending: 640.5 (vs. 578.3 last year — +10.8%)
- Total pending pipeline: 3,388 (vs. 3,287 last year — +3.1%)
This is the piece most people don’t expect: buyers are more active than they were a year ago, across every demand metric, at rates that are higher than they were a year ago. The rolling averages confirm this isn’t a one-week blip — it’s a sustained pattern.
Why? Several forces. Life events don’t wait for the perfect rate. More inventory means buyers can actually find homes that fit their needs — which was genuinely difficult during the supply-starved years of 2021 and 2022. And some buyers who sat out are now re-entering after adjusting their expectations and budgets.
The supply and demand story together: supply is growing faster than demand, which is why inventory is building. But demand itself is healthy. This is what a normalizing market looks like — not collapse, not frenzy.
Days on Market: The Most Honest Number in the Market
- Average DOM this week: 63 days (vs. 55 last year — +14.5%)
- Median DOM this week: 21 days (vs. 15 last year — +40.0%)
- 12-week rolling avg, avg DOM: 72.6 days (vs. 67.3 last year — +7.8%)
- 12-week rolling avg, median DOM: 33.7 days (vs. 33.4 last year — essentially unchanged)
Days on market does not negotiate. It just counts. And what it’s counting right now tells an important two-part story.
The median DOM at 21 days tells you that the correctly priced, well-presented home is still going under contract within three weeks. The buyer pool for that home is alive and active.
The average DOM at 63 days — 8 days longer than last year on a rolling basis — tells you there’s a significant population of homes sitting for 90, 120, even 150-plus days. These are not market failures. They’re pricing or condition failures. They pull the average up while the median stays relatively contained.
We’ve been above 70 days on the rolling average since the start of 2026. The seasonal spring pickup is beginning to bring that number down — rolling avg dropped from 73.7 at the end of March to 72.6 now. Whether that trend continues depends on how sellers respond to the current inventory environment.
If your home has been listed more than 45 days with no serious offers, the market is not broken. The positioning is.
Home Prices: Holding Within 1% of Last Year
- Average sale price: $634,624 (vs. $632,670 last year — +0.3%)
- Median sale price: $555,000 (vs. $560,000 last year — -0.9%)
- 12-week rolling avg, average price: $620,904 (vs. $614,966 last year — +1.0%)
- 12-week rolling avg, median price: $547,757 (vs. $544,520 last year — +0.6%)
Prices are not crashing. They are not surging. They are holding value within approximately 1% of last year on a rolling basis, with a slight upward lean.
That is actually a meaningful signal. We have 6% interest rates and 11% more active inventory than a year ago — conditions that historically create downward price pressure. The fact that prices are stable tells you the demand side is absorbing that supply without requiring sellers to crater their prices. It also tells you the sellers who are successfully transacting have priced strategically, not optimistically.
The rolling averages are the number to watch here. Spot prices bounce week to week; rolling averages reveal direction. Both rolling average and median are ticking up, slowly and durably. That is not a bidding war. It is a floor.
Sale-to-List Ratios: Small Discounts Are Now the Norm
- Avg sale price as % of asking: 99.47% (prior week: 100.62%)
- Median sale price as % of asking: 100.02% (prior week: 100.00%)
- Avg sale price as % of original asking: 97.31% (prior week: 98.67%)
- 12-week rolling, avg % of asking: 99.36%
- 12-week rolling, median % of asking: 100.01%
- 12-week rolling, avg % of original asking: 96.50%
The sale-to-list ratio is the negotiation scoreboard.
The average this week dropped from 100.62% to 99.47% — buyers are back to getting slight discounts off the final list price, rather than paying over asking. The median at 100.02% tells you half of homes still close at or above their final asking price. Those are the right-priced, well-positioned homes.
The most revealing number is the average sale as a percent of original asking: 97.31%. This captures all the price reductions that happened before a home went under contract. On average, by the time a home sells, it’s gone for about 2.7% less than its original list price. On a $634,000 average-priced home, that’s roughly $17,000 left on the table because of a price that needed adjusting.
The lesson for sellers: price it correctly on day one. Every reduction and every extra week on market compounds. The data shows that homes needing price adjustments ultimately sell for less than they would have if they’d been positioned correctly at launch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it a good time to buy a home in Portland right now?
By several measures, yes — this is the most favorable inventory environment for buyers in several years. Active listings are up 8.9% from last year, homes are sitting on the market longer (giving you more time to conduct due diligence), and a meaningful share of sellers have already reduced their price before you arrive. The median home still goes under contract in 21 days when priced right — so preparation matters — but there is genuine negotiating room in this market, particularly for homes with longer days on market.
Are home prices dropping in Portland Metro?
Not significantly. The 12-week rolling average for average sale price is $620,904, up approximately 1.0% from $614,966 at this same point last year. The median rolling average is up 0.6%. Week-to-week spot prices fluctuate, but the trend line is flat-to-slightly-rising. This is price stability, not decline.
How does the Portland market compare to this time last year?
Supply is up 11.5% on a rolling basis. Demand is up 7.9–10.8% depending on the metric. Days on market are about 8% longer on a rolling average basis. Prices are within 1% of last year. Rates are moderately higher. Overall: more balanced, more inventory, slightly slower pace — but with active buyers.
What is the housing market like in Clark County, WA?
This report covers Washington, Multnomah, Clackamas, and Clark counties as a combined market. Active listings are elevated across all four counties, with buyer activity running above last year’s pace. Clark County continues to benefit from relative affordability compared to Multnomah County, making it an active part of the regional market.
Why do you use 12-week rolling averages instead of weekly numbers?
A single week of real estate data is noisy. One holiday week, one unusual closing surge, or one short-term listing blip can make the market look dramatically different than it actually is. A 12-week rolling average takes the most recent 12 weeks, averages them, and steps forward one week at a time. This reveals the underlying trend direction clearly — so you can see whether the market is genuinely turning, holding, or accelerating, rather than reacting to a single week that may mean nothing.
What does the sale-to-list ratio tell me about negotiating power?
It tells you how much discount buyers are realistically achieving. Right now, the average sale-to-list ratio is 99.47%, meaning buyers are typically paying about 0.5% below final asking price. More importantly, the average sale as a percent of original asking is 97.31% — meaning when you factor in all the price reductions a home went through before selling, buyers are landing about 2.7% below where the seller started. That’s your negotiating baseline.
Should I wait for interest rates to drop before buying?
That is a personal financial decision I encourage you to make with your lender and financial advisor. What I can offer from the data: buyer demand is measurably stronger this year than last year, even though rates are comparable. The buyers who are active have decided the math works for them now. Waiting assumes rates will fall and prices won’t rise further — neither of which is guaranteed. The best time to buy is when the numbers work for your specific situation.
Conclusion
The Portland Metro and Clark County market for the week of April 22, 2026 is one that rewards preparation and penalizes assumptions.
Inventory is building. Days on market are ticking up. Price reductions are elevated. These are facts that create leverage for buyers — and they are exactly the conditions that require strategy from sellers.
But the demand side is strong. Pending sales are up 18% year over year. Closed sales are up 18%. The rolling averages confirm this is not a blip. Prices are holding. The market is not broken. It is normalizing — finding a new equilibrium after years of extreme imbalance — and the data is showing you exactly where that equilibrium is landing.
Understanding the data is not optional if you want to make a smart real estate decision. It’s the only way to cut through the noise and see what is actually happening.
If you found this useful, I put out this analysis every week at PDXHomesforSale.com. You can also watch the full video breakdown — with charts and rolling average trend lines — on YouTube at LaurenPerreaultRealtorPDX.
Ready to talk through your specific situation? Call or text 503-683-1885, or email lauren@PDXHomesforSale.com.
Data sourced from the RMLS, our area’s multiple listing service. Rate data from OnPoint Federal Credit Union. Analysis by Lauren Perreault, Managing Principal Broker, Fiv Realty Co.
Lauren Perreault, REALTOR® | Fiv Realty Co
Managing Principal Broker
Exceptional Strategy. Extraordinary Results. Portland & Vancouver Real Estate.
lauren@PDXHomesforSale.com | 503-683-1885
PDXHomesforSale.com | PDXHomesforSale.net | YouTube: LaurenPerreaultRealtorPDX
Fiv Realty Co — Portland, OR | Vancouver, WA