house for sale sold se portland

The sign in front of a sold house in Southeast Portland.

(Mark Graves/The Oregonian)

The Portland-area housing market cooled in August as home sales fell and home-price gains slowed.

New numbers from the

, the Realtor-owned database of home listings and sales, reflect a market with consistent — but not improving — activity as the busier summer season comes to a close.

Yet it remains competitive for would-be homebuyers thanks to a low inventory of homes on the market.

"The story here is the market looks pretty much like it has for the last couple of years, which is pretty stable," said Tim Duy, director of the Oregon Economic Forum.

The region saw 2,586 homes sell in August, according to RMLS, 1.4 percent fewer than the same month a year earlier and 3.4 percent fewer than in July.

Another 2,704 homes went under a sale contract, 3.4 percent more than a year ago. Those deals will close in coming months.

The median price for a home sold in August was $295,900, about 6.8 percent higher than a year earlier but down 1 percent from July. Last August, prices had increased nearly 15 percent year-over-year.

Those huge home-price gains were seen by some economists and other market-watchers as an overreaction, and in some cases a statistical exaggeration because of the influence of foreclosed homes. Now they're watching to see if home prices settle into a more sustainable level of increase.

At August's sales rate, it would take just three months to sell all 7,784 homes listed for sale, a level of supply that suggests a strong seller's market. A balanced market usually has six months of supply, and Portland's inventory hasn't topped five months since early 2012.

The lack of homes to sell — especially homes in good condition — has contributed to the slow sales and kept prices rising.

"I think what's happening is the buyers have become a little more selective," said Dennis Kelly, the managing principal broker at Windermere Stellar in Lake Oswego. "They're looking a little harder for the features they want in their home."

Despite the recent run-up in home prices, current homeowners have been slow to bring more homes to market. Some are underwater on their mortgage or don't have enough equity in their home to sell without losing money in the transaction. More unlikely to sell because they recently refinanced.

And homebuilders haven't ramped up their activity to fill the gap.

"We're just not bringing the inventory online quick enough to satisfy demand," Duy said. "Consequently, that's just keeping upward pressure on price."

-- Elliot Njus