PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – For people on the hunt for a new home in and around Portland, the selection is still slim and what is available is more expensive than it was a year ago.

The average sale price of a home in January 2022 was $596,600, a 14% increase from January 2021, when the average sale price was $514,700. The median sale price has also increased 11.6%, from $460,000 to $512,000.  

While the number of homes available to purchase increased significantly in January from the month before, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service, the real estate inventory in the Portland metro area was still only 0.8 in January. This means if no other houses were listed for sale, the number of available houses would sell within 0.8 months, or about 24 days.  

This is a decrease of about 10% compared to the listings available in January 2021. However, it’s an increase of more than 44% from the number of homes available in December, RMLS said in its monthly report. 

The number of pending sales were also down from the previous January, but up more than 17% compared to December. 

There were 2,307 new listings in the Portland metro area in January 2022 and 1,853 closed sales, an increase of 0.3% from the previous January. 

In January, the area with the most new listings was Southeast Portland, which had 323 new listings. Mt. Hood, which is included in the report for the Portland metro area, only had eight new listings, the fewest in the region. 

On average, Portland-area homes stayed on the market for fewer than 40 days in January. This is an increase from December when they stayed on the Market for just over 30 days. 

The areas with the lowest median sale price for homes are the 5 Corners area of Vancouver where the median sale price is $400,000, the Vancouver Heights Neighborhood where the median sale price is $423,600, the Central Vancouver area where the sale price is $438,000, Southeast Portland where the median sale price is $440,000, and Yamhill County where the median sale price is $440,000.  

The average and median sale price for homes has been on the rise since at least January 2014, according to RMLS.