Portland's Real Estate just hit its fastest pace of 2026.

Homes started moving faster. RMLS reported the market clocked in at 54 days total market time in July, the fastest pace of 2026 so far. Closed sales rose 8.1 percent over the month prior. This ran against the assumption that summer would keep slowing, which is what the trend line had suggested through the spring.

Inventory tightened at the same time. Metro active listings sit at roughly 1,625 as of mid-July, down from 1,830 at the same point last year. Not dramatic, but consistent enough to matter.

Inspired by the classic lines of mid-century modern architecture, this custom-built home surprises & delights daily. Ten steps from the front door is the big reveal: a 12-foot-high wall of windows & sliding glass doors looking into the soaring tree canopy.

The house sits on half of the .25-acre lot, leaving a tree-filled slope 75 feet wide to enhance privacy in this 21-house private neighborhood. It's not a cliché to call this a stunning home.

It's also a rare recent build in West Slope, one of SW Portland's most desirable locations (no city taxes!), close to downtown, Nike, Intel, & Providence St.Vincent Medical Center & More.

Four miles from downtown, tucked into the wooded hillside off Capitol Highway, sits a six-block commercial strip where you can genuinely walk to an independent bookstore, a wine bar, a diner counter with a cinnamon roll worth ordering, and back home on a trail through the trees.

That is not a common thing in Southwest Portland. Most of the quadrant is residential hillside, and the walkable pockets that exist are small. Multnomah Village is one of them.

The commercial core traces back to 1907, when the Oregon Electric Railway stopped here on its way to Salem. The stop is long gone. The village pattern it created is not.

The housing stock is a mix: 1920s and 1930s Craftsman bungalows on the streets closest to the village core, Cape Cods and Tudors mixed in, then mid-century ranches and split-levels on the outer edges.

Lots are meaningfully larger than what you find in inner Southeast or Northeast at similar price points, and mature landscaping is the norm rather than the exception.

Multnomah Village pulls a specific buyer profile. People who want daily walkability without the density of the eastside.

Remote workers who want a coffee shop and a bookstore within a five minute walk and a trail within ten.

Downsizers who want to leave the yard maintenance of Lake Oswego behind without leaving trees behind.

Families choosing it for the schools and the tucked-away feel.

Three things I’m tracking as we move into September, because each one has the potential to change the tempo we just saw this summer.

1 - Whether the rate environment holds: Rates have been the single largest variable shaping buyer behavior for eighteen months now. The current 6.5 to 7.0 percent band is what the market has adjusted to, and the recent activity uptick suggests buyers have accepted it as the new normal rather than waiting for it to drop.

If that band moves in either direction meaningfully, everything else on this page changes with it.

2 - The fall inventory question: Portland typically sees inventory rise through October before dropping off into winter. What I’m watching is whether the current tightening we saw against last year sustains through the fall listing wave. If sellers who have been waiting decide September is their window, the inventory picture could shift quickly.

If they keep waiting, the current dynamic likely holds through year end.

3 - The price reduction pattern: Forty-three percent of active listings currently show a price reduction, up from thirty-seven in May. Historically that number peaks in October before dropping off. If it continues climbing at the current pace, it signals sellers are still overpricing at list rather than adjusting to the actual market.

If it flattens, sellers are starting to read the room.

That number will tell you more about seller behavior next month than almost any other single data point. None of these are predictions. They are the variables that make the difference between the market I described above continuing or shifting again.

I’ll report back in September on which way each of them moved.

As always, thanks for being in my corner. I don't take it lightly that you let me show up in your inbox.

And if someone in your world is thinking about buying or selling, I’d love to help them out. Feel free to connect me with them.

See you out there,