Portland homes hit highest average sale price of $516,500 due to low inventory, pent-up demand

A historically low supply of Portland area homes for sale, rock-bottom lending rates and pent-up demand have pushed residential property prices to a new high: In October, the average sale price was $516,500, according to the latest report from the local listing service RMLS.

Another boost to sellers: October traditionally starts a slowdown until spring. But not so far this year.

“In 2019, we peaked in June and started dropping, ending up 3.28% lower in December for the average sale price,” said Dustin Miller of Windermere Realty Trust in Lake Oswego. “This year is totally different. We just kept going up.”

Comparing the first 10 months of 2020 to the same period in 2019, the average sale price has increased 6.5%, from $459,000 to $489,000. In the same comparison, the median sale price climbed 6.1%, from $410,000 to $435,000, according to RMLS.

The median sale price, the point in…