On April 7, 2008, our professional photographer and video tour vendor, pdxtours.com, introduced a higher cost option of full screen virtual tours. These virtual tours of unprecedented quality and resolution were previously reserved for resorts, casinos, and international landmarks. This technology offers an unparalleled "you are there" experience. They literally provide floor-to-ceiling views for a rich and immersive user experience.

Within weeks of this news, Lee Davies Real Estate adopted this format to become their new marketing standard for virtual tours. These vivid tours will now fill the home shopper’s video screen each time they visit www.LeeDavies.com or www.RMLS.com and view a Lee Davies property.

This new technology comes with a price tag that tends to turn away independent real estate agents but Lee Davies saw this as one more exceptional tool to add to our marketing system further distinguishing Lee Davies Real Estate as a premium boutique real estate firm. According to Davies, “All of our new listings as of May of this year, will have these incredible full screen tours, it is truly amazing how accurately they depict our properties and we find buyers from all over the country adding our properties to their ‘must see’ list when they come to town.” To experience one of these tours, click on the link labeled Lee’s Listings in the top right corner and select our Grand Sherwood Country Estate or the Blue Pointe Beauty. Both of these listings utilize this new technology and demonstrate how amazing your home could look!

Comparing April 2008 to April 2007, market activity remains slow. On the other hand, month-to-month activity (March v. April) showed growth in some categories.

One area of growth from March to April was pending sales, which grew 6.8% (2,070 v. 1,938). This is the first increase in pending sales from March to April since 2005. New listings also grew 2.7% (5,295 v. 5,155). Closed sales dropped 6.4% (1,582 v. 1,691). This drop is on par with the last three years, though, as closed sales have dropped an average of 6.7% from March to April.

At the month’s rate of sales, the 16,370 active residential listings would last 10.3 months, up from 9.1 months in March.

Comparing January-April 2008 with the same period a year ago, new listings were up 5.8%. Closed sales and pending sales were down 35.1% and 34.6%, respectively.

Also of note was the first decline in average sale price since August 2002 and in median sale price since May 2001 when comparing April of the current year to the same month the year prior. Average sale price dropped 3.9% and the median fell 3.5% (see table below).

One factor in this price decline may be a 51.2% (21 v. 43) decrease in the number of homes sold for $1 million or more, when comparing April 2008 with April 2007. Year-to-date, sales in this price range are down 31.9% compared with the same time last year.