Some Ashland listings seeing multiple offers, spending significantly fewer days on market overall — but median price dips
By Nick Morgan, Rogue Valley Times
Jackson County home inventory was up more than 14.5% at the end of March compared to the same time last year. Based on a median home price breaking the $400,000 mark and a drop in days on market, the increased supply hardly put a damper on demand.
County home sales rose 9.1% to 370, the number of days homes spent on the market dropped roughly 30% to 27, and the median home price rose 4.6% to $406,750, according to new numbers for the first quarter of the year released by the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors and the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service.
Carrie Dahle, incoming president-elect for the Realtors association, described the increased home sales and home inventory — up to 662 on March 31 from 578 at the same time last year — as an “early spring” for the real estate market.
“They’re jumping on them sooner than they were last year,” Dahle said.
Across Jackson County, homes averaged 12 fewer days on the market, but some markets, such as Ashland, saw more significant reductions — a sign that its market in particular is heating up. Ashland dropped to 21 this year, a 40% reduction from the 35 days on market last year.
“At least in Ashland, we’re back to that multiple-offer scenario,” Dahle said. She added that she’s seen competing buyers on Ashland houses of all sizes.
Dahle said that fluctuating interest rates are less a factor for the uptick in activity than are people “coming to terms with the new norm.”
It “took a bit of time for people to wrap their minds around” the current market conditions of interest rates hovering around 7%, Dahle said, but buyers and sellers have opportunities in the current market that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Buyers and sellers have less competition than they had at the height of low interest rates two years ago.
“When a seller puts their home on the market and there’s lower inventory, they have a better chance of selling,” Dahle said.
There were 370 homes sold in the county in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 9.1% from the 339 homes sold last year. Ashland sold 47 of those homes, 16 fewer than it had at the same time last year, but the numbers show the market was a rare exception.
Most home markets across the Rogue Valley posted minor sales gains of 10 homes or less. Talent, for instance, sold 11 homes in the first quarter — one more than last year.
“It’s pretty spread out,” Dahle said.
West Medford sold 70 homes, up 10 homes, or 16.7%, from the same quarter last year, while the east Medford 97504 area saw 116 homes sold in the first quarter, up 8 homes, or 7.4%.
Homes across the board sold for a median home price of $406,750, up 4.6% from the $389,000 last year.
Ashland’s median home price fell 8.6% to $514,000, east Medford’s median home price rose 8.2% to $436,000, west Medford’s home price rose 5.9% to $352,125, Central Point’s median home price rose 9.2% to $387,500, Eagle Point’s up 19.2% to $459,000, White City’s rose 5.6% to $327,500, Phoenix’s rose 9.9% to $365,025, Talent’s fell 7% to $442,500, and Gold Hill and Rogue River combined rose 5.1% to $310,000.
There were a couple big movers with smaller sample sizes. Jacksonville rose 22.5% to $606,250 and Shady Cove rose 44.7% to $550,000.
Reach reporter Nick Morgan at nmorgan@rv-times.com or 458-488-2036. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.
