Oregon Public Broadcasting

Good news in the housing markets Tuesday with the National Association of Realtors reporting that the pending sales of existing homes increased 6.7 percent in April. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, the nationwide trend is being mirrored in Oregon.

Jean Ice is a realtor with ERA Freedman in Gresham. She says every month since January more homes have been sold than the month before.

Part of it is seasonal, she says, as people search in the Spring so they can have their kids in the local school by the fall.

But she say, the $8,000 federal tax credit for first time buyers is driving the bottom end of the market at $150,000 to $250,000.

Jean Ice: "Which will start a chain reaction. So those sellers can move up or move laterally or do whatever they want to do. Because the higher end in over $250,000 or $350,000 have been kind of stuck in the market because nobody was moving up."

Activity is still down from previous years. But unlike this winter, the number of sales each month is now increasing rather than decreasing.