HUD’s most recent quarterly report was issued the other day.  Here are the highlights about metro Portland, Oregon:

• During the 12 months ending June 2009, job losses totaled 55,400 in Oregon. Oregon accounted for one-half the 38,200 manufacturing jobs lost in the region, due mainly to layoffs at Daimler AG and Intel Corporation.
• Regionwide employment declines occurred in nearly every sector, with two-thirds of the job losses recorded in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Government, education and health services, and information were the only sectors to record employment gains, up 21,000, 20,300, and 900 jobs, respectively. For the 12 months ending June 2009, nonfarm employment averaged 1.7 million jobs in Oregon. The regional average unemployment rate increased to 7.5 percent during the 12 months ending June 2009 compared with a rate of 4.8 percent for the same period in 2008. The average unemployment rate, which increased in every state in the region, was 9.4 percent in Oregon. 
• Oregon registered the greatest loss in construction jobs, down 14,800 jobs.
• Oregon sales market conditions also remained soft during the 12 months ending June 2009. According to data from the local multiple listing services, the number of new and existing single-family homes sold in the 11 largest markets in Oregon totaled 35,900, a 29-percent decline compared with the number sold during the previous 12 months. During the same period, the average sales price decreased by 13 percent to $271,900. In the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Oregon-Washington metropolitan area, the number of new and existing homes sold totaled 21,100, down 34 percent compared with the number sold during the 12 months ending June 2008, and the average price decreased 11 percent to $298,800.
• Oregon, permits totaled 5,900, a decline of 2,100 homes, or 18 percent, from a year ago. 
• In Oregon, 3,400 multifamily units were permitted, 1,200 fewer than the number permitted during the 12 months ending June 2008.
• In the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metropolitan area, rental housing market conditions were balanced in the second quarter of 2009. According to Reis, Inc., the apartment vacancy rate was 5.8 percent, up from 5 percent in the second quarter of 2008. The average rent was essentially flat at $750 over the same period. Because of limited new apartment construction, rental markets in the Oregon metropolitan areas of Medford, Salem, and Eugene-Springfield remained balanced with apartment vacancy rates of 4, 5, and 5 percent respectively. A year ago, the vacancy rate was 4 percent in all three metropolitan areas. Between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009, average asking rents in these three areas increased between 1 and 2 percent, to $590, $620, and $700, respectively. 

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