The median sales price in the Portland metro area jumped $15,000, or 3%, from $500,000 in April to $515,000 in May, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service.

Home shoppers’ preference for expanded living spaces, indoors and out, continues to cause well-priced homes in desirable areas to receive multiple offers.

For example: A midcentury modern house designed by architect Saul Zaik in the Southwest Hills sold for $164,000 over its $1.1 million asking price on May 14.

Trisha Highland, a broker with John L. Scott Woodstock, said economists aren’t predicting an end to escalating offers in the greater Portland area anytime soon.

“Bidding wars are fueled by good old-fashioned supply and demand,” she said.

Compounding an anemic number of homes for sale, the state’s growing population, September 2020 wildfires that destroyed more than 4,000 Oregon dwellings and a lack of new construction. Oregon has long had the largest housing shortage in the nation, according to the Federal Home Loan Corp or Freddie Mac.

“There are so many factors that brought us to this point that the inevitable correction of the market is going to look more like a large ship slowly turning, not the speedboat making an abrupt 180 that we saw in 2008,” Highland said.

The inventory of homes for sale dropped again in May, this time to less than a moth, the lowest level reported in the 30-year history of the Regional Multiple Listing Service. A market is considered balanced between buyers and sellers when there is four to six months of inventory.

If sales continue at the same pace, the home inventory would take less than three weeks to zero out all the available homes on the market.

Since June 2020, the supply of homes to sell has idled around one month, according to the listing service.

May 2021 housing stats

New listings: The 3,971 Portland metro area homes introduced to the market in May marked a 2.3% decrease from the 4,065 new listings in April, according to the latest listing service report. Last month’s new listings marked a 16.1% increase from the 3,419 new listings in May 2020.

Pending sales: In the Portland metro area, the 3,717 homes that received an accepted offer in May signaled a 9.3% increase compared to April and a 19.4% spike from May 2020, according to the report.

Closed sales: In May, 3,183 residential properties in the Portland metro area were sold — an increase of 8% from the 2,946 that closed in April, and a 62.1% jump from the 1,963 closings in May 2020, the report shows.

Time on the market: The average time Portland metro residential properties were for sale last month before receiving an acceptable offer dropped to 22 days.