Compared with last year, fewer Lane County homes sold in first quarter

Lane County’s housing market rut continues.

Fewer houses came onto the market and sold in the first three months of the year than during the same time period last year, according to data released by the Regional Multiple Listing Service Tuesday, April 7.

A total of 676 houses sold across Lane County between January and March, down from 734 to start last year, a decline of about 8%. New listings were down by about 50 from last year.

March’s data coincided with a fresh jolt of economic uncertainty nationwide. Oil prices have spiked since the Feb. 28 launch of the war with Iran. Tuesday, average gas prices in Oregon hit $5 per gallon for the first time since October 2022, according to AAA.

That uncertainty may have kept some would-be buyers and sellers on the sidelines in March, said Tony Losco, principal broker director at RE/MAX Integrity Eugene.

“We did see a slight downturn, and maybe it had something to do with the Iran situation,” he said. “We also saw the stock market come down a little bit.”

Interest rates that had been slowly ticking downward for most of the past year also reversed course in March. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose from about 6% at the start of March to nearly 6.5% at the end of the month.

Those factors may have contributed to Lane County’s first March decline in sale prices since 2020. The median price of a house sold in the county last month was $430,000, down from $450,000 in February. Prices typically rise in March as warming temperatures kick off the traditional start of the homebuying season.

Housing inventory — the amount of time it would take to sell every house on the market, based on the current sales pace — also fell in March to 2.6 months, the lowest since October. The RMLS data doesn’t include sales in the Florence area.

Despite the price drop, total sales did increase in March from February. Losco said his office has been extremely busy so far in April, with multiple listings that went on at the start of the month receiving pending offers within a week.

“It’s mostly sellers that are triggering this,” he said. Sellers have years of built-up equity from rising prices and can only put off moves for family or job changes for so long. Sales that closed in March were on the market for an average of 62 days, down from 73 days in February and 71 days in March 2025.

“Those personal decisions are having more influence on their decision than what the market or world events are dictating,” Losco said.

That may be little solace for first-time buyers, who remain largely sidelined by the one-two punch of high prices and high interest rates. But beyond the shock of global conflicts and gas prices, Losco said the fundamentals of the Lane County market remain solid.

“I think there will be a pleasant surprise in the (April) report,” he said.