QuickTake:

Houses are sitting on the market for longer, but an increase in listings could mean a stronger market in the spring.

January is known as a slow month for the housing market in Lane County and this year was no different.

Last month, 180 home sales closed in Lane County, a 22.4% drop compared with January 2025, when the county saw 232 closed home sales. But this year’s numbers aren’t unheard-of. In 2024 and 2023, January closed home sales numbered 173 and 177 respectively, so the 2025 spike may have been the anomaly.

But homes are also sitting on the market longer. Last year, the average time on market for a  listing was 76 days; now it’s up by nearly two weeks, to 89 days. 

According to Eugene-area real estate agent Elliott Wood, the housing market’s recent stall stems from an exceptionally slow December.

“The amount of pending transactions in December was at its lowest level in over a decade,” Wood said. “So when you look at the numbers for January, it makes sense that closings are down 22.4 percent, because there just wasn’t any activity in December.”

On the bright side, there’s hope for a strong spring housing market.

By the end of January, there were 714 active residential listings in Lane County. Last year at this time, only 653 listings were active in the county. 

Wood believes that in the coming months, as the market warms with the weather, the real estate market will be more active than in previous years.

“I’m talking with brokers, talking with people in the title and escrow industry, talking with lenders. Everybody is busy right now,” Wood said. “So I think we’re on the horizon of seeing things start to really pick up in the spring market.”