Overview:

The housing market opened 2025 with higher sales and more options for Lane County buyers than any time in years. But economic volatility froze much of the market this spring. Now buyers are worried about their paychecks and using small excuses like minor repairs and move-in dates to back out of deals. And houses are sitting on the market for longer. 

Lane County’s housing market started 2025 with a bang.

Closed sales were up 9 percent through the end of February compared with a year ago. Lower mortgage interest rates brought reluctant buyers and sellers alike off the sidelines, pushing the total number of active listings to its highest since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then spring — and a massive injection of economic uncertainty — changed the picture in Lane County and nationwide.

By the end of May, that 9 percent increase was down to less than 1 percent, according to data from Lane County’s Regional Multiple Listing Service. From March through May, closed sales were 4 percent lower than the same span in 2024. 

“We’re selling fewer homes,” said Tony Losco, Principal Broker Director at RE/MAX Integrity Eugene. “First-time home buyers are priced out, and since we don’t have many first-time home buyers, almost every (deal) is also contingent on a house being sold.”

Affordability has long been a problem locally, up and down the West Coast and across much of the country, as demand continues to outpace construction.

But while six to seven percent interest rates tamped down activity for the past few years, realtors and mortgage brokers have noticed a shift in recent months. For buyers today, the worry isn’t interest rates. It’s uncertainty.

“I’m surprised that we’re doing as good as we are with all the turmoil in the world,” said Kim Heddinger, co-owner and principal broker of Golden Realty in Eugene.

Perceptions becoming reality

Economic alarm bells started ringing immediately after President Donald Trump’s early April tariff announcement. The stock market cratered, affecting workers’ retirement savings. Mortgage rates spiked, erasing three months of steady declines. 

Although stocks have recovered and President Trump backed off of some of the steepest tariffs, uncertainty hasn’t eased much. Thirty-year mortgage rates are still higher than they were before the tariff announcement.

“It’s the perception,” said Dave Kammerer, branch manager and senior loan consultant at Eugene mortgage lender Summit Funding. “It doesn’t matter what you say, if people think prices are going up, or the stock market isn’t doing so well, or their cost of living is going to rise, this gives people pause.”

The real estate market isn’t exactly in a downturn. While closed sales have dipped, they’re still on track to match or exceed 2023 and 2024 levels. The 970 active listings in May were 250 more than were listed last year, and nearly double from two years ago. 

But more choice hasn’t translated into more sales. This year, homes have taken an average of 72 days to sell. Two years ago, it was 49 days.

“If the property is priced properly, you could still get multiple offers. But if it’s slightly overpriced, it might sit for 100 days,” Losco said. Small hiccups in the closing process, like unexpected minor repairs or disagreements on move-in dates, are leading to more deals being terminated.

“We’re seeing transactions fall through for the most minuscule reasons,” he said.

And that’s leading many sellers to drop their prices. According to Kammerer, one-third of Lane County houses that closed over the last 30 days went below the seller’s initial asking price.

Compromising for a typical house

Most of those reductions are happening at the higher end of the market — think a $1 million listing in South Eugene going for $900,000.

Closer to Lane County’s $435,000 median price, the competition is much fiercer. More than 60 percent of Lane County buyers pay between $300,000 and $600,000 for a house, and nearly half of those sales fall in the $400,000 to $500,000 range.

That dynamic has forced buyers like Tyler Jagels to compromise. Jagels and his wife spent about a month looking for a house in Eugene that checked all their boxes: three bedrooms and two bathrooms, relatively move-in ready, and priced in the low $400,000s.

“But it seems like there was really nothing in that range for the type of house we wanted for us and our two small children,” Jagels said. “That’s why we started looking in some of the outlying areas like Junction City and Coburg.”

Eventually, they settled on a house in Creswell that fit their needs and their budget. They have a pending offer on it, and Jagels is willing to compromise on a longer work commute in exchange for the space his family needs.

“The same kind of house we’re pending on, if it was in Eugene, depending on the neighborhood, it would probably be close to $500,000. So it seems like we’re getting a healthy discount for 10 or 15 extra minutes of driving,” he said.

Meanwhile, the higher end of the market continues to be propped up in part by out-of-state buyers fleeing places like the Bay Area, Southern California and Arizona.

Local residents have been testing the market as well. Many Eugene and Springfield homeowners wanting to upgrade or downsize in recent years put those plans on hold while hoping for interest rates to fall, said Kim Arscott, a broker with Hybrid Real Estate and the past president of the Eugene Association of Realtors.

But amid new economic anxieties and pessimism about rates falling any time soon, families who need to make a change are tired of waiting.

“People are just accepting that this is inevitable, and if I want to own a home and control my mortgage, it’s still a worthy investment,” Arscott said. “Properties are still appreciating in value.”

For more than a decade, Elon Glucklich covered business, government and health care for several dailies and online news organizations across Oregon. His reporting and commentary has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association.