| MARCH
8, 2007
With 48 homes sold and gross sales
of $30 million in February,Lake Oswego's Renaissance
Homes has announced its best sales month in the history
of the 23-year-old company.
February's sales figures are a 15 percent
increase in homes sold and a 20 percent increase in
dollar volume over February of 2006, a year when the
firm sold 301 homes, double its 2005 figure. Renaissance's
old record was $23 million in March of 2006.
This February's figures follow $15
million in gross sales and 26 homes sold in January
at the firm's 13 neighborhoods in the metropolitan area
and Bend.
After a slowdown toward the end of
2006, traffic at Renaissance neighborhoods has been
uniformly strong the last two months, which Renaissance
President Randy Sebastian attributed to "a strong
Oregon job market that continues to bring new people
into the area. One week, five of seven sales at our
Clark County neighborhoods were from people moving into
the area from other states."
As with other builders, the end of
2006 housing market fall off left Renaissance with unsold
inventory, an unusual position for a firm which normally
pre-sells homes or has them pre-sold prior to completion.
"That turned out to be a blessing
in disguise because when the market exploded in January,
we had homes ready for people. This pickup has gone
a long way toward eliminating our backlog of homes to
be sold," Sebastian said.
Sales were strong across the board,
although two recently opened neighborhoods, Rosemont
Pointe in West Linn and PacificCrossing in Forest Grove
contributed 18 homes to the total.
"Even if you take out the new
neighborhood sales, we still would have had a record
February," said Renaissance Sales Vice President
Kim Whitman, who pointed out that the firm sold 10 homes
in Bend during the month.
A special February promotion giving
a Mercedes Smart Car with select move-in ready homes
appeared to be most successful in Bend, where four of
the Smart Car homes were sold. The Smart Car promotion
emphasized Sebastian's commitment to green building,
since it averages more than 50 miles to the gallon and
has emissions similar to the Toyota hybrid Prius. During
the month, eight homes were sold with Smart Cars overall.
"When we started the Smart Car
promotion, our goal was to create a buzz that would
generate traffic and that would sell cars," Whitman
said. "Well, traffic was up 300 percent in February
and we couldn't get cars for all our locations because
the dealer was selling them so fast."
Although he's not ready to declare
the national housing slowdown completely over, Sebastian
said persistent local stories about housing are troubling.
"I've talked to other builders
and most are saying the same thing. Sales so far this
year have been very good and, in Portland, there has
been a 12 percent average price appreciation over the
last 12 months. Those things argue that the Portland
market has pretty much avoided the problems which plagued
builders elsewhere," Sebastian said.
Although existing houses are taking
longer to sell, according to the multiple listing service,
the average market time in December of last year was
the same as December 2005 and Renaissance homes were
selling for an average sales price of $600,000, up from
$571,000 last March, said Whitman.
"Our buyers understand that their
home represents a wonderful place to live with lasting
value and a good return on investment," said Sebastian.
Renaissance Homes is one of the metropolitan
area's largest homebuilders. Besides West Linn, Forest
Grove and Bend, the firm has neighborhoods underway
in Sherwood, Happy Valley, Wilsonville, Beaverton, Vancouver,
Camas, southwest Portland and on the Oregon Golf Association
golf course at Tukwila.
Renaissance Homes
16771 Boones Ferry Road
Lake Oswego, Oregon 97035
Voice: 503-636-5600
Fax: 503-635-8400
Emergency Service: 503-496-0711 or 866-567-6225
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