Published October 4, 2026 in Market Update

Price cuts are up in Portland, but Southeast Portland still runs tight

By Tony Apa

Real estate, Southeast Portland

Here is the number that changes what you should do right now. Redfin counted price drops on 25.9% of Portland listings in the four weeks ending September 20. That is one in four sellers backing off their price. Pricing right the first time matters more than it did a year ago.

Realtor.com put that number even higher for the Portland metro: 31.3% of listings had price cuts in September. That is nearly one in three. Buyers have more room to push back than they did. Price your home with that in mind.

Southeast Portland tells a different story underneath that citywide number. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 461 homes for sale across the area in the three months ending July 31, 2026. That is down 12.2% from the same months of 2025. Fewer homes for sale means less room for buyers to walk away.

New listings dropped 8.1% across Southeast Portland in the same period. Fewer sellers means buyers compete for less. That keeps prices from sliding the way they are in softer parts of the city.

What each ZIP code looked like

The Real Estate Data Aggregator breaks this down by ZIP code for the three months ending July 31, 2026. The numbers move a lot from one street to the next.

The tight end: 97215 and 97214

In ZIP 97215, the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted a median of just 6 days on market. That is the fastest of any Southeast ZIP. Homes there sold at 103.6% of list price on average, and 63% sold above list. Supply sat at 1.3 months. That is a very short bench for buyers.

ZIP 97214 ran close behind. Median days on market were 9. The sale to list ratio was 101.8%. And 60.3% of homes went under contract within two weeks of listing, up 7.5 points from a year before. Inventory dropped 25% year over year.

The softer end: 97266

ZIP 97266 reads differently. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put median days on market at 22, up 8 days from a year before. Months of supply rose to 4.2. The median sale price fell 5.6% year over year to $401,000. Only 30.1% of homes sold above list price, down 13.1 points.

That does not mean 97266 is broken. Pending sales there were up 16% year over year. Buyers are still active. But sellers in that ZIP need to price more carefully than sellers in 97215 do.

The wider picture: rates, metro prices and rent

Mortgage rates topped 7% for the first time since January 2025, according to Realtor.com. That slows buyers down. Redfin's senior economist also noted rates sitting above 7%. Higher rates mean monthly payments are bigger, and some buyers step back.

Realtor.com put the median home price in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro at $587,750 in September. That is the metro, not Southeast Portland. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows Southeast Portland ZIP codes ranging from $401,000 in 97266 to $713,950 in 97214.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. That is a national number. Southeast Portland's own ZIPs moved in different directions over the same stretch.

One more number worth watching: Realtor.com reported the median asking rent in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro was $1,603 in August 2026, down 2.3% from a year before. Falling rents give some potential buyers a reason to stay put. That can quietly trim the pool of buyers looking in Southeast Portland.

What this means for you

If you are selling, the citywide price-cut trend is real. Buyers are pushing back. But in most of Southeast Portland, supply is still low enough that a well-priced home moves fast. In 97215, 65.1% of homes went under contract within two weeks. In 97214, it was 60.3%.

If you are buying, fewer new listings, down 8.1% across Southeast Portland, means good homes still go quickly. In 97266 you have more time. In 97215 or 97214, you may not.

These are ZIP code numbers for the three months ending July 31, 2026. One street can read very differently from the whole ZIP. The data above is the starting point, not the whole story.