BUYERS & SELLERS

• The 30-year fixed eased to 6.65% this week per Freddie Mac, down from 6.67% the week before, a second straight pullback from July’s one-year high.
• Grants Pass home values are essentially flat, averaging $405,435 per Zillow, up just 0.1% over the past year, real stability even as national headlines call this a buyer’s market.
• Nationally, pending home sales fell 2.3% in July to their lowest level since January, with NAR’s chief economist pointing to the highest mortgage rates of the year landing right in the middle of summer. Existing home sales slipped 1.7% as well, though the median sale price still climbed to $431,400, and inventory held at a 4.6-month supply.

INVESTORS & DEVELOPERS

• Jackson County wants to build a new 27,233 square foot animal shelter in northeast Medford, near Kingsley and Grumman drives, rezoning about 46 acres from Heavy Industrial to Heavy Commercial to make it possible. The Planning Commission takes it up August 27.
• Grants Pass is moving 61 acres along Allen Creek Road, from Harbeck to Denton Trail, out of county zoning and into city urban zoning, opening the door to real in-city housing capacity. A new traffic impact analysis from David Evans & Associates will help determine how dense the final rezone gets.
• Medford’s industrial market has real room to move right now: 17 properties currently for sale, 1.85 million square feet combined, with prices ranging from $330,000 up to $2.95 million.

TALK OF THE TOWN

• Southern Oregon’s Grange Co-op is merging with California-based Farm Supply Company, effective October 1 pending member approval. All six Oregon stores, including Grants Pass, continue operating as-is; the combined cooperative grows to 13 locations and about 450 employees.
• Grants Pass may finally require owners of vacant downtown buildings to fix them up, no boarded-up windows, broken ones repaired within a set time, after a downtown restaurant owner raised concerns about an 11-year eyesore next door. The city currently has no such rule short of a safety hazard code; staff will bring options to a future workshop.
• The city wants to hear from small business owners directly: a citywide priorities survey closes August 31, feeding straight into the new Small Business Task Force’s first round of recommendations.

Questions about what any of this means for your situation? Get in touch.