High Mortgage Rates - High Prices Affecting Bend Home Sales

For the 4th week in a row, the thirty year mortgage interest rate has risen which has impacted real estate sales across the country. With these rates now pushing 7%, the buying power of Bend homebuyers has diminished.

With this change, few sellers are putting their homes of the market. Why sell a home with a great interest rate when the replacement home will cost so much more to finance? Both Bend home buyers and Bend home sellers are making decisions based on the cost to finance and when mortgage rates rise, often the decision made is to do nothing.

Bend Real Estate Inventory Levels Remain Low

Although there is always a downward seasonal adjustment for Bend home sales in the winter, the number...

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Are you feeling a bit unsure about what's really happening with mortgage rates? That might be because you've heard someone say they're coming down. But then you read somewhere else that they're up again. And that may leave you scratching your head and wondering what's true.

The simplest answer is: that what you read or hear will vary based on the time frame they're looking at. Here's some information that can help clear up the confusion.

Mortgage Rates Are Volatile by Nature

Mortgage rates don't move in a straight line. There are too many factors at play for that to happen. Instead, rates bounce around because they're impacted by things like economic conditions, decisions from the Federal Reserve, and so much mo...

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Redmond Home Sales Dropped in 2023

Redmond has been among the best locations in Central Oregon for middle class homeowners to reside.  Situated only 20 minutes north of Bend on Hwy 97, Redmond has been a more affordable option for many looking to purchase in Central Oregon and its close proximity to Bend has made Redmond a town from which many who work in Bend can fairly easily commute. 

Redmond experienced the same real estate market trends Bend did during the Covid pandemic with limited inventory and great demand pushing prices up. Low interest rates enabled many to purchase Redmond homes at lower prices than seen in Bend. However, when interest rates doubled in 2022, this greatly impacted the buying power of would-be Redmond homebuyers and in 2023, median home prices dropped in Redmond by over 4%.

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Bend Real Estate Sales Were Limited in 2024

Probably the biggest challenge for Bend Home Sales in 2024 was mortgage interest rates. Mortgage rates started the year at 6.48% and ended the year at 6.62%. During the middle of the year, the mortgage rates rose to 7.79% which greatly limited the buying power for most Bend homebuyers who needed to finance in order to purchase. Home sales in Bend continued, but at a greatly reduced rate than experienced during Covid when mortgage rates under 4% were normal.

High mortgage rates also kept many Bend home sellers from listing. The thought for many was why sell and give up a great mortgage rate of less than 4% to exchange to one over 7% on a different home? Many Central Oregon real estate brokers discovered that many listings were limited to just those who had to sell for a job tra...

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When you read about the Bend housing market, you'll probably come across some information about inflation or recent decisions made by the Federal Reserve (the Fed). But how do those two things impact potential Bend homebuyers? 

The Federal Funds Rate Hikes Have Stalled

One of the Fed's primary goals is to lower inflation. In order to do that, they started raising the Federal Funds Rate to slow down the economy. Even though this doesn't directly dictate what happens with mortgage rates, it does have an impact.

Recently inflation has started to cool, a signal those incr...

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