The Brakes Are On With Bend Real Estate Sales

Ask any real estate agent across the country about the current state of the market, they will tell you things have changed dramatically since earlier in the year.  Ask a Bend Premier Real Estate Broker about the local market, they will tell you that it is as if the brakes have been hit stopping a jet plane. The fed's increase in interest rates is being done to curtail inflation.  When it comes to the housing industry, this tightening is working. Bend home sales are falling, days on market are rising, yet home prices are still up. Mortgage interest rates are now approaching 7% for a 30 year fixed, a figure which hasn't been seen since 2002. Each percentage increase in interest rates reduces homebuyer's buying power by 10-12%. As the number of pending...

Click Here to Read More...

The Number of Bend Homes for Sale is Down

We have been tracking Bend single family home sales for many years, looking at the trends, how home prices rise or fall, what the changes are in price per square foot, median and average sales price, months of inventory and days on market.  We have consistently compared one month to the same month the year previously in order to follow  the long term changes instead of potential anomalies that can occur over a short time period. We have watched and recorded that happened to the Bend home market when the market crashed with the housing recession. And we have watched and recorded the latest changes that happened when the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders made Americans realize that home meant a whole lot more than it had in the past & lifestyle was more important than an easy commute to the office.

Sometimes, however, it is good to look at the trends over many months to get a...

Click Here to Read More...

According to the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) annual Priced-Out Estimates released earlier this month, 71.5% of Bend residents have been priced out of the Bend real estate market based on a median priced home of $409,281. The household income needed to qualify would be $102,710.  Although the NAHB figures are fairly recent, this number is roughly 73% since the median price of a home in Bend today is closer to $520,000. And for every $5000 increase in the median price for a Bend home, another 700 local residents will be priced out of this market.

These Bend numbers are higher than the national median home price of $346,757, resulting in about 75 million households, or roughly 60% of all U.S. residents, being priced out of the...

Click Here to Read More...

Will Coronavirus Change the Central Oregon Real Estate Market?

With the outbreak of the coronavirus worldwide, which has sickened thousands and created panic and uncertainty in our stock market, we are left to question if the effects will extend to the US real estate market, and more specifically to our local Central Oregon real estate market.

Coronavirus Pushes Down Interest Rates

Mortgage Interest Rates have already fallen to new record lows (3.29% as of March 5^th) as investors are taking money out of the volatile stock market and putting it into safer US Treasury Bonds. Historically, when bonds are strong, mortgage rates go down.

Click Here to Read More...

Home prices in the Bend real estate market have joined numerous other major cities in surpassing the housing boom peak of 2006-2007. Other major U.S. cities that have set new highs according to CNBC News today include Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Boston, Pittsburg, and Charlotte. Bend's average home price May through July, 2016 of $432,000 exceeds the previous high of $429,000 reached in the same months in the peak in 2007*. And with June 2016 marking 50 consecutive months of national price appreciation, the U.S. overall is within just 1.1% of a new national record high.

But the big question everyone is asking, is the Bend real estate market in another housing bubble like the one back in 2007? The answer is yes… and no. While we are experiencing once again the rapid growth...

Click Here to Read More...