The demand for Bend Oregon housing over the past year has broken records. With less than a month supply of single family homes for sale, builders have been working hard to bring new product onto the market. However, the demand has not kept up with the supply and more and more buyers are not able to purchase a home they can afford.
Besides the changes that great demand has made to Bend new home prices, there is another important issue connected with housing affordability - the price of lumber. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March when lumber prices dropped initially, the price of lumber has climbed at a tremendous rate, reaching a high of almost $1000 per thousand board feet in September before prices dropped in October. However, with decent weather and great demand, builders continue to build into the late fall and lumber prices are rising again. Traditionally lumber pri...
The Bend real estate trends continued their 2020 pattern in November with prices up significantly over November 2019 and the inventory of available single family homes for sale down. The demand for Bend housing sometimes appears desperate with multiple offers the norm on most new listings and most buyers disappointed as their "highest and best" offer isn't sufficient to "win the home."
Comparing November 2020 with November 2019 sales for Bend single family homes on less than an acre, the following trends can be seen:
As has been the case all year, almost every month of 2020 has seen more sales of Bend homes than new listings entering the market. The data shows November had only 2.5 weeks of inventory for Bend homes - a balanced real estate market has 6 months of inventory. With people still moving to Bend, the demand for homes continues to be strong. Within Bend Premier Real Estate, our brokers are finding more and more buyers are willing to look outside of Bend for homes they can afford and can have success in making an offer that is accepted. Prineville is becoming a great option to buyers looking to move to Central Oregon.
* Data from Central Oregon MLS
The October 2020 figures have been published for Bend single family home sales on less than an acre. The results continue the trends we have been experiencing this year - recording breaking low inventory, record breaking demand and record breaking home prices. The inventory of available Bend single family homes for sale has now reached a desperate level of less than half a month of supply. This has created a situation where multiple offers are the norm, days on market historically low and prices escalating at a rate that we believe is unsustainable.
When October 2019 sales figures for Bend single family homes on less than an acre are compared with those from October 2020, the following changes can be noted:
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.

Mortgage Interest Rates have already fallen to new record lows (3.29% as of March 5th) 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.
Traditionally as the weather cools and we move toward the end of the year, Bend home sales decrease. There are fewer buyers actively looking for homes in the winter and the holiday celebrations of most families impact real estate sales.
This year, however, there has been a large uptick in the number of Bend homes which went into contract during November. When Bend single family home sales in November 2019 are compared with those from November 2018, the following changes can be noted: