Bend Oregon New Home Prices Expected to Rise

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...

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Lake Billy Chinook Area Offers Interesting Things to See

Many Central Oregonians will spend time during the summer at Lake Billy Chinook enjoying the houseboats and recreational opportunities available at The Cove Palisades State Park. However, hiking during the summer can be very uncomfortable with high temperatures in the area the norm. But in mid December, the cool temperatures can make for a nice hiking experience when a lot of exertion is needed.

Balancing Rocks is a Geological Formation to View Overlooking the Metolius Arm of Lake Billy Chinook

Not really a hike (1/2 a mile round trip), the Balancing Rocks (called hoodoos) can be located by driving all the way through the park past the airport toward the Perry South Campground. When forest service road 64 turns into a dirt road, travel just a short distance until you find the parking lot for the short walk to Balancing Rocks. The rocks were formed when a layer of harder volcanic rock flowed over a softer layer of volcanic rock.  Over many thousands of years, the underlying softer rock has eroded at a faster rate than the overlying harder rock, thus forming the balancing rocks we see today. This is worth the extra drive to see such an unusual geological formation.

Tam-a-lau Trailhead is at the Day Use Area of the Cove Palisades State Park 

The trail to the top of the plateau between the Deschutes and Crooked River arms of Lake Billy Chinook has a very steep 800 foot elevation gain the first mile. Wooden stairs are built into some tough sections, but we found other areas to be slippery and later muddy as the frozen ground melted once the temperature rose above freezing later in the day. After reaching the top of the plateau, the level 4.5 mile loop around the hilltop provides for wonderful views of the lake and we were fortunate to see a soaring red-tailed hawk during this trek.  In certain sections, the trail goes very close to the edge of the plateau and we recommend staying a safe distance from the edge as the drop is very steep and dangerous in some areas.

We have read that the Tam-a-lau trail can be very hot and uncomfortable during the summer and is best done either very early or late in the day when the temperatures are cooler. For our hike mid December, layers were best with us getting quite warm in the first mile, but cooling off a lot during the loop hike at the top of the plateau. We saw just a few people during the entire hike.

Bend Home Prices Up And Inventory Levels Down

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:

• Average sales price up 23.2% to $640,366*
• Median sales price up 24% to $537,000
• New listings down 6% to 126
• Homes for sale down 80.7% to 144
• Pending sales up 96.5% to 336
• Sold homes up 22.9% to 209
• Median days on market down 81.8% to 6
• Months of supply down 84.6% to 2.5 weeks
• Average price per square foot up 18.8% to $316
• Median price per square foot up 18.8% to $297
• Average percentage of list price to sales price up 1.8% to 100.8%
• Dollar volume of closed sales up 51.4% to $133,836,432

More Bend Home Sales Happening Than New Listings Coming Onboard

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

Beyond Painted Hills is Blue Basin

Most tourists to Central Oregon will travel to see the Painted Hills, one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon.  But the Painted Hills is just one of three locations of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Located past Mitchell, closer to Dayville, the Blue Basin Overlook Trail is worth the hike and the panoramic views of colorful Blue Canyon worth seeing.  The loop around the canyon is only 3.25 miles, but climbs 900 feet in elevation.  The second hike in the area is an in and back 1.3 miles up the canyon itself with several stops along the Island in Time Trail with descriptions of fossils and wildlife that used to inhabit the area millions of years ago. The Thomas Condon Paleontology and Visitor Center is located just a few miles from Blue Basin and is another must for tourists.

If you plan on traveling to Blue Basin from Bend, be sure to have a full tank of gas before you leave town as there are limited services in this part of Central Oregon. The drive is roughly 40 miles from the Painted Hills and about 120 miles from Bend. In summer the hike will be hot with very little shade.  We did this hike in November and it was cool with few people. 

Inventory Levels Less than a Month for Bend Real Estate

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:

• Average sales price up 21.5% to $669,699*
• Median sales price up 19.1% to $560,000
• Average listing price up 11.4% to $638,699
• Median listing price up 19.6% to...

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