Central Oregon Real Estate Sales Feeling Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic

The March 2020 real estate trends have been published and they reflect both the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the closings from strong February home sales. Central Oregon schools shut down Friday, March 13th and stay at home became the norm the following week.  Since the start of the pandemic, home sales have dropped, new listings have slowed, and more sale fails than normal have occurred, often due to buyers losing jobs and no longer qualifying for loans.  However, Central Oregon real estate sales are still happening, although at a different rate than normal for this time of year.

Bend Home Sales Mixed

When March of 2020 is compared with March of 2019 for the sales of Bend single family homes on less than an acre, the following can be noted:

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Central Oregon Appraisers are Very Busy

Bend Premier Real Estate is fortunate to have Erik Chapin, one of our Premier Brokers who is also a  licensed appraiser, as an expert on the appraisal business in Central Oregon. According to Erik, Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on appraisals locally.

Erik typically operates with a lead time of 4 weeks to complete an appraisal.  At this time in 2019, he averaged twelve appraisals a month.  Last week over a three day period, he received ten appraisals on top of fifteen he already had. He is working six to seven days a week and is having a hard time keeping up. There are a number of reasons why there is such a backlog:

Why Are Central Oregon Appraisals Backlogged?

1) Low in...

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Covid 19 Concerns Are Real

Concerns over the spread of Covid 19 have quickly changed how we conduct real estate sales in Central Oregon over the past few weeks. Shelter in place, social distancing, travel constraints, economic concerns, social changes, and just an overall fear of catching the coronavirus has really impacted human behavior. As a result, we are seeing two distinctly different groups here at Bend Premier Real Estate when it comes to real estate transactions. 

Get me out!

The first group was the first to emerge as soon as the panic set in. With predictions of massive layoffs and record unemployment, we started to hear concerns of potential job loses and uncertainty...

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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.

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Lack of Inventory Impacting Bend Real Estate

A mild winter and continued high demand has led to a boom for February 2020 home sales in Bend. When the February 2020 sales of Bend single family homes on less than an acre are compared with February 2019, the following changes can be noted:

• Homes for sale down 36.7% to 252*
• Homes sold up 17.6% to 127
• Homes pended up 51% to 219
• Average price per square foot up 7.3% to $265
• Average days on market up 10.1% to 131
• Sold/Original listing price difference percentage unchanged
• Average active price up 13.2% to $771,000
• Average sold price up 11.7% to $564,000
• Months of inventory  down 46.1% to 2

Bend Home Sales Not Following Normal Trends

Winter is typically a slower time fo...

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