We have known for the last several years that the increased demand for Bend housing has pushed prices upward. The cost of a single family home has gone up 11% over the last year to almost $200 per foot while the amount of available inventory has dropped over 20%; the average price of a single family Bend home is now $389,725 (COAR MLS statistics). People continue to move to Bend, loving the Central Oregon lifestyle. However, we are now at a place where the price to live here can exceed the budget of many locals. How did we reach this situation? Bend is not the only American community experiencing a housing crisis. According to Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors® chief economist, 3 million American homes which should have been built over the last 6 years were not. These 3 million homes were the minimum amount needed to keep up with the country's growing population but they were not built, mostly due to banking's hesitation to finance new...

Click Here to Read More...

We love Bend! And if you own a home, you may love what has happened with Bend real estate values even more! During 2015, the average price of a Bend single family home increased 11.1%.  Bend homes have consistently been increasing in value since 2011, when the average price of a Bend single family home was $240,128; today Bend's average home is almost $386,000. If you bought your home anytime in the last 5 years, you most likely have seen an increase in your home's equity. What has caused this? People have continued to move to Bend; we all love the lifestyle  - from the many brew pubs to the amazing outdoor recreational opportunities and the beautiful, clean environment, good schools and fabulous parks! But while people in abundance continue to move here, the amount of homes being built has not kept up with the demand. At the start of 2015, there were 3.5 months supply of Bend homes for sale; at the end of the year there were 2.8 months - a balanced housing market has 6 months supply. At Bend Premier Real Estate, we cannot find homes for all our buyers. Those properties which hit the market are quickly snatched up and multiple offers have driven the sales price even higher. If you have ever considered selling your Bend home, now may be the best time for you to put your home on the market.

Leave a Facebook post below and help us spread the word!

#facebook-time-to-sell#

If searches on our website are any indication of the market, potential home buyers are still looking for deals in Bend real estate.  Almost all home buyers today (over 90%) are spending time on websites like ours searching for real estate.  Over the past 2 weeks, the most popular home searched on our website was a single story 3-bedroom home listed at $239,900.  In fact, 7 of the top 10 searches were for homes under $300,000 with an average price of $289,000.  And the location of these popular homes is Bend except for the most searched property; this home is located in La Pine.  Although the average price of homes searched on our site is almost identical to the national average home price of $289,900, it is understandable that people are looking for a deal when you consider the average home price listed for sale in our Bend MLS in December 2015 was $564,000, and the average sold price $371,000. For more information on home sales tren...

Click Here to Read More...

When comparing Bend Real Estate trends from 2005 with those of 2015, we are seeing significant increases in home prices, a serious lack of inventory (especially in the lower end), and many homes for sale receiving multiple offers. The MLS Trend report from June 2015 shows that this imbalance of supply/demand in the market has resulted in an increase of about 22% in the average price per square foot of Bend single family homes between 2005 and 2015.

So what is different in the conditions now versus the bubble of 2005/2006? During the Bend housing bubble, lending practices were designed to provide loans to the maximum number of people. No doc loans were common and buyers could even finance their down payment. Buyers often flipped properties they had just closed on as the demand for these properties continued to escalate and values continued to climb. These practices were unsustainable, however, and the crash happened when over extended homeowner...

Click Here to Read More...

Lack of Inventory Impacting Bend Home Prices

The Bend Oregon Real Estate market continues to be tight as the 1^st quarter 2015 data continues to show an extreme lack of inventory and rising prices for single family homes in Bend. The average price per square foot of single family homes has increased 12% over the same time last year with the average sold price up 19.3%. Buyers are still looking and offering creating a scenario in which there are only 1.7 months of Bend homes for sale in all price points.

This lack of inventory has resulted in multiple offers on available homes and extreme frustration for buyers who don't have their offer accepted even when they offer over asking price. Based upon available land to build on and the current issues with the City of Bend struggling to get permission to expand the urban growth boundary, it doesn't appear that this situation o...

Click Here to Read More...