“Bend Sucks . . . Don’t Move Here”

Bend Sucks . . . Don’t Move Here

The bumper stickers are available online at eBay and Amazon; locally, they can be found at Newport Market.

Obviously, the Bend real estate market thinks otherwise!

Bend Doesn’t Suck

The market continued on its roll in May. We saw the purchase of 245 homes . . . about right for this time of year (and up almost 20% from a month ago).

Inventory levels remained low (just 2.1 months overall) despite the availability of almost 100 more homes than April’s offering.
Median price continued to climb . . . up to $370,000
The high end flourished . . . eight sales over $1M
The low end really did suck (check out the top row of the above chart); affordable housing is a real problem.
Finding a rental was near impossible . . . less than 1% vacancy rate
New construction continued to kill it (Tetherow, NorthWest Crossing)
74 building permits issued
Pending sales stayed strong (205)

Affordable Bend . . . $217,500

Just five years ago (May 2011), 91 homes sold for under $200,000 . . . we all wish that we’d bought a few of them! This year, the least expensive home sold was a three bedroom, 2 bath, 1008 square foot single level on Bend’s SE side.

I’m not sure why, but that area of Bend seems to have its own micro climate . . . looks sort of cold, doesn’t it?

The home needed floor coverings and some other “friendly touches.” Still, not bad for under $100 per square foot. Next month, it may be tough to find anything under $250,000.

Median Price in Bend . . . $370,000

The median priced home in Bend would look like this upgraded circa 1920’s bungalow in the heart (easy walking distance to the pubs!) of downtown.

The single level cottage featured 2 bedrooms and a den packed into 1175 square feet.

It also offered 952 square feet of dark, unfinished basement, and an alley-accessed single car garage. The home closed in just 47 days at $315 per square foot.

To put things in perspective, in 2010, it sold for $170,000. To put things in even more perspective, in 2008, it was listed (unrealistically) at $498,000!

The High End is Hot!

I can’t remember a month like this . . . 8 homes sold for more than a million dollars! Not sure if it’s an aberration or a sign of things to come. Regardless, the big winner was a home that “captured the essence of quintessential Bend” (I think that’s polysyllabic Realtor speak for “a cool house”).