“They were dream towns . . .”

I stole the line from an interesting article in Outside Magazine, and  while the piece isn’t specifically about Bend, our town was mentioned more than a few times.

Bend Real Estate

The market perked along in January . . . a bit of the “same old same old.” The locals talked about the weather . . . half the population (ourselves included!) bemoaning the the lack of snow and firm conditions at Mt. Bachelor;

the other half loving the sunny weather and warm temperatures in town.

I guess you can’t please them all.

We saw the purchase of only 141 homes (perhaps about right for January); maybe somewhat attributable to the lack of inventory . . . just 2.8 months overall. Homes continued to sell at 96% of list price (bad news for interlopers hoping for a steal), and averaged $227 per square foot.

Big news was the 209 pended sales (up 225% from December), boding well for the months ahead. Also shocking were the 13 homes pended for more than a million dollars. Not exactly sure what to make of it, but I’ve never seen a number approaching that.

Affordable Bend

The low priced leader for the month was a private and inviting single level on picturesque Robin Hood Lane in Nottingham Square. The three bedroom, two bath, 1560 square foot home closed in just 43 days at $269,500 (or $172 per foot). It featured a cool surf motif.

The grassy .23 acre lot is maintained by the HOA (I like that!) as part of the $125 monthly fee.

Bend’s Median . . . $407,500

Bend’s median price has been yo-yoing a bit, bouncing from around $400,000 to a high of $414,000 in August. For January, we were at $407,500.

For that price, one could find something like this Pahlisch Home in McCall Landing

on Bend’s east side. Funny, I feel like I’m using the same photo each month (maybe I am)!

3/2.5, 1810 square feet . . . an undersized lot (5663 square feet), but lots of good stuff–an open entry, quartz counter tops, stainless appliances, and a large covered deck!

The home sold for $225 per square foot.

As always, interesting to see the disparity in median prices between the two sides of town . . . $354,000 on the east side, $549,000 on the west.

Luxury Bend . . . $1.6 M

The winner for the month was a beautiful mountain style home in Broken Top (seems like the winners always come from Broken Top or Tetherow).

Built in 1993, the 4/3.5, 5180 square foot home overlooked the fourth green and the lake of the Weiskopf/Morrish track.

It featured floor to ceiling windows, a wonderful chef’s kitchen, and too many other fine accoutrements to mention in this space. Interestingly, the house sold just a year ago for $1.55 M.

Looking Ahead

This pundit thinks we’ll continue to see more of the same:

• Continued in-migration
• Paucity of inventory
• A slight rise in interest rates
• The beer will continue to be hoppy
• A real lack of affordable housing
• A slow but steady increase in pricing (fueled by the first two items above)
• New construction will continue to boom

The big question . . . “Where next?”