Pending Home Sales Remain Healthy Locally

Though there was a slight uptick in home sales just prior to the expiration of the $8000 homebuyer's tax credit (buyers were required to be under contract by April 30 in order to qualify), it doesn't appear that the credit was a driving factor in leading home sales higher in Central Oregon.

After a slight decline in May following the passing of the tax credit deadline, pending home sales in Bend increased again in June, registering an 11% improvement from a year earlier.

Pending sales (those under contract but not yet closed) increased to 164 houses last month, up from 156 in May and 148 in June 2009.

The 164 pending sales in June was also an increase of more than 50% from the same month 2 years ago.

Traditional Transactions Lead Home Sales Higher

Home sales in Bend increased 9.35% in June from a year earlier.  Although sales volume has been increasing on a year-over-year basis for several months now, what makes June's numbers more remarkable is that traditional sales accounted for the entire uptick last month.  In fact, both the number of bank-owned transactions and short sales declined in June from a year ago while traditional sales increased by more than 22%!

The price per square foot paid for homes sold last month was down 3.21% from 12 months ago but, at $109.63/sf, last month's median price per square foot price is 4.7% higher than the $104.74/sf for sales through the first 5 months of this year.