Bend Housing Market Robust

To quickly answer your question why it's been nearly seven and a half months since I last posted.....no, I didn't die....or retire....or find another career.  In fact, the answer is quite the opposite.  2012 has been one of the busiest years in a long time for me, and quite honestly, I haven't been very effective at carving out the time to put the numbers together and share my thoughts here about the real estate market in Bend (I suppose that's obvious!).  Anyway, as you'll see below, the market in Bend has been cranking this year too.....so let's jump right in and have a look!

This past Sunday marked the end of the 3rd quarter, providing a good time to look back over 2012 and compare it to where we were at this time last year.  Through September, the number of closed sales is up 17.1%....and the median sales price to date is 12.3% higher.  Even on a dollar-per-square-foot basis (which I think is more useful than the median price of recently sold homes when comparing the overall change in market value), the price per square foot paid for stick built houses on one acre or less in Bend so far this year has increased from $106.00/sf to $116.42/sf , 9.4%% higher.

The 3rd quarter was no exception.....in fact, the pace of sales and the rate at which prices rose accelerated over the past 3 months.  The number of houses sold increased 25.2% from the same period last year, from 425 homes sold to 532.  The median price increased to $235k from $205k (14.6%) and the price paid per square foot jumped 10%, from $112.89/sf to $124.21/sf in Q3 this year.

The amount of time it took to sell a home in the 3rd quarter remained essentially the same from last year, averaging about 4 to 4.5 months from the time a home is listed for sale until a sale is closed.

Please call or email me with any questions you may have, or to talk specifics about buying a home in Central Oregon or selling one you currently own in the area.

3rd Quarter Sales Show Stability In Bend Housing Market

The median price of homes sold in the 3rd quarter increased 5.1% from a year earlier, while sales volume was nearly identical.  Prices also climbed 3.3% on a square foot basis.

The median sale price for homes sold in the July through September period was $205,000, up from $195,000 for the same period a year ago. And the median price paid per square foot was $112.95 in Q3, compared to $109.30 in 2010.


422 houses were reported sold in the 3rd quarter, almost the equivalent of the 421 sold a year ago.

Through the first 9 months of the year, sales volume in Bend is up 1.8%.  Prices are down slightly; the median price paid in 2011 to date is $192.5K ($106/sf) compared to $195k (107.62/sf) over the same period in 2010.

With historically low interest rates (around 4.125% for a 30 year fixed rate loan) and a relatively tight rental market (good, clean rentals aren't available for very long), I expect this stability to continue in to the foreseeable future. 

If you're curious to know what your house is currently worth, or want to find out exactly what you can afford to buy in today's low rate environment, please give me a call at 541.410.9060.