Real Estate Trends Report for October is Ready!!

Many are finding that in Bend it is getting harder to find the house they want at a price they can accept. October has brought the lowest inventory of Bend homes for this year. With the lower inventory we are seeing houses that are well priced with nice amenities and a desirable location being snapped up off the market quickly. We have found that buyers who think that Bend has abundance of great homes at super cheap prices are astounded by how difficult it is to find the home that they want at a price they are willing to pay.


Many of the well priced homes are seeing multiple offers, which is a welcome change for sellers. That trend is especially pronounced in the lower price range of the market with only a 2.8 month supply of homes available under $225,000 and a 3.2 month supply of priced between $225,000 and $325,000. In categories below $625,000 there is currently less than an eight month supply of homes.

The average price for a home sold in Bend for the month was $259,474 down 12% from 2009. Of those homes sold this past month traditional sales made up the bulk of the sales at 44.7%. Bank owned homes fell in behind the traditional sales at 32.1% and short sales brought up the rear 23%.

Short sales remain a headache for all involved in the process. To illustrate how frustrating the short sale process can be there are 133 in a contingent sales status compared to 6 traditional home sales and 1 bank owned. In the contingent sales status most are waiting for approval of the third party lender/investor which can take months. Recently I have been told by certain lenders that they are attempting to complete the short sales transaction in a thirty day window, I have yet to see a lender accomplish that timeline.

The bank owned properties have been the primary recipients of multiple offers with their aggressive pricing; these homes have sold 99.1% of the list price at the time of the sale. Short sales have had the next best results with a ratio of 97.8% and traditional sales seeing the larger concession in prices at 95.1%.

For a different perspective on pricing, homes continue to sell in the mid 80% range of their original list price, this trend has held true since December of 2009. What I see in this last number is that sellers are still adjusting to the realization that their properties will not fetch the price of even just a year ago.

These trends will likely continue through the winter months and into the first part of the spring season. It appears that for the lower range of the market we have stumbled to the bottom of the market. I think we will remain there for the near future and into the next year while we wait for the rest of the market to catch up and the economy continue its recovery.

Click the following link to see this month’s market trends report.