The March Bratton Report for Bend, Oregon…

The March 2012 Bratton Report for the Bend real estate market was released over the weekend. The report confirms much of what was covered in my previous blog detailing the Duke Warner Realty Market Trends Report.


Both reports show a good size jump in the number of properties sold last month, a trend that appears to be continuing into this April. The hot classes are properties priced between $100,000 and $150,000, closely followed by the $150,000 to $200,000 range. With such strong movement in the lower price range look for these trends trickle upward and help the mid range priced homes sell this summer.

Fueling much of the buying is the tight rental market for Bend homes, currently running at 4.2% according to annual rental report release recently by the Central Oregon Rental Association. This is leading to investors returning to the market to snap up good homes that are well priced. Many of these homes are distressed properties either being bank owned or homeowners short selling their properties.

Predictably this competition is drying up the inventory of available homes. As of this writing there are 32 bank owned and 62 short sale homes actively listed. It is expected that the short sale listings will increase as we march closer to the July 1st implementation of Oregon House Bill 1552.

In case you have not followed Oregon HB 1552 it is intended to end the dual tracking policies of the larger lenders. With a three month implementation window from the bills inception there is much that is not known on how this bill will affect homeowners in distress. The bill calls for homeowners and lenders to participate in mediation to arrive at a solution that will allow the homeowner relief through loan modification, short sale, deed-in-lieu and lastly foreclosure.

This bill primarily directed at Oregon’s non-judicial foreclosures. Oregon allows lenders to pursue foreclosure through non-judicial and judicial proceedings. Lenders traditionally have taken the non-judicial procedure because of its simplicity and relatively quick timeline. With the new requirements placed on lenders there is a strong possibility that lenders may now pursue foreclosure through the judicial process. This will allow lenders to retain their rights to pursue any deficiency tied to the debt beyond the foreclosure. Another benefit to the lender in the judicial foreclosure is the short notification timelines, the question will be if the procedure timelines and avoiding the mediation process will be enough to offset the 180 day “Right of Redemption” period required in all judicial foreclosures.

Either way this breaks expect to see an influx of “Notices of Default” filed before the July 1st date, this in turn should create a wave of short sale listings and a bump to our inventory. The question how big will the wave be? And how far will it travel?

Duke Warner Realty Market Trends for March are out!!

There are good signs that our real estate market is stabilizing and a recovery for the region has begun. If our two larger markets Bend and Redmond remain strong it should be a matter of time before our smaller markets like Prineville and south Deschutes County follow suit.


The market for homes under $225,000 is getting more and more competitive, not just in Bend but Redmond too. Redmond is selling homes under $125,000 as fast as they come onto the market. If you are going to buy in this class you better be prepared to act quickly as most well priced homes are receiving multiple offers. If you do not have a mortgage person guiding you on this process use this link to a list of mortgage brokers that have done well for our clients in the past.

For the second month in a row the number of homes that have taken a price reduction has fallen. This trend holds sway mostly in our hot categories with homes under $325,000. The categories above $325,000 are holding relatively steady in terms of price and quantities of homes available with a slight improvement in the number of homes sold.

Overall our inventory has slipped below 400 homes actively listed for sale. At any one time there is an average of 40 bank owned properties and 60 short sales that are actively listed for sale, both of these numbers have been on a downward trend but appear to have stabilized. It will be interesting to see how the recently passed Oregon House Bill 1552 which goes into effect in late June and was design to provide relief and clarity for distressed homeowners affects our distressed sales market. There are a variety of opinions on how the lenders are going to react but there is nothing decisive to report yet.

Builders too are feeling confident in the direction of our local market, last month was had the second highest number of new home permits being issued in the past twelve months. To see the most dramatic illustration of these new homes head out to NorthWest Crossing were more than a dozen new homes are under construction.

Click on the city of your preference to see this month’s Duke Warner Market Trend Report. The Bratton report will follow once it is released.

Bend       Redmond

February’s Bratton Market Report for Bend, Oregon Now Being Served

February’s Bratton Market Report for Bend, Oregon Now Being Served


The Bratton Report numbers for last month has the median price for a home in Bend moving up from $186,000 in January to $199,000 in February. Moving in concert with the median price is the number of homes sold last month moving up twenty homes to 134, with the price per square foot inching up as well to $111. A reoccurring number for this report is 111, in this case representing the days on the market. This number has flat lined for the time being with the same number being recorded for January. Building permits hit a level not seen since July of 2008 but still remains a weak at 28 permits.

It will be interesting to see if the number of building permits increases seasonally this year. From what I have witnessed most of the building permits have been issued for west side projects in Bend with Northwest Crossing leading the way. The price point for these new homes remains above $300,000. Given the competition we are seeing for homes under $250,000 I would not be surprised to see builders buoyed by this information and be more willing to step to shoulder the risk of building lesser priced spec homes. Some might think this would be crazy but if the opportunity to purchase a new home versus a seasoned home came up I think a good portion of folks will choose the newer product.

With 65 lots under $30,000 that have either sold or have pending sales since last March and 13 lots currently available for sale, could these lots be the basis for builders that brings new homes to the market for under $250,000?

For now the recovery continues, we will need to monitor how the incredible increases in gasoline prices effects the overall economy and the positive gains we are beginning to see. Will we see continued confidence and recovery? Or do we continue to bounce along the bottom, waiting to release the pent up demand to move forward?

Now Serving Duke Warner Realty's February Bend Market Trends Report

Duke Warner Real Estate Trend Report is now available on my web site http://www.shopbendhomes.com/ .  I should have the Bratton Report available in just a few days, once it is released.

February’s report shows that we are continuing to see a decline of available listed home. The decline this month is slight with ten fewer homes actively marketed. We actually had more new listings this February than the previous month but with the market heating up were able to sell more homes.

The competition for good homes under $200,000 is getting pretty stiff, last weekend there was one newly listed home that received 31 offers on the first weekend. Others are not quite so dramatic but still are garnering plenty of attention from potential buyers. It will be interesting to see if this new found competition will lead to an influx of traditional sellers in the spring and summer selling months that are just around the corner.

Another trend to watch that could support the thought that we have reached the bottom of this downturn is if the amount of price reductions each month continues to decrease. This number has continued to fall as sellers are coming to market with a more realistic idea of what their properties are worth in today’s market. This in turn should help sellers get there properties sold in a quicker fashion.

We are still waiting for the much vaunted shadow inventory to hit the market. Many of my colleagues are in agreement that this may not happen in great quantity here in Bend. The recent court battles over robo- signing by the big lenders has been resolved for the most part and lenders have re-filed notices of default with the county but the amount of filings are nothing like we have seen in the past few years. What we will most likely see from these new filings is an increase in the number of homeowners that attempt a short sale and eventually a few more bank owned listings.

As of this writing the current number of homes actively listed as short sales is 46. On the bank owned side our inventory is down to 33 homes stick built homes. The number of homes in the bank owned category over the past couple of years had fluctuated between the high seventies and the low nineties. The blip from homes that are currently receiving their notices of default will hit the court house steps early this summer. As this passes we may see increase in the amount of bank owned homes going into the winter months.

The wild cards to the upcoming spring and summer selling season are the Presidential elections (with all their promises and rhetoric) this fall, the forecasted higher gas prices that should affect the overall economy and the stability of the European economy. With little control over any of these, I think those of us with the means will move forward with their lives and take advantage of the favorable real estate market conditions in Central Oregon property.

If a friend or you would like a personal assistant for your Central Oregon property endeavors I am available and look forward to hearing your goals.

My Tardy Bend, Oregon Market Trends Report for January 2012

Once again I am tardy with last month’s market trend reports for Bend, Oregon.

Things are looking better here for the real estate market in Bend, Oregon. Once again we are hitting the top of a couple of “Best of Lists”. Check out these two links from the past month,

Mount Bachelor uphill from 'Beer City USA'   seattletimes.nwsource.com

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/trips/best-ski-towns-photos/

Bend continues to be one of the finest places to live, work and play. Local Pete Alport has put together a short Youtube video piece that helps define why so many of us choose to live here. 360 Degrees of Mt. Bachelor by Pete Alport www.youtube.com

Our local real estate market continues to recover as we bounce along the bottom. As mentioned in this blog previously it is my humble opinion that we have hit the bottom of the market. My observation through hindsight is that we bottomed around the spring of 2009 and have been bouncing up and down in small increments for the last three years.

Currently new listings are on the rise but our inventory continues to shrink. Last month there were 22 new listings above the previous month, yet overall inventory of residential homes in Bend dropped by 73 to 432 homes.

Of these listings distressed properties continue to have a smaller presence in our market. As of today (2/21/12) there are 41 bank owned, 48 short sale and 353 traditional sale residential properties actively listed. Of course this is leading to quite a bit of competition for the better priced homes. We still continue to see the seller who believes they need to recover a good portion of their investment made back in the hay days of 2004 -2006 but more often folks are coming around to the reality that those dollars are gone for the foreseeable future.

With that said now is the time to take action!! If you have been sitting of the fence waiting for someone to declare we have hit the bottom, it has now been declared so get off the fence. Interest rates are low but will not stay there for much longer, home prices are still low but our selection is limited. We see incredible properties all the time; they just do not last long. So if you are jumping in to the market come prepared. Have your funding squared away, talk to a good lender; get pre-approved for your loan. I have a couple of very highly regard mortgage specialist I can recommend. If you are a cash buyer have your proof of funds easily accessible and let’s go hunting for a property in Central Oregon.

World's Best Ski Towns - National Geographic

A little more recognition for Bend and our friends at Mt. Bachelor...

World's Best Ski Towns - National Geographic

Come and Get It….December Market Trend Reports for Bend, Oregon

The holiday season brought moderate success for retailers as people seem to be ready for some good news and are tired of the same old doom and gloom. For the housing market in Bend the news has remained the same for the past few months.


Going back to August of 2011 the sales numbers have been remarkably similar in all price categories with home under $325,000 leading the way for homes sold. With all the media coverage of a swollen distressed homes market our numbers representing the current inventory just do not support such coverage locally. The inventory numbers continue to sink with just over 500 homes offered in Bend, as recently as this past August that number exceeded 600.

By far the most active segment of the market remains homes priced $225,000 and under. This price range tends to help satisfy both the first time home buyer and the investor who is looking for affordable properties that will generate a positive return. With the occupancy rate for rental properties remaining low (around 4%), we will continue to see multiple offers on well priced homes under $325,000 as they tend to be the ones that pencil out the best for the investor who has the means to pick up these homes.

Currently 276 homes are listed over $325,000 and in this category there are some great values, they just take a little more time to discover but there is little competition for them.

As the world economic markets remain unstable look for that to affect our mortgage rates as investors look to the relatively safe Dollar and our bonds as a haven for their money. Their incoming funds may lead to a slow rise in mortgage interest rates. If rates raise look for more buyers to get off the fence and take advantage of the historic low rates currently offered. With the current low inventory of desirable homes expect the competition for those homes to increase.

To view the Market Trend Reports for Bend click here.