Back in the top 20
After ascending the summit of national home appreciation in the “bubble years,” then plummeting to the bottom in only two years, the greater Bend area is back in the top 20.
Just released numbers from the Federal Housing Financing Agency for the first quarter of 2013 rank Bend as number 20 among single family home appreciation for 2012, with a rise of 7.69%. For the first quarter of 2013 prices rose 3.71%. But prices are down by 34.30% for the past five years.
An earlier post in 2011
From the top 20 to the bottom 20...
Region’s leading bank in recovery
With a portfolio weighted down by troubled development loans Bend-based Bank of the Cascades went on a federal watch list for at risk lenders. But with it’s recent report of $1.7 million in net income for first quarter 2013, along with gains for the previous four quarters, the bank appears poised for growth along with the housing recovery. Deposits for the quarter rose by 11%.
Following the reports BOTC officials noted the bank has shrunk from an asset base of $2.5 billion in 2010 to $1.5 billion. Now the lender will concentrate on growing through acquisitions in selective markets and cost cutting by closing some branches.
Population growth ramps up
Maybe Bend city officials can postpone correcting the population signs entering town if the current influx of new residents continues.
New federal census figures estimate the city’s population at 79,109 as of July 1, 2012, a 3.2% increase from the same date in 2010. That ranks Bend as the fourth fastest growing city of more than 50,000 in Oregon, behind Hillsboro, Portland and Beaverton.
Bend grew by about 20,000 residents between 2000 and 2007, but added fewer than 2,000 residents from 2008 through 2010. Another 2,500 were added in the 2010 through 2012 period.
For some years the small green population signs entering town have pegged the city’s population at more than 80,000, a number that Oregon State University’s population forecast center has questioned.
Construction to start on Old Mill hotel
Site preparation has begun for a planned 114-room Hampton Inn & Suites on a 4-acre property at Columbia Street and SW Shevlin Hixon Drive in the Old Mill District adjacent to the Les Schwab Ampitheater.
Boise-based AmeriTel Inns will develop the property and is the joint permit applicant along with William Smith Properties, the Old Mill District Developer.
AmeiTel also operates the Hilton Garden property on the ridge above the Old Mill District retail area on the opposite side of the Deschutes River. The company had earlier put on hold plans for the site as the economy headed downward following contruction of the Hilton Garden, originally known as AmeriTel Inn before rebranding in 2012 under the current name.
