It’s likely that anyone who has tracked the Bend
residential real estate market will rank Northwest Crossing on the city’s west
side among the most successful newer communities.
Much like all housing in Bend, Northwest Crossing faced
substantial challenges as the market began to dive in 2007, after what has
generally been conceded was an unsustainable boom.
As
the market continues its climb out of the recession-induced hole the community is bustling with new construction, much of it
on streets not yet completed before the downturn.
On
the east side streets have been extended to connect with other west side
neighborhoods. On the west side of Mt. Washington Drive, new lots are nearing
shovel ready and a new city park to include a lake is under construction.
Perhaps setting Northwest Crossing apart from more
troubled projects was a master-planned vision that incorporated residential,
office, retail, schools and developer control of buildable lot inventory, along
with an approved “guild” of quality builders.
And the financial stability of developer West Bend
Property Company LLC, a partnership of Brooks Resources and the Tennant Family,
has resulted in the “staying power” that
was lacking with some other developers.
In its history through July of 2014 there have been 785
single family homes sold in Northwest Crossing, the first in 2002 when there
were 10 sales at a median price of $289,045.
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| Northwest Crossing master plan |
As the national economy continued to rebound after the 9-11
attacks, single family sales rose steadily to 91 in 2005, at a median of
$424,377. In 2006 sales began to sag, falling to only 38 units, although
momentum carried prices to $538,000 that year and to the all-time high of
$575,000 in 2007 on 47 units sold.
Then came the slide, as prices dropped 26% to $425,000 in
2008 on a meager 39 sales. Prices hit bottom at a median of $371,815 the
following year, although sales increased to 53 homes. But only nine of those
2009 sales were built in 2009 or 2008, the lowest rate of new homes sold since
the project’s inception in 2002.
Northwest Crossing sales rose to 71 in 2011 while median
prices remained in a narrow range of the $370,000s.
Then 2012 marked a dramatic increase as the mix of builders, lenders and buyers drove sales to
116 homes at a median price of $388,250--56 of those newly-built from 2011
through 2012.
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| Discovery Park at Northwest Crossing |
The pace continued in 2013 with 110 homes sold,.49 of
those built in 2012 and 2013. But more notable in 2013, the median price rose
nearly 20% to $462,500.
At the end of July 2014 median prices had moved up to
$490,000, edging closer to the $500,000s. And the rate of homes sold could be
expected to top 100 for the third consecutive year, compared to the high of 91
homes sold in 2005 before the housing slump.
Moving forward, West Bend Property is opening an
additional 24 lots across Mt. Washington Drive that will be adjacent to a new
20 acre Bend city park with a 30 plus acre park with a 3-acre lake.
