To the west of Bend, the town of Sisters is set to gain a significant boost in the number of single family homes within the
city limits after several years of scarce inventory .
Three projects -- two just underway and the revival of
another that faltered in the market collapse -- could add more than 180 new
units to the housing supply.
The new communities are Clear Pine, planned in several
phases to include 78 single family homes on and 22 townhomes and Kuvaito with
34 custom homes. Sales for the early phases in each project, both on the
northern edge of town, began in late 2015.
ClearPine is a
joint venture of managing partner Peter Hall of Bend and other investors. Hall
is also the principal in the Three Sisters Business Park to the east of the residential
project.
Hall and investors purchased the more than 20-acre
property in 2005 for $3.2 million from the Sisters School District. It was initially planned as a business park, which
remains a possibility to the south of
the new residential area.
Kuvaito will
be a custom home neighborhood designed by Don Denning Artisan homes on 13 acres
to the east of ClearPine and adjacent to the south from the larger acreage homes
in established Trapper Point. The property is owned by Dutch Pacific
Properties, an LLC that includes Shane Lundgren, whose ancestors operated the
Lundgren Mill at the site and whose family has property on the Metolius River
area near Camp Sherman.
The other large project that came to a standstill in 2009
is Saddlestone, with more than 80
single family lots. The 17 acres on the northeast side of Sisters was initially
developed by Pahlisch Homes, which in the early 2000s was the region’s largest builder.
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| Saddlestone home design |
County records show that Pahlisch paid more than $5.6
million for the bare land and completed the infrastructure including a park and
paved walking paths before Bank of the Cascades took over the project as the
builder retrenched during the market downturn.
Salem-area investor Peter Dinsdale paid the bank $2.4
million for Saddlestone in late 2009 and has now teamed with Olsen Design and
Development of Monmouth to build several new homes. As of mid-December 2015 there
were five pending sales of homes under construction in a range of $330,900 to
$422,400. Also listed were 14 active Saddlestone lots at $69,900 to $125,900
and five new construction homes in a range of $305,900 to $403,000. And one lot has sold at $84,900.
ClearPine is suggesting that homes be built in what the
developer describes as prairie, craftsman or mid-century modern in the style of
new homes being built on Bend’s west side, such as Northwest Crossing. The
developer has established a lending relationship for new construction with
Washington Federal Bank.
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| ClearPine site illustration |
ClearPine has also identified eight preferred builders
for homes expected to start in the mid-$300,000s for the initial 14-home phase
on lots from 5,000 to 7,000 square feet.
At Kuvaito the design guidelines emphasize a blend of
stone, structural brick, wood and rustic metals with all homes expected to be
Green Certified. Artisan Homes will build custom homes to owners selected plans
with suggested prices starting at $499,000. In all phases there are 30 lots in
the 8,244 to 8,763 square foot range and four of approximately 10,300 to 32,400
square feet.
Denning, the Kuvaito designer, is encouraging homeowners
to use Artisan Homes as the builder but informed brokers in a recent
presentation that the design committee would consider other contractors.
Before the emergence of ClearPine and Kuvaito, and while Saddlestone
was in hibernation, the region’s largest volume homebuilder, Hayden Homes, was
active in its Village at Cold Springs
on Sister’s west side with 91 single family homes and 30 townhomes/condos just
east of the Sisters High School.
Now the largest volume new home builder in Central Oregon,
Hayden started the project in 2007 when
the company sold four single family homes of approximately 2,400 to 2,600
square feet in a range of $357,255 to
$396,500.
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| A new Village@Cold Springs home sold in 2007 |
Since
then the company has also built smaller single family homes of just over 1,000
square feet at prices as low as $131,000 in 2011, then effectively tailoring
its product line to reflect lower demand during the past difficult market
years.
As
of December 8, 2015 there were only 22 single family homes shown as available
for sale in an MLS map search of Sisters’ close-in neighborhoods, including
Saddlestone, ClearPine, and Kuvaito. In the same map area parameters there were
38 reported sales on the MLS in the past 12 months, indicating a current 6.9
month supply in that area.
Typically
a nearly seven-month supply based on an average of the past 12 month of sales
would be considered normal, or even leaning toward an oversupply. But the
Sisters area has been atypical in that sales within the city limits have been
constrained by the lack of single family homes on the market.
Among
the more established newer neighborhoods within the city limits are:
Buck Run - First sales began in 1997 at $39,000 of a total 74
potential lots with sales of lots at $140,000 to $160,000 in 2014-2015 and an
active lot listings at $150,000 and
$249,000 in mid December 2015.
The
first home smaller Buck Run home sold for $220,000 in 1997 and the top sale at
$615,000 occurred at the market peak in mid-2006. The lowest recorded sale was
$160,000 in the market trough years.
Coyote Springs- Initial lot
sales in Coyote Springs began in late 2000 at $77,900 and ramped up to $104,900
before developers withdrew remaining inventory
as the market continued to rise with a top sale of $265,000 in October
of 2006. That lot was later sold in foreclosure at a all-time low of $48,900 in
January of 2011, a dramatic indication of the roller coaster ride of
Sisters--and all of Central Oregon-in the boom and bust cycle.
The
bare lot churn of the project has resulted in 57 sales of the 47 lots
originally platted in the project.
Home
sales in Coyote Springs have ranged from a low of $315,000 in 2003, the first
year a completed home sold, to $700,000 in 2010. There has been one sale in
2015, a builder spec at $594,500, although several homes have been built for
lot owners.
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| Spectacular views define Pine Meadow Village |
Including
resales there have been more than 120 residential sales, excluding shared
interest but including resales, and nearly 170 land sales in Pine Meadow since 1999.
At the market peak in 2007 a perimeter lot bordered by
ranchland with unobstructed mountain views sold for $325,000. In 2013 an
interior lot sold for $85,000, the same as several early lots sales as the
project launched in 1999.
Home sales have ranged from the mid to upper $300,000s in
the early years for traditional single family, other than small cottages, to
$690,000 in 2015. There have been townhome/condo/cottage sales in from the mid
$100,000s to low $300,000s.
