With continued recovery of the real estate market resort land sales are also demonstrating a
strong performance that mirrors the importance of tourism and the vacation home
sector to the Bend and Central Oregon economy.
There are four “new era” resorts that emerged during the
boom of the early to mid-decade starting in 2000, and three of the four are now
logging robust sales while the fourth lags behind.
The four resorts are Tetherow, Caldera Springs, Brasada
Ranch and Pronghorn, with the last struggling to catch up with the others in
land sales after a change in ownership and high percentage of short sales and
foreclosures.
As
the local economy struggled, both Tetherow and Pronghorn received lengthy
extensions of a Deschutes County
condition of approval that they build a defined ratio of nightly lodging units
in relation to single family-owner occupied homes.
Concurrent with the rising tourism industry of recent
years Tetherow moved ahead with construction of a new hotel to comply with
county requirements for nightly rentals. Pronghorn is reportedly seeking a
hotel development partner and is facing a deadline to proceed.
From 2005 through 2015 Caldera Springs was leading all of
these new generation resorts with 404 homesites sold for a total volume of
$113,542, 469. Brasada Ranch was second in unit sales at 220, followed by
Tetherow at 208. However, Tetherow’s sales volume of $68,945,033 was second to
Caldera Springs and ahead of Brasada Ranch at $30,611,539. Pronghorn had 98
reported homesite sales in the period valued at $27,222,903.
Pronghorn was the first resort to report homesite sales
on the MLS of Central Oregon in 2005. The first sales at Caldera Springs and
Brasada Ranch were in 2006, and in 2007 at Tetherow.
Median prices of lots have ranged from a high of $700,000
in Pronghorn in 2007 to a low of $58,500 at Brasada Ranch in 2011. For 2015 Tetherow had the highest median price of
$275,000 followed by Caldera Springs, $160,000;
Pronghorn, $125,000; and Brasada Ranch $106,000.
Of note, Caldera Springs is now in the county planning
review stages for addition of 395 homesites including 95 nightly rentals on
more than 600 acres immediately south of the current resort.
The Legacy Resorts
Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch were pioneers in
establishing a reputation for Central Oregon as a tourist destination showcasing
the region’s natural beauty and recreational appeal for such activities as skiing,
golfing, fishing and hiking.
Coming to market in the 1970s each is now essentially
built to capacity with only an
occasional resale homesite available at Black Butte Ranch.
Unlike the other early resorts, Eagle Crest on
the Deschutes River in Redmond has had the benefit of additional land for new
homesites and experienced significant sales during the past decade.
From 2005 through 2015 there were 295 lot sales at Eagle
Crest for a total volume of $56,369,907 and a median price of $109,900.
