It
makes for good conversation over breakfast, lunch, wine, beer or dinner- and could be
preferable to discussing the contentious, borderline absurd trajectory of the
current presidential campaign.
The
question is: how’s real estate performing in relation to other investments,
specifically the stock market?
As
a micro-microcosm of broader national market, Bend real estate as measured by
the median price of a single family home has performed admirably since reaching
bottom in 2011.
At
the low of the market for a single full year in 2011, the median price of a
single family home stood precisely at $200,000. By the end of June this year it
was $370,000, an 85% increase.
By
comparison the broad S&P 500 stock index on January 2, 2012 when the market
opened for the year closed at 1,277. On June 27 of this year the index read
2,102, a 64% climb.
Of
course, it’s all a question of market timing and few investors or anyone just
wanting a roof over his or her head could have picked the precise moment that
either real estate or stocks would begin to recover.
In
fact, the stock market had already begun to emerge from the recession depths
before Bend housing. The lesson may be that the real estate or stocks question
is simply good conversation among friends.
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| Bend Median Price Trend |
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| S&P 500 year-end 2011 through June 2016 |
