Bend Single Family Home Sales 12 month through April 2017

            Wrapping up the first four months of 2017 the regional real estate market continues to exhibit the same trends that have characterized it for the past few years—prices reaching new levels with demand high and inventory extremely tight.

            Parsing the recent report from Beacon Appraisal Group, which analyzes MLS of Central Oregon data, shows that the median price of a single family home in Bend has been hovering at the median price of $370,000 for the past 12 months.

            Beacon’s 12-month median of $370,000 is essentially the same as the median closing price of $369,950 for the week closing May 13 reported by Trulia, now owned by Zillow.

            But in the past two months of March and April, the median price jumped above $390,000, up from a dip to $354,000 in February. Some observers believe the February number may be attributed in part to the severe winter weather that delayed closings as sellers and home inspectors struggled to assess roof and other possible damage from cold, snow and ice.

Source: Beacon Appraisal Group, from MLSCO data.

            May and June could show whether the bump in median prices signifies a consistently new high bar going in to the traditional height of the buying season.

            At the end of April the Beacon Report reveals that 2,503 single family homes were sold in Bend over the previous 12 months, topping out at 260 sales in August of 2016. There were only 455 active listings at the end of April, or a meager 2-month inventory based on the average 12-month sales.

            A snapshot of the region’s second largest market in Redmond shows a median price of $266,000 for the 12 months ending in April, on sales of 942 homes. The Redmond inventory was only 176 at the end of April, or identical to the 2-month supply in Bend.

           

Source: Beacon Appraisal Group from MLSCO data

Redmond also mirrored Bend as it notched it’s highest median closing prices of $284,000 and $285,000 in March and April, respectively.

            Also tracking evenly with it’s neighbor to the south, Redmond’s highest monthly sales, 96, came in August of 2016.

            Elsewhere in the region, Beacon’s report for smaller markets in Sisters, Sunriver, LaPine, Jefferson County/Crooked River Ranch and Crook County (including Prineville) showed very tight inventory of three months or less in all except Sisters, which had a 4.5 month supply of active listings.

            Inventory of five to six months is considered to be a more balanced supply-demand market.

            Sunriver, with a median April price of $491,000 and Sisters, at $455,000, led all areas but each had sales of only 12 homes in April, a fraction of either Bend or Redmond sales.