With more than half of 2023 behind
us the Bend real estate market trends appear to be tracking much the same as
with the past few years --- from the pandemic boom and the ensuing spillover in
2023 and 2022.
But listing prices are often being
adjusted downward– rarely the case in the recently overheated market. Open houses
have also proliferated, when before many single family homes would hit the MLS
of Central Oregon as pending sales within days of a listing
agreement.
Other key markers in the August report
by Beacon Appraisal based on MLS statistics:
· Inventory as calculated by averaging sales of the previous 12 months continues in a tight range of about two months.
· Median single family home prices on a specific monthly basis continued to hit new highs in June, $785,000, and July, $800,000, after falling to $660,000 in February from a high of $773,000 in February of 2022.
·
Even
with a new monthly high price, on a rolling 12-month basis the median closing
price at the end of July was $690,500, down $12,000 or 1.71%, from the previous
2021-2022 period.
As widely reported across the country, prices in traditionally more heated markets have continued to hold well above pre-pandemic levels, with some moderate downward adjustments as noted in Bend.
The overarching factor, the consensus appears, is continued high interest rates reaching 7% for a 30-year mortgage. Existing owners are reluctant to sell when they may have loans of 4% or less, thereby squeezing inventory while new homebuilding has not kept up with demand.
When existing owners do sell, they’re holding years of built-up equity and may push prices higher with the extra cash when they buy another home.
One trend noted in the Beacon Appraisal report is a rise in Bend sales above $1 millon--46 of the total 141 sales, or about 32% in July. And inventory at the $1 million plus level was only two months. For the 12 months including August of 2022 through July 2023 there were 381 of a total 1,705 sales above $1 million, or more than 22%.
However, the report said inventory for sales in the $1.6 to $1.8 million range stood at five months, and above that price level at six months.
A report by First American Title Company provides another snapshot of the Bend market. As of August 16, the FATC Market Action Index categories Bend as a “slight seller’s market.”
“In the last few weeks themarket has achieved a relative stasis point in terms of sales to inventory. However, inventory is sufficiently low to keep us in the Seller’s Market zone so watch changes in the MAI. If the market heats up, prices are likely to resume an upward climb,” the report concludes.
In Redmond, Central Orgon’s second largest housing market, the Beacon report shows a median price increase from June to July from $473,000 to $500,000, but below the $542,000 monthly peak in August of 2022.
On a rolling 12 months through July the median as $470,500, down $21,000 or 4.27% from the same period of 2021- 2022.
Overall Redmond inventory, as in Bend, was approximately two weeks but jumped to seven months in the $600,000 to $700,000 category and six months in the $550,000 to $600,000 range, Beacon reported.
