Homeowners play a good round at Rivers Edge course

             Fore....
            It appears that there will be more “good walks spoiled” in the Rivers Edge community of Bend with news that opponents of developing a decades-old golf course for homes have prevailed.
            In late October, local media reported that a “settlement” had been reached in litigation by several Rivers Edge families to prevent a sale of the 18-hole course to Pahlisch Homes to build nearly 400 homes.
            As reported, homeowner associations would have the opportunity to purchase the course for $500,000 from Wayne Purcell, with 120 days to conduct due diligence and 30 days to close the transaction.
            Pahlisch and Purcell had announced the planned sale earlier this year. Pahlisch in turn had met with city officials and hosted a public meeting to answer questions about the proposed development.
            There was never a recorded document indicating more than Purcell's news release stating his intent to sell the 141-acre course to Pahlisch.
            As previously reported in Focus on Bend.

Trading golf for homes: Rivers Edge proposal raises future housng issues

Whoopee !!! : A small but welcome inventory rise

             It’s not exactly a seismic market shift. In fact, looking at a chart it might take a magnifying glass to detect any movement.
            Yet, in a Bend and Central Oregon real estate environment, where most change has been steadily rising housing prices, even the slight shift to more homes available for sale was notable.
            Until the numbers for July were tabulated, actively listed homes in Bend had been stuck at inventory levels of 0.2 to 0.3 fractions of a month. Then, according the Beacon Report, by Beacon Appraisal, inventory ticked up to an entire month, the first time at that level since July of 2020 as the pandemic unrest infected and spread across the housing industry.
            From the end of July 2020 the inventory dropped steadily to a low of only 0.3 months in December and January, 0.4 months in February, then has stumbled up the availability chart to July of this year.

Source: Beacon Appraisal from MLS of Central Oregon database

             The monthly median price for 246 Bend home sales in July was $650,000, up from the 247 sales at a median of $640,000 the previous months.
            One metric that bears watching is the continuing growth of listings at more than $1 million. As of month-end July there were 58 listings agove the arbitrary “luxury” benchmark, comprising more than 26% of the total 221 listings. Another 17 homes were listed agove $900,000.
            But a few random checks of high-end listings in Bend’s more expensive west side of the Deschutes River shows, albeit anecodotally, that sellers and listing agents may be responding to a cooling of the superheated buying binge that Bend and elswhere have experienced.
            As one example, the price of a West Hills home initially listed at $1.3 million on July 12 was dropped $130,000 to $1.170 million less than a month later on August 10.
            Another home in the Heights of Bend neighborhood on the east side of Awbrey Butte was initially listed at $929,000 June 11 and went to a pending sale June 27. However, the sale did not go through and the property came back on the market July 7 at $929,000, $20,000 below the original price.
            Among a number of factors facing the Bend market, and others nationally, is concern over a resurgence of the pandemic, which could have a contrary effect on real estate unlike the generally recognized stimulus the virus provided in the past 18 or more months. What was a buying frenzy may now have been braked by prices having reached perhaps unsustainable levels that outstrip buyer financial capability or interest.
            More veteran market observers recall a smaller boom that occurred after 9-11, 2001, terrorist attacks spurred buying outside more populated areas. That effect was boosted in large part by easy lending standards that eventually contributed to loan defaults and what has been termed, “The Great Recession,” of the early decade of the new century.
            This time around real estate has been intertwined with a continued economic recovery that has run with few interruptions for over a decade, accompanied by low unemployment, robust corporate earnings and a long bull run of the stock market.

           

Single family sales slowing, prices increasing

            Let’s start with the premise that one month doesn’t a trend make.

            The recently reported $463,000 median sale price of a Bend single family home again raised the bar above the previous high point of $450,000 in January.

            But a more valid metric of the Bend market might be comparison of the first five months of 2019 with the same period of 2018.

            With that approach, Bend’s five month median in 2019 is $447,500, compared with $412,500 for 2018.. It’s still an impressive jump of 8.48% but less than the 11.57% increase from April of 2018 against the same month this year.

            The $412,500 median in 2018 represented a 7.54% increase over the same five-month period of 2017.

            Likely reflecting the whopping late February and early March snowstorms this year, the number of single family sales in Bend for the first five months of 2019 were the lowest level of the past four years. 
            Taking a longer look at the past 12 months, Bend's rolling median price as of April 30, 2019 was $433,000, up 4.97% from $412,500 for the same period of 2018.

            Going north on the Hwy 97 corridor to Redmond, the $313,500 median for five months of 2019 was 9.23% over the $287,000 in 2018.

            Together the greater Bend market, which includes outlying areas of unincorporated Tumala and Alfalfa, and Redmond, incuding Terrebonne, account for more than 75% of all sales in the regional Central Oregon market that encompasses Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties.

            Other points gleaned from the recent report by Beacon Appriasal, derived from the database of the Multiple Listing Service of Central Oregon:

·         Sunriver, including Sunriver, Caldera Springs and Crossweater resort properties recorded the highest median sale price at $504,000 in April.

·         The largest inventories of available single family properties in April were three months in Sisters, LaPine and Jefferson County. (all small sub-markets)

·         Bend and Redmond each had two months inventory, considered a seller’s market even though total sales have been under previous early months of the past few years.

NIMBY-YIMBY debate not over after approval of westside apartment project

            The latest episode in the drama revolving around construction of a 170-unit apartment complex on Bend’s westside has concluded with opponents none too happy with a hearing officer’s decision.

            In a nearly 90-page decision hearing officer Will Van Vactor has stuck closely to the city’s zoning and comprehensive plan guidlines by approving Evergreen Housing Development Group of Seattle’s plans for a site along Shevlin Road across from the new watersports park at the Colorado Avenue bridge on the Deschutes River.

            One of the more vocal opponents of the project is a local resident who was quoted by The Bend Bulletin as saying an appeal will be forthcoming.

            Under city regulations the opponents may appeal the decision to the city council, or go directly to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

            Neighborhing residents and others have argued that the project would cast shadows on the park and increase traffic and parking problems. Among the opponents is Bill Smith, developer of the Old Mill District mixed-used project upstream from the park.

            The conroversy has distilled arguments from what some have called “not-in-my-backyard” or NIMBY factions and YIMBYs, who say yes to increased density with multi-family projects to ease Bend’s affordable housing crunch and prevent additional urban sprawl.

            Within the past few years the State of Oregon has approved Bend’s state-mandated urban growth bounday plan with the objective of encouraging more dense development of infill bare land already within the city limits.

            In his decision, the hearing officer turned down Evergreen’s application for an additional 5-foot height variance for the four-story building, which a developer representative said would not adversely affect the company’s plans.

            The apartment complex had earlier been approved as an administrate decision by Bend planning staff in that it met current comprehensive plan and zoning standards. But the city took the unusual step of going to the hearing process after complaints by opponents.

Bend and Central Oregon in brief

A whopping Bend transaction shows region’s attraction

            Yet another sign of the growing economic profile of Bend and Central Oregon was visible in August with closing of one of the region’s most expensive real estate transactions.

            Seattle based Security Properties, a leading national apartment owner-manager, paid $45 million for the 228-unit Farmington Reserve apartments on Aaron Way, a project developed by Portland-based BPM Real Estae Group.

            Security Properties, a nearly 50-year-old company, owns or manages more than 80,000 multi-family units with a portolio value of $5.7 million, according to the company’s website.

            The Bend acquisition valuing each of Farmington Reserve’s 228 units at $197,368 compares with Security’s recent purchase of a 248 unit complex in Lacey, WA for $54 million, or $217,741 per unit and another 162 unit project in Bremerton, WA for $182,098 per unit.

            Security’s strategy is to invest in existing apartments, rather than develop new ones for its investment portfolio. The company in early September was advertising for a property manager to oversee the Farmington Reserve complex.

 

Bend moves to reconcile zoning with comprehensive plan

            How does, and how will, Bend grow?

            On the one hand there is the city’s comprehensive plan. On the other is zoning. And the two often don’t mesh as theoretically they should.

            Now the city is taking steps to reconcile both, all the more important now that a decade-long process has resulted in an urban growth bounday plan blessed by the state.

            There is an estimated more than 2,500 acres inside the city where the comp plan and zoning contradict. Rezoning some of the area could open a path for higher density and mixed-use developments in some areas where zoning is more restrictive.

            In a late August vote related to the land use realignment the city planning commission recommended changes to the city council which must eventually make the final decision.

If approved the new policy and plan could eliminate a costly $6,000 fee to rezone property and shorten the time involved in the application process.

 How to address housing affordability in Central Oregon?

            What is at times called a crisis in available housing to match employment income patterns in Central Oregon is highlighted in a new survey of  regional consortium of governent, development, employment and other interests.

            Of nearly 800 respondents the survey reports more than 80% recognized housing affordability as a ”serious” problem. The number jumps to 94% when that sample is added to those who agree it’s a “somewhat serioius” challenge.

            Developers surveyed generally responded that more incentives in the form of bonuses for density and relaxed building height requirements could result on more affordable housing.

            Of 92 employers in the survey, 64% said housing was a serious problem for acquiring and maintaining employees. Surprisingly, 74% said they would support public housing efforts and 19% that they might consider the potential for employer-financed housing projects.

            In Jackson, WY – a mecca for tourism based businesses in the Rockies--the idea of employer-financed housing has taken shape with a requirement that new businesses occupying new commecial construction contribute to building housing units in a ratio to their number of employees.

            Read the full housing survey here: https://coic2.org/needs-assessment/

From prison to a hedge fund sale

            A Bend man who served time in federal prison and paid more than $6 million in fines for conspiracy and export violations in sale of aircraft to Libya has sold 100 acres of his Deschutes River frontage property to a hedge fund manager for $4 million.

            The transaction involves 100 acres the sellers, Edward Elkins and wife Dee, sold to Scott and Carol Ann Smallwood of Virginia. Smallwood was formerly with hedge fund PDT Partners but now heads Periwinkle Trading.

            The 100 acres is now zoned to allow 10-acre building sites and is part of approximately 700 acres often known as Gopher Gulch that Bend developer Brooks Resources had planned for a community of more than 2,000 homes in the early to mid-2000s.

            Brooks abandoned the plan but later sold 140 acres that became Pacific Cascade Heights subdivision. Bend Parks and Recreation purchased approximately 150 acres for the Riley Ranch Nature Reserve.

            After the sale to the Smallwoods the Elkins retain slightly more than 300 acres which could be divided into smaller parcels according to brokers familiar with the property.

                      

State DOT backtracks on Bend “drinking culture”

            The state Department of Transportation had second thoughts after implying that Bend’s well-known reputation for micro-breweries creates a “drinking culture” that contributes to hazardous driving conditions.

            An early draft of DOT’s 2019 Oregon Transportation Safety Performance Plan observed,

“Bend, the only metro area in (Central Oregon) has the bragging rights for the most breweries in the state and is actively marketed around the country for its ‘Ale Trail’.....This culture of drinking, combined with the increased dangers of recreational driving, increases the dangers on the road.”

            With quick reaction, including from outgoing Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney who chairs on the state Transportation Commission, state officials offered an apology, explaining that, “...the original language as the intent of the message was not clear and could have been more specific to the concerns around impaired driving for the entire Region.”