April . . . a wonderful month in Bend. The days are longer (and warmer), things are starting to look green and lush. And, best of all, the spring skiing (if one times things correctly) is magnificent and can easily be combined with an afternoon on the links or the river.
205 Sales . . . Pending Sales Soar!
The Bend real estate market seemed to shake winter’s grasp as well . . . as expected, we topped the 200 sale plateau for the first time in 2016. But the bigger story was the number of pending sales . . . 295 to be exact!
The median price also bounded to $365,000; that’s a number we haven’t seen since 2007, when we hit what seemed like an astronomical $368,000! Ironically, that month there were almost 1500 homes on the market–in other words, a year’s worth of available inventory. This April there were just 423 homes on the market . . . only 2.1 month’s of inventory. Ah, to be a seller right now.
Low End Bend . . . $130,000
Euphemistically offered as a “handyman special,” the lost leader for the month was a two bedroom, one bath, 938 square foot cottage in the heart of Bend. It sold for $96/foot.
Apparently, the floor plan was “functional,” but the home needed to be “retouched”
in virtually every way. What can you expect for $130,000?
The Big Winner . . . $1,508,535
The big winner for the month was yet more new construction in Tetherow. This time in a brand new neighborhood called Tartan Druim . . . yeah, a funky name (how to pronounce it? what’s it mean?), but a very nice place . . . with homes starting at just a hair under a million dollars.
The four bedroom, 4.5 bath, 4503 square foot home is perched on a ridge overlooking the David Kidd-designed track and abutting the 10 acre parcels of The Highlands.
The home featured the expected luxurious finishes as well as a cool 431 square foot detached “casita.”
It sold for $335/square foot. For more info on Tartan Druim, click here.
Median Price in Bend . . . $365,000
Where’s it going to stop? The median price jumped to $365,000. For that price, one can now expect something like this boring 3/2.5, 2065 square foot Pahlisch home in The Bridges on Bend’s southeast side. It went for $177 per foot.
Obviously, buyers didn’t find this place boring . . . it went pending in one day! It closed in just 17 days; an indication of just how hot this market is right now!
What Lies Ahead?
This thing isn’t going to stop anytime soon. It seems that demand has turned home buying in Bend into a “competition sport.” We’re seeing none of the weird loans of the mid 2000’s; the unemployment rate is near its historical low.
Pundits tell us that we’ll know we’re in for a bit of economic decline when we see a slowdown in the sale of ping pong tables
or in the number of folks (millennials, HENRY’s, retirees) drawn to Bend. But, for now, with more than half of Bend residents being born in another state, there’ll be no quick end to our in-migration story. And the beat goes on . . .
