Bend Has Been Discovered by the Luxury Home Buyer
We have been tracking Bend real estate sales for decades, but the summer of 2020 has provided for high end home sales that have never been seen before in the Bend market. High end homes have been part of Bend real estate since the early part of last century when the Shevlin-Hixon and Brooks-Scanlon lumber mills opened and logging became the main industry within the town. The land near Mirror Pond and Drake Park became the location where some of Bend's earliest luxury homes were built. Over the years, as various sections of Bend were developed, the luxury market expanded into Pilot Butte, Awbrey Butte, and the various golf communities in town such as Awbrey Glen, Broken Top, Pronghorn and Tetherow. However, as these communities were developed, what constituted luxury in those days rarely exceeded $1,000,000. Today, however, Bend million dollar sales are breaking records.
The following chart shows July 2020 pending sales for Bend million dollar plus homes on less than an acre. As can be seen, the pending sales in these price ranges are up between 200% and 466% over July 2019. Even homes priced over $2,000,000 are seeing an increase in pending home sales.
What Are Our Predictions for the the Bend Luxury Home Market?
With the increase in pending home contracts, the number of luxury homes for sale has also plummeted. Just a short time ago we had over 10 months supply of million dollar plus homes in Bend. Now, however, we have roughly 3 months which makes it a seller's market (a balanced market is 6 months supply with over that a buyer's market). Will this trend continue? The buyers in the Bend high end real estate market are coming from all over the country, but primarily from urban areas. We believe the covid work from home trends, the spike in criminal activity in urban areas as well as a desire to live in Bend (our lifestyle) have all contributed to this movement. We cannot keep up with the demand right now with existing inventory. This will lead to increased costs for the available homes for sale.
