The Brakes Are On With Bend Real Estate Sales

Ask any real estate agent across the country about the current state of the market, they will tell you things have changed dramatically since earlier in the year.  Ask a Bend Premier Real Estate Broker about the local market, they will tell you that it is as if the brakes have been hit stopping a jet plane. The fed's increase in interest rates is being done to curtail inflation.  When it comes to the housing industry, this tightening is working. Bend home sales are falling, days on market are rising, yet home prices are still up. Mortgage interest rates are now approaching 7% for a 30 year fixed, a figure which hasn't been seen since 2002. Each percentage increase in interest rates reduces homebuyer's buying power by 10-12%. As the number of pending and sold Bend homes decrease, sellers who need to sell will have to understand that for many Bend homebuyers who are financing their purchase, either prices or mortgage rates will have to drop for them to afford their new home. Although down from the high in July, Bend home prices are still up month over month from 2021. If interest rates remain high, we anticipate that Bend home prices will need to drop for home sales to continue in a more balanced market.

When September 2022 Bend single family home sales on less than an acre are compared with those from 2021, the following changes can be seen:

• Average sales price up 11.3% to $876,437*
• Median sales price up 11.5% to $724,950
• Average list price up 10.7% to $724,950
• Median list price up 2.9% to $719,950
• New listings down 23.3% to 184
• Homes for sale up 26.5% to 382
• Pending sales down 31.2% to 150
• Sold homes down 22.9% to 182
• Average days on market up 50% to 33
• Median days on market up 185.7% to 20
• Months of supply up 40% to 2.1
• Average price per square foot up 8.6% to $416
• Median price per square foot up 8.7% to $386
• Average percentage of list price received down 1.3% to 99.4%
• Dollar volume down 14.2% to $159,511,584

What Will Happen the Rest of 2022 With Bend Home Sales?

We are reaching a point in which Bend home prices must decrease to adjust with higher mortgage interest rates if we are to have a healthy Bend real estate market. The low interest rates we have had over the past few years greatly increased homebuyers' purchasing power, thus leading to higher sales prices - especially when combined with extremely high demand and limited inventory. That market is not our current reality. If mortgage rates stay high, sellers who need to sell will need to adjust their asking price to a figure that will enable home buyers to qualify for their loan.