Bend Real Estate Sales Trends Starting to Shift

Ask most Central Oregon Brokers what happened with July 2021 real estate sales, and they will tell you that they saw a change to the market during the month. Although prices were up considerably over those from a year ago, compared with June, 2021, prices actually were down on average.  A good number of price reductions were seen on a daily basis and the pace and number of multiple offers on listings were dramatically down. Compared with a year ago, the trends we have seen over the past year remained consistent, but not at the extreme levels experienced during the Covid lockdowns. Some offers on properties are now experiencing counter offers and the days on market are lengthening.  It remains to be seen whether or not these trends will continue.

But when we look just at the differences between July 2021 with July 2020 on Bend single family home sales, the following trends remain dramatic:

• Average sales price up 31.7% to $801,088*
• Median sales price up 26.3% to $666,500 - a new record
• New listings up 6.4% to 300
• Homes for Sale down 59.1% to 281
• Pending sales up 27.3% to 420
• Sold homes down 25% to 246
• Average days on market down 81.3% to 9
• Median days on market down 79.2% to 5
• Months of supply down 67.6% to 1.1
• Average price per square foot up 42% to $406
• Median price per square foot up 38.7% to $373
• Average % of sales price to list price up 3.8% to 103.3
• Dollar Volume down 1.2% to $197,067,666

Are the Number of Bend Home Sales Starting to Decline?

The trend we are looking at right now is the number of sold homes, which was down 25% from July 2020.  Since the pandemic first reached Bend, home closings have mostly been up.  The large 25% reduction in sold homes for July is new. This can be tied into lack of inventory to sell, but also due to high prices discouraging home buyers - the median sales price of a Bend home is now at $666,500 which is a new record. Whether or not this trend continues will be determined on new inventory, home prices, mortgage interest rates, and confidence in the economy.  The resurgence of the Covid pandemic with the Delta variant may result in changes to the Bend real estate trends we have been seeing over the past year. We will follow this idea closely and report on what evolves.