How's the housing market over here now? (Bend, Redmond: houses, buy)

[kosmo65]

I just took a look at realtor.com, and the listings in "Bend" break down as follows:


676 total
> $1,000,000 - 59
$750,000 - $999,999 - 54
$500,000 - $749,000 - 114
$400,000 - $499,999 - 97
$300,000 - $399,999 - 120
$200,000 - $299,999 - 150
< $199,999 - 92

Note that the map showing these listings in "Bend" includes properties in Sunriver, almost to Prineville, and Tumalo. If I'm up a while, I may dig into this this further.

I was a real estate appraiser in a former life, and can say that people don't tend to spread their searches that broadly. When I look for homes that are comparable to mine, I stay on the NW side of town, and I am certainly not venturing 20 miles outside of town to look for similar homes.

[kosmo65]

And one more...

When I isolate the search for homes between $300k and $399k to west of 97 and north of Powers, there are 19 homes available. That really isn't many.

[ukiyo-e]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

There are 607 listings over $300,000 in and around Bend in the last 60 days just on Craig's List.

I'm not looking "in and around" Bend. I'm looking at specific areas IN Bend. The area I mostly concentrate my search in has few houses in that range and they don't stay on the MLS.

I swear, sometimes I think if people said the sky was blue you'd argue with them.

[ukiyo-e]

Originally Posted by kosmo65

And one more...

When I isolate the search for homes between $300k and $399k to west of 97 and north of Powers, there are 19 homes available. That really isn't many.

And THAT is the area I concentrate my search on.

[kosmo65]

Originally Posted by kosmo65

And one more...

When I isolate the search for homes between $300k and $399k to west of 97 and north of Powers, there are 19 homes available. That really isn't many.

Originally Posted by kosmo65

By my count, of the most recent 100 postings on the real estate portion of bend.craigslist.org, there are 27 single family homes shown that are actually in Bend. About 17 of those properties are listed above $300K.

How many discrete listings were there in your 600 properties, Steve? We're all of those listings actually in Bend?

Originally Posted by ukiyo-e

And THAT is the area I concentrate my search on.

What specifics are you looking for in a home, Uklyo-e?

[Copsgirl73]

Can anyone suggest a website that updates houses that are still active on the market? Seems like a lot I have found tha we love our realtor says have sold already but still show as active. Which site is updated most frequently?

[chortle]

Originally Posted by Copsgirl73

Can anyone suggest a website that updates houses that are still active on the market? Seems like a lot I have found tha we love our realtor says have sold already but still show as active. Which site is updated most frequently?

I've found realtor.com to be pretty accurate. Look at the 'status' field for the listing. If it's available, it will most likely say 'active'.

There may be some 'lag' associated
with the status, depending on how quickly the listing agent updates the MLS, but it's usually fairly quick.

[delta07]

I use centraloregonrealtor.com because I can narrow my search by addition, elementary, Bend, etc. I've been keeping a close eye on real estate prices because we'd eventually like to sell our home. I just checked the listings for our elementary school boundary area, which is good for comparisons as it covers any comps to our home. There are only 14 listings in our elementary school boundary area. Of those, there weren't really any good comps.

I just did another search for all residential properties in Bend. As of today, it is showing a total of 489 listings. Even if I was willing to move anywhere in town, I would still have to narrow those listings down further by price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. Once I do that, I'm now down to 139 properties.

I'm sorry, but you just can't say Bend is overloaded with homes. That's just not the truth. I feel like I'm repeating myself at this point.

[ukiyo-e]

Originally Posted by kosmo65

What specifics are you looking for in a home, Uklyo-e?

I'm flexible, but I prefer the west side. Hardwood floors (at least on the first floor if a 2-story house) and a gas range are almost mandatory for me. Smaller and very well-built rather than larger and slapped together. I don't want too large of a lot. I have that now and while I love gardening, I'd prefer less space to putter around in. Buying another home is going to be tough because the house I live in now was built for me by a friend who does the most meticulous work imaginable. He actually waited 6 months to fill in the tiny nail holes under the balusters on the stairway (which he completely made by hand) because he wanted to see what shade the wood turned after sitting a few months, so he could choose the correct color filler!

Anyway, wherever I decide to move (and I haven't decided where that will be, though I'm narrowing it down), I plan to rent for a year to see how the place suits me. I'd rather miss a little run-up in prices than buy too quickly and realize later another choice would have been better for me.

[Steve Pickering]

Originally Posted by ukiyo-e

... ...

I swear, sometimes I think if people said the sky was blue you'd argue with them.

If the sky was not blue I would challange their statement. As of this moment it is a beautiful shade of turquoise. Yesterday it was gray part of the day, but the blue came through several times. Ten and only then was it blue.

You can put enough restrictions on any purchase to make it a collectable, but that does not signify that the housing market in Bend Oregon is an attractive place to put your money. It is down. It was hit hard, and a 25% increase is not a recovery until you get back the 50% you lost. Bend is not seeing 25% but they did see a 50% loss.

The housing market is not a place to make Blue Sky purchases.