How's the housing market over here now? (Eugene, Bend: for sale, movers)

[Copsgirl73]

Has it hit bottom yet? Prices going back up? Are houses selling or sitting? Is it reasonable to offer less than listing or are homes going for their listed price? Is the westside still the place to be? How is SW Bend, specifically the River Canyon Estates subdivision? Can anyone recommend a movers that would do a Eugene/Bend move?

Feedback is appreciated!

[Steve Pickering]

Those in Realestate will tell you it is improving. Those who are not, aren't so sure. I am one of those who are not so sure.

[delta07]

Our neighbor just sold his house for a much better price than I thought it would get. His house isn't nearly as updated as ours, only has 1 car garage, and needed some work. He got about $5K less than what we paid for our house in 2009. I would say the bottom was probably last year sometime.

Prices are still low compared to the high before the bubble burst, but they are going up. I don't know specifically about the area you are interested in.

[kapetrich]

Moderator cut: Inappropriate comments.

Like Delta said, the bottom seemed to be last year at some point. I believe the fall out in home prices was a bit of an over correction (you could buy homes for 45%-70% off their ridiculous peak) and right now we are seeing home prices jump a bit more than the overall economic recovery justifies, yet the prices still make sense given the initial over correction - aka the housing market is in he midst of a stablization period, imho. Hope that makes sense....

Yes, it is still reasonable to offer less than the asking price. It is not as much a buyers market as it once was, but sellers really don't have a leg to stand on still.

Yes, the Westside is still the most 'trendy' and most expensive.

Regardless, if you plan on living in Bend long term this is a great time to buy. I doubt we'll see interest rates this low for a looonnnnng time.

Unfortunately I do not know River Canyon Estate Division very well.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

The bottom has probably been reached. That is, if the federal government doesn't do something really stupid to the economy and that is always a real possibility. Interest rates have definitely bottomed out and are going back up.

Lower priced properties are selling fast and there are not many good ones coming on the market. Good properties fairly priced are getting multiple offers, so in that price band, if you find a desirable property, I wouldn't offer much below asking.

Over about $350,000 time on market seems to be a couple of months, so in that price range, you can try a low offer and negotiate from there.

I don't know what building land is doing. The MLS has been malfunctioning for awhile now and claiming that there is no land for sale inside the Bend city limits. That can't possibly be true. Although I am not seeing any ads for building lots inside Bend listed on Craigslist, either.

I have had several people offer to buy my old mobile home on land that is inside the city limits. They are looking for something to build on. It's not really for sale. I'm happy with the tenant and it is generating income for me. There is no advantage to selling it. Point is that nice, low priced building sites must be getting harder to find if buyers are making offers for properties that are not listed.

[Pfhtex]

I happen to be in the mortgage business, much to my chagrin, and Bend is among the top 5-10 markets projected over the next ten years or so. Not seeing any bidding wars like in south Florida and parts of the Dallas and CA markets.

And the note above about rates is spot-on. I don't think prices will drop, but I am certain that rates will go up, so now is a great time to buy.

[Steve Pickering]

Projected is not the same as reality.

[pkooistra]

My parents are looking, so they get a list of new homes that come on the market in an email. They called me friday asking me to check on a house that listed that day. I got a hold of the realtor Sunday and he told me that there had been 5 offers on the house on Sat.

The market has picked up considerably for homes under 300k Not sure about homes over that price range. Inventory is way down and houses are going fast. When we bought ours this last summer there were 3 offers in 2 days. Thankfully our offer won out. It is definitely a sellers market right now from what I have heard from friends that are looking.

So find a good Realtor, and then move quickly if you find something you like, because chances are it will not be on the market very long if it is priced right.

[kapetrich]

It's interesting to hear how quick houses are selling. Thanks for the updates.

I haven't bought anything for over a year and a half, but I put an offer in on a short sell recently and that experience definitely fits everyone elses recent description. There were 3 offers ahead of 'mine' and there were 7 on the table all together, but I figured that was just particular to the short sell market. Crazy.

[Pfhtex]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Projected is not the same as reality.

Really? Wow. Thank you so much for the clarification! Where did you park your DeLorean?? Because you seem to have firm knowledge of the future.

However, if you choose to do an ounce of research, you would see that the general consensus among different groups that prognosticate such things is that Bend is indeed among the top cities for projected growth.