With more homes selling above a million dollars in Bend, the median sales price will continue to climb in the coming year, according to real estate professionals. And the rest of Central Oregon is catching up quickly,

In 2023, the median sales price of a single-family home started at $685,000, peaked at $800,000 and hovered around the $730,000 range, according to the Beacon Report. The high median prices are a reflection of nearly 20% of the single family home sales selling for more than a million dollars, said Donnie Montagner, Beacon Appraisal Group LLC owner.

Fluctuating mortgage interest rates don’t appear to impact the buyers of higher priced homes, Montagner said. Compared to a place like Medford, where the median sales price of a single family home is around $400,000, Bend’s housing market is unique as it has a growing percentage of homes selling for more than a million, Montagner said.

Bend’s real estate market is more like Boulder, Colorado or Bozeman, Montana, than Klamath Falls or Grants Pass, Montagner said. Those Oregon communities have smaller markets and they don’t have the large number of high-end properties.

“Bend has just gotten a different character than it had 30 years ago,” Montagner said. “It’s swung away from its original economic base of manufacturing to more high-tech and service industries that support higher priced homes.

“I don’t see it changing. This is the gentrification of Central Oregon.”

By comparison, only three homes sold for more than a million in 2003. In 2019, about 5% of the sales of single-family homes in Bend were more than $1 million, said Montagner. In both 2022 and 2023, more than 22% of the sales were for more than $1 million.

For the first-time home buyers, the real estate market in Bend is a waiting game, as rising interest rates take a bite out of their buying power. Bend’s housing market picked up at the end of the year as home mortgage rates dropped a bit.

“The truth is even when rates were increasing, demand for housing in Central Oregon was resilient even as the supply of homes for sale dipped,” said Tim Booher, SELCO loan officer.

“Bend remains a desirable place to live and I don’t think that will change any anytime soon,” he said. “Many people who wanted to buy a home here two years ago, but didn’t for whatever reason, still want to buy a home here. There’s a significant amount of pent-up demand.”

The amount of homes for sale in Bend still remain low with about a two month supply. The national average is about six months to create a balanced market for buyers and sellers, Montagner said.

“Bend has a variety of housing type,” Montagner said. “The desirability of the area affects the price.”

Matt Robinson, managing partner for The Agency Bend, a real estate company, said he felt that 2023 reflected a balanced market for both buyer and seller. But buyers still want to come to Bend and move away from urban cities like Portland and Seattle, Robinson said.

“Central Oregon still looks relatively affordable in this post-COVID-19 world. The prices don’t really matter much in the luxury market of more than $2 million,” Robinson said. “That market continues to grow.”

Looking ahead

In 2024, the median sales price will continue to tick up for single family homes, Robinson said. The buyers with cash won’t be affected by fluctuating interest rates and low inventory, he said.

“Provided there’s no financial disturbances, like a war, we’ll continue to see reasonable home price growth,” Montagner said.

The monthly Beacon Report uses the median sales price to measure the midpoint value of all transactions in a month.

In 2023, Bend’s median sales price of $725,000 was about the same as it was in 2022. December’s median sales price was about $5,000 less than in November.

Redmond median home sales stabilizes, Bend’s prices drop slightly

Redmond median home sales stabilizes, Bend’s prices drop slightly

Redmond median home sales stabilize, Bend’s prices drop slightly

More than 1,565 homes old in Bend in 2023, according to the report. And the amount of time it takes for a home to sell in Bend in December was about 29 days, up from May when it was seven days on the market.

In Redmond, the median sales price of a single-family home ended the year at $510,000, up just $11,000 from November’s median sales price, according to the monthly report.

The year saw 598 homes sell and the amount of inventory on the market is about a three month supply, according to the report. It took about 27 days to sell a home in Redmond in December.

In Sisters, the median sales price for a single-family home was $755,000, according to the report. That’s up $10,000 from November. A three month supply of homes remain up for sale in Sisters, taking about 10 days to sell, according to the report.

In Sunriver, the median sales price of a single family home rose $150,000 to $1.16 million in December. It took about 117 days to sell a home in Sisters in December and there remains a three month supply of homes for sale, according to the report.

The median sales price of a home in La Pine was $388,000, down from $421,000 in November, according to the report. There is a four month supply of homes on the market in La Pine, the same as it was in November.