Bend-area home prices rise, foreclosures fall

Two new reports out Tuesday again underscored a recent recovery in Central Oregon’s housing market (and also offered a reminder of just how deep it has fallen in recent years).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area (which is actually all of Deschutes County) saw a 2.9 percent increase in home prices in the fourth quarter of 2012 – that’s more than twice the nationwide rise of 1.4 percent.

The yearly price rise in 2012 of 3.55 percent ranked the Bend area 26 th out of the more than 300 metro areas nationwide.

But a glance at the third column on the list – the five-year housing price change – shows just how much Bend’s once red-hot market cooled after the housing downturn and recession hit. The current home price figure is nearly 40 (39.09) percent what was seen in 2007.

Meanwhile, CoreLogic reported a continued decline in Bend-area foreclosure rates, at 3.59 percent in December, compared to 4.48 percent a year earlier.

But the Bend-area foreclosure rate is still above the national figure, which is just under 3 percent, as well as the Oregon figure of 2.78 percent.

The report also says the Bend area’s 90-day mortgage delinquency rate was 6.33 percent in December, down from over 8 percent a year ago. The current figure is above Oregon’s overall rate, which is 5.29 percent, but a bit lower than the national 90-day delinquency rate of 6.4 percent.