‘Uncharted territory:’ C.O. home sale prices tied to changing economy; appraiser, Realtor look at the post-pandemic trends

(Update: adding video, comment from real estate agent, and appraiser)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Redmond’s Beacon Appraisal Group released its monthly report on the real estate market. It explains how Bend and Redmond’s median home sales prices rose, while sales declined in May.

Bend's average home sales price rose $46,000 from april, coming in at a median price of $753,000 in May. Meanwhile in Redmond, the median home sale price rose a bit, up $7,000 to $540,000 in May.

"Redmond itself has a very similar type of residential products," Donnie Montagner, an appraiser with Beacon Appraial Group said. "Housing in bend has a wide, diverse product type from high end to entry level homes, but there's quite a difference in price there."

Montagner says if more million-dollar sales take place in a month versus entry level homes, the median will increase sharply. He also says this is happening in bend, while Redmond sees less of an increase from previous months due to having more similarly priced homes. 

"The median home price is a good indicator to look at, just to see the long term where the market has gone and where it's come from," said Montagner.

He remarks, the market is in transition coming out of the pandemic years which had more of an aggressive selling market.

"Inventory was very low and we had a really an unprecedented amount of migration, high pressures put on that already, low inventory which rapidly rose prices," Montagner said.

This transition is resulting in fewer sales and more listings. In bend number of home sales dropped from 162 to 128. Redmond home sales also slightly dropped from april to may, from 69 to 67.

"Inventory has been a big concern for the year of 2024 so far," said Ryan Tennant, a real estate agent with Harcourts, The Garner Group. "And I think it really just comes down to people not wanting to let go of their two, three or 4% interest rates."

 Tennant argues despite low inventory there are indicators of positive market trends,  pointing to how long houses are on the market.

He says, "as far as days on market go, the median days on market for homes sold last month was ten, which is really actually quite impressive. that's a good amount of time for a home to be on the market."

Montagner credits the current market trends to a change in Central Oregon's economic base. More individuals with more money moving to the area forcing price points to increase over time. 

"That's uncharted territory," said Montagner. "Looking forward, it's hard to know what that is especially with the change in our economic base."

The Redmond area saw its median home sale price rise a bit, up $7,000 to $540,000 in May. That’s just $2,000 below Redmond's record median sales price, experienced in the late summer of 2022.

Redmond’s inventory held steady at three months, as it has for much of the past year. But the days on market for sold properties dropped appreciably from earlier this year, to 13 days, from the 47-day sale period seen in February.

Montagner noted that Bend’s median marketing time for sold homes was unchanged in May, at 10 days, a typical warmer-weather figure after many more days on the market, 40 or more, during the slower wintertime.

In Central Oregon’s smaller markets, May’s median home prices ranged from $892,000 in Sunriver and $700,000 in Sisters to $480,000 in La Pine, $444,000 in Crook County and $353,000 in Jefferson County.

Here's the full Beacon Report for last month: