Central Oregon Real Estate Market Report for May 2015

Here are some highlights of the May real estate market activity for Single Family Residential (SFR) and Residential with Acreage (RW) listings in Bend, Sisters and Tumalo, followed by three graph overviews.

• Sales were strong across the board. The only segment that didn’t see a notable increase from April was Sisters SFR listings. And although its Closed sales were half that of April (seven compared to 14), the number of Pending SFR sales was up and was evenly divided among lower-end sales and high-end sales (six below $500,000; five above $500,000).
• Prices are on the rise throughout much of Central Oregon: In May, the median price for Active SFR listings in Bend rose from $445,000 in April to $455,000. In Tumalo, the median price for Active RW listings rose from $795,000 to $949,000. In Sisters, the price for Active listings actually dropped slightly: The price for Active SFR listings decreased from $470,000 in April to $459,900 in May, while the price for Active RW listings decreased from $840,000 to $829,000.
• When you compare the price of Active listings now to this time a year ago, an overall increase becomes even more apparent. For example, in May 2014, the Median Price for Bend’s Active SFR listings was $375,000, compared to $455,000 in May 2015. The most dramatic increase was among Tumalo’s Active RW listings, which increased from $625,000 in May 2014 to $949,000 in May 2015. The price for Active RW listings in Sisters also rose significantly -– up from $693,000 in May 2014 to $829,000 in May 2015. Only Sisters’ Active SFR listings saw a decrease, down from $479,000 in May 2014 to $460,000 in May 2015.
• Only 28 of the 456 Active SFR listings in Bend were priced below $200,000 in May. That’s just 6 percent. By contrast, 263 Active SFR listings in Bend — 57 percent — were priced between $250,000 and $500,000. Meanwhile, 44 of the 132 Active RW listings in Bend – 33 percent – were priced at a million dollars or more.
• Which brings us to yet another key component on the rise throughout this market: Million-dollar properties. In Tumalo, 16 of the 41 Active Residential With Acreage (RW) listings – 39 percent– were priced at a million dollars or more in May, while 24 of the 65 Active Residential With Acreage (RW) listings in Sisters –- 36 percent– were priced at a million dollars or more.
• Higher-end sales were on the rise in May, too. Bend closed three million-dollar sales in May, with nine more Pending by the end of the month. Tumalo had two million-dollar sales Pending by the end of the month. And Sisters had five sales above $500,000 (including one million-dollar sale) Pending by the end of the month.

Below are three graph overviews of real estate activity (the number of Active listings, the number of sales and the price of Active listings) from October 2013 through May 2015 for Bend, Tumalo and Sisters, based on data provided by MLSCO on June 9, 2015.

 

 

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