Wow! we haven't seen this many luxury properties for sale here ever before. The last search I did on MLS brought up over 100 homes priced at over a million dollars in the Sunriver, Crosswater, Bend, and Sisters areas. This is a phenominal selection for anyone who is interested in taking advantage of this out of balance buyer's market to purchase a spectacular second home or just to relocate to the Central Oregon area.
There are so many beautiful homes on the market now competing for so few buyers that prices have fallen dramatically. What a great advantage for buyers. Of course, financing can be a problem with lenders keeping to FHA standards of selecting applications to approve. For self employed persons that many luxury buyers are this can be problematic as capital gains income is not counted, and at least two years of tax returns are required, no exceptions. But for persons with cash to buy this is a time to save hundreds of thousands from what homes were two years ago.
This glut of high end homes seems to extend to every sector of the city. No addition is immune.
I should mention also that for investors there are terrific deals on rental houses and duplexes as well. There are over 300 houses under $250K on the market which are good rental properties.
The thing about this market that is seriously out of whack is that Bend hasn't changed. It is still one of the most desirable areas in the country to live or visit. The town has grown over 50% in size in the last eight years and become very cosmopolitian and sophisticated. There are many great quality restaurants and shops and the entertainment venues have name headliners playing concerts in several series of events some at the new Les Schwab Amphitheater. Summer series concerts are popular and the quarterly festivals downtown bring out both artists and populist. On the first Friday of every month the town hosts art walk where all the galleries are open and serving beverages.
The Central Oregon area is a wonderland of outdoor recreation that if you are a bit outdoorsy you can have great fun fishing in abundant lakes and rivers, boating on numerous lakes, hiking, mountain biking on trail networks, skiing at Mt. Bachelor, golfing on 25 courses and much more. This is what draws people here and what has not changed despite the financial market conditions. What makes this area great is still the same. I would be glad to send anyone interested an orientation package with lots of information on the area. Call or email me if you want one. This area is spectacular and if you ever wanted to relocate or get a vacation home here now is the time.
Joe