For the past five weeks, mortgage interest rates have dropped, returning to figures that haven't been seen since August. Any relief from the high rates recently experienced is welcome. With each 1% reduction in mortgage rates, it roughly reduces the monthly mortgage payment by 10%. The chart below shows how purchasing power is impacted by mortgage rates.

When potential home sellers have great mortgage interest rates, they hesitate to list, even when a different home may be a better option for them at this time in their lives. When the financed cost of a new home would make their monthly payment significantly more, the benefit of a different living arrangement is offset by the monthly cost for the...
The October 2023 figures for Bend single family home sales have been produced and lack of inventory appears to be a consistent problem. Inventory levels have dropped year over year as have pending sales and sold homes. Despite a rise in new listings, the overall Bend real estate market reflects an anemic number of sales with prices remaining high and high interest rates greatly impacting the buying power of would-be purchasers.
When October of 2023 is compared with October of 2022, Bend single family home sales show the following changes:
Deschutes Riverwoods has long been a Bend subdivision desired by those enjoying its proximity to the city (it abuts Bend's southern boundary), but the freedom of large lots without Homeowner's Associations or CC&Rs. Homes there range from single wide manufactured to luxury homes overlooking the Deschutes River. It is also a neighborhood in transition with more and more of the older mobile homes being replaced over time with stick-built single family.
Home prices have dropped in Deschutes Riverwoods over the past twelve months in comparison to the previous year. This could be due to the type of home being sold, or a general overall reduction in home prices as home sellers adjust their asking dollar to accommodate higher mortgage interest rates. Deschutes Riv...
The Bend real estate market has been in transition since Covid ended, with the demand for homes remaining strong, but rising mortgage interest rates greatly impacting the buying power of would-be homebuyers. It has been three months since we last looked at the Bend luxury homes. During this time, there have been changes with fewer new listings, more homes on the market, and fewer sales. All four categories we look at with high end home sales are up significanty with available inventory.

We are pushing closer to a neutral market with the highest prices where there is 5 to 6 months of inventory. We are not there yet, but there has been significant change over the past twelve months where higher priced homes are slower to sell.