Better late than never eh? There are currently 1834 homes on the market, 129 are contingent, 203 homes are pending, and 110 homes sold in March. The majority of home sales were in the $150,000 - $300,000 range. One big change was that 11 homes sold over $500,000 compared to only 4 in February. Of those sales over $500,000 2 were bank owned and 3 were short sales. Of the 64 homes that sold in the $150,000 - $300,000 price range, 32 were bank owned or short sales.

Although the great deals right now are the foreclosures, if you look at the sales price versus list price, the average was 95%. That means the discount is really in the list price. Although I have seen some sell in the 80% of list price range, once a bank owned home is listed, they are typically getting 95% or more of the list price when it sells. Some are even selling at 100% of the list price. Here are some randomly chosen examples:

A 1933 square foot home with 3 beds/2.5 baths was listed at $179,900 and sold for $175,000 (97.28%).

A 2156 square foot home with 4 beds/2.5 baths was listed at $224,900 and sold for $210,000 (93.37%).

A 2170 square foot home with 3 beds/2.5 baths was listed at $195,900 and sold for $170,000 (86.78%).

A 1763 square foot Bluffs townhome with 3 beds/3 baths was listed at $282,000 and sold for $282,000 (100%).

I wouldn't let these numbers dissuade you from making a low offer because you never know what the bank's bottom line is. The home you like could be one that ultimately sells for 82% of the list price.

Let's move on to home values. The median home price is currently $224,750. One of the toughest things for sellers today is accepting that their home is worth less than they paid for it. Here's some perspective on median home prices:

Median sales price in March 2008 - $289,900

Median sales price 2008 - $289,900

Median sales price 2007 - $345,000

Median sales price 2006 - $353,286

Median sales price 2005 - $280,966

Median sales price 2004 - $230,000

Median sales price 2003 - $197,000

The median home price can be misleading because it's really a reflection of the types of home that are selling. Since the majority of sales are occurring below the $300,000 price point, it skews the median sales price downward. Furthermore, I can break the numbers down to specific areas in Bend (NW vs. NE) and get completely different numbers. Overall, it's as if our real estate boom never existed. If you bought your home in 2004 or later, any appreciation you had is probably gone if you didn't sell your home at the peak.

View the March 2009 Real Estate Statistics here: March 2009 Real Estate Statistics