Despite a very strong start to the year, with January and February showing stronger sales totals than during the same months in 2019, the effects of the coronavirus caught up with the real estate market in March and April. Compared to the same months last year, we saw Pending residential sales in Bend drop 21% in March and 50% in April. The drop was not a big surprise, as we saw showing activity come to a near standstill in early March. However as April wound down, we saw the number of showings pick up dramatically, with that number currently approaching levels seen in 2019.
Bend is a bit unique in that we generally have a decent number of out-of-town visitors making up a large portion of our buyer pool. However, due to travel restrictions, showings and activity for April and now the first part of May have been primarily local buyers. Despite this, we are encouraged to see that in the first 11 days of May, we have seen 165 homes go pending. This compares to 120 in the same timeframe in 2019 and represents 37% increase year over year. We find this very encouraging, especially after seeing about a 50% decline year over year in April. The lack of pending activity in April will continue to lead to lower than expected sold activity in May, but the increase in new pending activity is a good sign for the market and will lead to June sales.
Prices up to this point have continued to hold strong, with the Median Home Price primarily unchanged from March ($460,000) to April ($468,000). A big reason for this is the lack of available homes for sale across Bend. In April we saw 38% fewer new listings than the year before, and this trend has continued in the first 11 days of May. Although we have seen the number of new listings picking up week over week, it has still not caught up with what we would expect this time of year. We do know that many people have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the “right time” to list their home, and we fully expect that many will do so in the coming weeks.
Stay in the Know About the Housing Market
For those of you who are wanting to hear how the housing market has been holding up in the midst of all this, we have been trying to keep you updated through webinars, calls, and posts on Facebook. Click below to watch our most recent webinar.
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Be sure to follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/bendpropertysource/ or on Instagram @bendpropertysource. If you’re not on social media, don’t hesitate to reach out to us so we can send you the information you need via email or through our website at bendpropertysource.com.
Please reach out if you have any questions about the market or want to discuss how any of this could affect you and your situation. We hope you are well, look forward to talking with you soon, and hope to see you at our next webinar.