After nearly a quarter of a century without a serious downturn, history finally caught up with the Central Oregon housing market in 2007.

Swooning like an oxygen-starved sprinter at the end of a too-long run, the region’s residential real estate market struggled by nearly every measure throughout the year.

Bend, the region’s largest city, averaged about 129 sales per month of single homes on urban lots throughout the year, down 27 percent from the 2006 pace and 46 percent off the torrid pace of 2005.

Median prices on the homes that did sell held relatively steady, settling in at $349,000 through the first three quarters of the year, according to Central Oregon Multiple Listing Service data.

But high sales prices were cold comfort to would-be home sellers who found it difficult to move their homes at any price.

Bend started the year with more than 1,100 unsold homes on the market, according to MLS data reported by Bratton Appraisal Group’s Mike Caba.

That number quickly soared to more than 1,600 by June as speculators and other homeowners tried to sell at the same time.

The number of listings gradually shrank to around 1,300 by early this month, as some homes sold and some would-be sellers opted to pull their homes off the market to wait for another season.

Still, at the year’s average monthly sales rate, it would take more than a year to sell off even that reduced year-end inventory level — more than the six months of inventory that most industry observers say is the hallmark of a well-balanced market.

Source: tmcnet.com