A pair of homes are for sale in a Bend neighborhood.

For the first time in more than a decade, Bend approached a balanced housing market in May, according to a monthly housing supply report.

That means as the market stretches toward six months worth of homes to sell — the industry standard of a balanced market — just as many homes will be on the market as there are buyers.

“The more product you have on the market, the more choices and options buyers have and that could affect price,” said Donnie Montagner, owner of Beacon Appraisal Group of Redmond. “To me it’s reflective of a market that is moving away from a seller’s market.”

Even before the pandemic, homes in some segments of the market would receive multiple offers, some of which would be at or above the asking price in Bend. 

Since May 2022, the Bend single family housing market had three instances of enough houses on the market that it would take four months to sell them all: June and July 2024 and in April.  In the past three years, the average length of time it takes to clear the inventory has been about two months, according to the monthly housing report.

Meanwhile, the median sales price of a single-family home in Bend dropped to $772,000 in May from its record-breaking high of $832,000 the previous month. Since May 2022, Bend’s median price of a single family home has been between a low of $660,000 to the high of $832,000 in April, according to the report. 

It’s taking about 22 days for homes to sell in Bend, according to the report. 

Paul Knighton, More Realty CEO, said he would call the market conditions in Bend still a seller’s market, but not as red-hot as in the past when multiple buyers put in offers above asking price.

There could be a variety of reasons why there are more sellers than buyers right now, Knighton said.  People go on vacation, there are a lot of holidays in May and June, or buyers are hoping the interest rates, which are  just below 7% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, will drop.

“The less months of inventory, the more power in the sellers’ hands because buyers compete for a home,” Knighton said. “Back in 2008 it was 22 months or longer. It’s been a sellers market for eight or nine years now. What’s happening now is sellers are shifting and buyers have given up waiting for mortgage rates to go down.

“The market is cooler. It’s not nuclear hot.”

That condition could help first-time buyers, said Rachel Haakenson, NeighborImpact director of marketing and communications. The nonprofit has programs to help first-time home buyers. 

“Inventory in this area is still a challenge,” Haakenson said. “Generally when there are more homes on the market, it can be easier to help buyers. But those homes have to be at the right price points.”

One issue, even with down payment assistance, is meeting mortgage lenders’ debt-to-income ratio requirements, she said. The homes are more expensive than they can afford.

The monthly Beacon Report uses the median sales price to measure the midpoint value of all transactions in a month. 

In Redmond, the single-family housing market also experienced an increase in the inventory levels. After six months of a two-month supply of homes for sale in Redmond, the market increased to a three-month supply in May, according to the report.

Traditionally home prices have been more stable in Redmond than in Bend. In May, the median sales price of a single-family home in Redmond declined to $514,000, compared to $540,000 the month before, according to the report.

Since January, the amount of time it takes to sell a home in Redmond has been on the decline. It now takes 17 days to sell a home in Redmond, compared to 60 in January according to the report. 

In Sisters the median sales price in May was $794,000, up a tad from April when the median sales price was $771,000. It still takes about four months to sell a home in Sisters, according to the report.

In Sunriver, the median sales price of a single family home was $1.04 million, up substantially over April’s median sales price of $810,000. It’s notable that there were fewer than 10 sales in both May and April, according to the report and it takes about four months to sell a home

In La Pine, the median sales price was $365,000 in May, down considerably from April when the median price was $452,000, according to the report. In La Pine it continues to take five months to sell a home. 

“More months of inventory helps buyers in this kind of market,” Knighton said. “The more you shift to the six-month inventory it creates a more favorable market for the buyer.  When you get closer to the less than six months mark, it’s still a seller’s market.”