Central Oregon Market Report | September 29, 2021

The Return of Seasonality

Fall is in the air! While temperatures reach the mid 70's in the afternoon, morning lows in the 30's send a clear message that winter is just around the corner. Mortgage interest rates ticked up slightly to 2.88%, still lower than this week last year. Available inventory dropped slightly to 628 single-family homes for sale in Deschutes County, with over 44% of listed homes taking a price reduction averaging -5.87%. The chatter about rising interest rates has grown louder as inflation continues to erode buying power, although nobody expects the Fed to do anything dramatic this year. Properties are still coming to market, our inventory is higher than in months, and rates are below 3%. All of that spells opportunity for buyers!

Last week 93 single-family homes sold in Deschutes County, compared to 188 houses sold this week last year. Admittedly the previous year's sales volume was not typical for Deschutes County, but sales this fall are lagging the 2019 sales of 122 and 2018 sales of 153 for the last week of September. Last week, the median sale price was $636,170, and the median days on the market have more than doubled since our summer trend to ten days. Of the homes sold last week, only 28 reduced the asking price, but as homes linger without a buyer, expect prices to moderate more for the remainder of the year.