June 2026 Market Report

Thoughts for Sellers

Inventories are dropping, and, on the surface, it appears the market is gaining strength, but in our opinion, it is way too early to make that call.  Sellers should continue to be aggressive pricing their homes competitively.  What does competitive pricing look like?  Sellers should price their home below comps that closed in the last 3 months and should aim to be the most competitively priced home on the market. For those looking to list, act immediately, as we only have roughly 60 solid days left in the selling season. We would only suggest changing this pricing strategy after we see at least one more month of data suggesting that the market is strengthening. 

Thoughts for Buyers

Buyers continue to have the upper hand, but time may be running out.  Given that listing activity is softening, we could very easily find ourselves in a market where shrinking inventories lead to competition amongst buyers, and for this reason, we suggest acting now.  This is arguably the best market we've seen for buyers in the last 5 years, and do not expect this to last a whole lot longer.  For those shopping below 700K, keep an eye on interest rates.  If they drop close to 6%, expect prices to push upwards.  If you are shopping between 1.2M and 3M, keep an eye on the major stock market indexes. If they continue to surge, expect housing prices to follow.

Median Sales Price

Bend’s median sales price surged in May, coming in roughly flat to last year, after two consecutive months of 12% year-over-year declines.  From what we can tell the surge in the median price has more to do with a shift in our sales mix throughout Bend, as we saw a full recovery in sales units across our premium zip codes, such as 97703, and some softening in the lower price points as interest rates are over 6.5%.  Overall, we feel that individual sales prices are still down year-over-year, and buyers have the upper hand when negotiating offers.  We believe that the shift in sentiment leading to sales is being fueled by a surge in the major stock indices, which also saw a tremendous recovery last month.

New Listings by Month

New Listings once again declined in May, however, the decline was lower compared to what we saw in the prior month.  This is most likely due to the lackluster market performance that occurred in March and April, which sidelined a lot of would-be sellers. This may change in a month or two if the market rebound continues.

Months of Supply

Months of supply came in at 4.3 months, which is significantly down year over year.  We feel like it is still a buyer's market, but months of supply remains below 4.5 months, we should see the market favor sellers towards the back half of the year.

Homes Pending by Month

Pending units were up year-over-year in May, most likely driven by price reductions and a rebound in the equity markets.  With 2 months of declining listing inventory, we may see this shift as some of our supply in the market dries up. 

 

Financing Affordability

30-year rates continue to stay elevated near 6.5%, and with a massive jump in the median sales price of a Bend home to $785K, we are near all-time lows on affordability for those purchasing a median sales priced home in Bend at the Freddie Mac 30-year rate survey data published the first week of June.