If you’ve been around Central Oregon for a while, you’ll remember how limited we once were when choosing a favorite watering hole or restaurant. With the growth of population we’ve seen an enormous surge in dining and beverage options. The same is true for the housing market. Before the Bend boom it was slim pickings […]
housing market
Posted inNews
Housing Bubble Concerns
With the increase in home prices reported in last week’s article, I have been asked by many people if we are staged for a correction or whether we are in a housing bubble. While recessions are inevitable in our economy, whether there will be one in the housing market is highly debated. Most real estate […]
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Affordable Housing via Community Land Trusts
Community land trusts develop affordable housing on land held in trust by a non-profit housing organization. Portland has such a program called Proud Ground that has provided affordable housing since 1998. Many of us are familiar with community land trusts that are conservation oriented, but the housing ones are conservational to the extent that often […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Taking The Economy’s Temperature
Housing sales are warming up. Is that good?
Like predicting the weather in Central Oregon during the finicky spring months, economic forecasts are tricky; sunny afternoons do not necessarily promise warm and dry evenings. Likewise, in the mid-2000s, thousands in Central Oregon were basking in a booming housing market. By 2006, construction and real estate employment was effortlessly adding jobs, and quickly had […]
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What in the World? Today’s News!
House Party! Since the late ’70s, American homeowners have enjoyed positive equity (the value of their home was greater than their mortgage debt). That all changed in late 2007, when the economy began its nosedive (it also coincided with Ben Bernanke taking over as fed. chairman). For the first time in almost six years and […]