The main challenge for most first-time homebuyers is coming up with the down payment. This is difficult when rising rents eat away at potential down payment savings. Here are some options that are often overlooked: Ask the seller to pay closing costs. It is not uncommon to ask and receive up to 6 percent of […]
Real Estate
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Damaged Sidewalk Nearly Sidelines Home Sale
This week’s article is about an actual real estate experience recently encountered with a sidewalk in need of repair. Both buyers and sellers should take note. As most Bendites know, there are a lot of sidewalks uprooted by tree roots in Bend. Replacing the damaged section with a new sidewalk is only a temporary fix, […]
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Senate Bill 1533 and Inclusionary Zoning
A reader named Krista recently wrote to the Source Weekly about Senate Bill 1533. She wondered whether the bill really accomplishes anything in terms of helping create affordable housing, and expressed concerns about the bill’s definition of affordable housing: “Affordable housing” means housing that is affordable to households with incomes equal to or higher than […]
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Buying & Selling a Home with Solar Panels
There is an abundance of reasons why buying a house with solar panels is a great idea, but there are also some negatives that can arise when a house is being sold. Solar panels have been cited as adding $15,000-$20,000 to the value of a home if purchased outright. This is because of the appeal […]
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Bend Livability Project Housing Sessions
On Saturday, June 4 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Bend Livability Conference will have some interesting housing sessions on affordable housing. The conference will have many speakers including representatives from local government addressing the urban growth boundary and related issues, the need for affordable housing, and even a session on tiny homes, cottage […]
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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 […]
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Finding the Right Offering Price
Bend is a seller’s market, so buyers often wonder what is an appropriate offer on a home, particularly when competing offers are likely, which is increasingly common nowadays. This past week, the April real estate statistics for Bend were released, and according to the Beacon Report, the median sales price rose to $365,000, with a […]
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Competitive Strategies for Bend’s Tight Market
As all of us in Bend know, homes are selling quickly, prices are rising, and we have an inventory shortage. Like many parts of the country, Bend is truly a seller’s market. It is not uncommon to have multiple offers and occasionally bidding wars. With competing buyers for the same property, it’s necessary to act […]
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Dear Tenant, You Must Vacate the Premises
Many fear homelessness awaits them
In a quickly gentrifying neighborhood in northwest Bend, just a few blocks from Newport Avenue Market, the 44 people who call the Fireside Lodge Condominiums home will soon be without a basic human need: shelter. Bend’s affordable housing crisis is no longer down the road somewhere in the distant future for them. As market values […]
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Rural Studio’s Affordable Design-Builds
Social media is a great source of ideas and inspiration about new solutions to affordable housing. As a realtor, one newsfeed that caught my eye recently included $20,000 homes created by architecture students at Auburn University’s design-build program called Rural Studio. Rural Studio “seeks solutions to the needs of the community within the community’s own […]