Central Oregon Market Report: Early Fall 2026

Back in the summer I promised these market reports would be a regular thing. A lot has happened since my first report, and the story has quietly shifted in a direction that matters for both owners and renters.

Here are the numbers, what changed since summer, and what I would do about it.

What houses are selling for now

The headline: Bend prices have stopped falling and gone flat, which is a bigger deal than it sounds.

The median sale price sits around $725,000, essentially unchanged from a year ago, somewhere between flat and up less than 1% depending on the source. Compare that to my summer report, when the median was closer to $704,000 and down more than 6% year over year. The decline stopped. Prices did not crash. They leveled off and are holding.

The August Beacon Appraisal report, pulled from the local MLS, shows Bend with 3.5 months of inventory and 527 single-family homes listed, with 1,832 homes sold over the trailing 12 months. Redmond shows 4 months of inventory with 190 homes listed. For context, during the pandemic frenzy Bend inventory dipped below 200 active listings. We are now regularly seeing several hundred. You can shop for a house on a weekend and compare a few before deciding, which felt impossible three years ago.

The single most useful shift for anyone buying or selling is the list-to-sale ratio. A few years back, homes sold for around 105% of asking, over list, with lines out the door. Today homes are closing around 98% of the original list price. On a $700,000 house, that means buyers are routinely negotiating $10,000 to $20,000 off, or getting closing-cost help.

Homes are taking longer, too. Depending on the source, median days on market runs from about 30 up to the mid-60s, and the full listing-to-closing process is averaging closer to 100 days. Redmond remains the value play, still pulling buyers who got priced out of Bend or who just want more house for the money.

One caution I will keep repeating: a median is a blunt instrument. It can rise in a month just because more expensive homes happened to sell, and it can dip even while your specific neighborhood stays strong. Northwest Bend behaves differently than southeast Bend, which behaves differently than Redmond. Do not price your house, or your offer, off a county-wide number.

What the rental market is doing

Here is where it gets interesting for my people, the owners of rental property, because the timing right now is everything.

Rents in Bend are essentially flat to slightly down year over year, but they just spiked to their seasonal peak. Zumper puts the August median around $2,472, up 4% in a single month and back to peak level, while down about 1% from a year ago. Apartment-focused sources land lower, with Point2 and RentCafe around $1,918 and other apartment surveys near $2,097. That spread is the same lesson from my bedroom-and-neighborhood post: apartments and single-family houses are two different markets, and you have to know which one your property lives in.

By size, the rough current picture is studios around $1,350 to $1,560, one-bedrooms near $1,725 to $1,810, two-bedrooms in the $1,850 to $2,350 range, three-bedrooms around $2,530 to $2,700, and four-bedroom-plus homes climbing toward $3,600 and up. Redmond continues to run below Bend across the board.

Renters are a real and steady share of this market, about 39% of Bend households, so demand is there. The most affordable Bend neighborhoods right now are River West and the Orchard District, both near $1,995, and Mountain View around $2,026.

The timing thing you need to hear

Now connect two facts I just gave you. Rents are at their seasonal peak in August. And the cheapest month to rent in Bend is April, when prices run about 13% below the August peak. November is the softest, least competitive month of all.

That seasonality is the whole ballgame for an owner deciding when to turn over a unit. A lease that ends in late summer puts your house on the market at the top of the pricing cycle, with the biggest pool of relocating families competing for it. A lease that ends in November drops it into the slowest, cheapest, coldest stretch of the year, exactly when I suggested vacancies stretch to 60 or 90 days.

Aim your lease expirations at summer. If you have a vacancy opening up right now in early fall, price it sharply and get it filled before the November slowdown swallows it. Do not hold out for July's number in October.

What I am telling owners this month

If you are renting a unit out right now, price it at market and lease it fast. We are heading into the soft season, and every week you wait costs more than the few dollars you would gain by holding firm. An occupied house through the winter beats a proud, empty listing every time.

If you are thinking about selling, understand you are selling into a balanced, patient market. Buyers negotiate now. Price at 98% reality, present the home well, and do not anchor to a number from the frenzy years.

If you are shopping for an investment property, this is a genuinely better buying environment than we have had in years. More inventory, real negotiating room, and Redmond still offering the better yield math. The easy momentum wins are gone, but a carefully chosen property makes sense again.

What I am telling renters

You have leverage heading into fall and winter. Homes are sitting longer, and landlords feel the coming slow season as much as you do. If you can time a move for the shoulder season, October through April, you will find better prices and far less competition than the summer scramble. Come with your documents organized and a clean application still wins the house.

The bottom line

Central Oregon has settled into something we have not seen in a long time: a normal market. Sale prices are flat and holding, inventory is healthy, buyers can breathe, and rents are steady but deeply seasonal. The owners who do well from here are the ones who respect the calendar, price to today instead of to 2022, and keep good properties occupied through the winter.

I will keep these reports coming as the numbers move. Next time, we will talk about what the winter season specifically does to rental demand and how to use it.

Own a rental in Bend, Redmond, or anywhere in Central Oregon and want to know exactly what it should earn heading into winter? Request a free management proposal or call us at (541) 388-1382. We will give you a straight, current number, not a summer fantasy.