A new report by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight finds Deschutes County ranked No. 48 out of 292 metro areas on a list of U.S. cities that experienced the biggest year-to-year drop in housing prices.
From June 2007 to June 2008, housing prices in the Bend metro area dropped 7.15 percent, nosediving 3.91 percent during second quarter 2008 alone, while statewide prices fell .5 percent during the same year-to-year period.
Since 2003, housing prices in Deschutes County increased a whopping 66.08 percent, one of about a dozen-or-so metro areas to experience an increase greater than 65 percent during that period.
Since 1980 housing prices increased 364 percent in Oregon compared to 405.5 percent in Washington, 295.20 percent in Montana, 252.25 percent in Idaho, and 184.23 percent in Alaska, according to the report.
There have been at least 15,000 transactions in the Deschutes County housing market since 1998, the study finds.
The full report is available online at:
http://www.ofheo.gov/newsroom.aspx?ID=452&q1=1&q2=None
