Oregon Public Broadcasting

There are some positive signs in the Central Oregon real estate market.  Home sales in Bend and Redmond are both up by double-digit margins. But as David Nogueras reports, those numbers don't tell the whole story.

Home sales in Bend climbed 10 percent in June when compared to the same month last year. In Redmond they were up nearly 22 percent.

In addition, the median sales price rose 14 percent in Bend in June – and 6 percent in Redmond when compared to the previous month.

But appraiser Jeremy Cowan says the sale of a few high priced homes in any given month can skew those numbers.  So when it comes to predicting the future home prices, he tends to look at a different number.

Jeremy Cowan: "Through the second quarter of this year, we're still seeing defaults at or near all time highs so I guess that tells me that we still have a ways to go before we see sustained price increases."

Cowan says as those defaults turn into foreclosures, that will continue to drive the inventory of homes up and keep prices down.