Okay, not really. Bad joke. The rest of the country may slowly be rising from the depths of the Great Recession, but here in Bend and Deschutes County we haven’t even reached bottom yet.
That’s the latest word from the Bratton Appraisal Group which said that Bend hit a new post-boom low in January for the median price of a home: $189,000.
That’s less than half what it was at the peak in May 2007: $396,000.
In Redmond, it’s worse: The median price is now $120,000, down from a high of $289,000.
Ouch!
Pity those who bought at the peak and now are drowning under massive mortgage debt. (See earlier post about walking away from your "underwater" home). Deschutes County recorded 402 default notices alone in January. The daily newspaper’s classified section is filled each day with such notices. That’s one thing Craig’s List hasn’t siphoned off yet.
One place you won’t find any help is, of course, at the bank. Any bank.
Despite the billions in goodwill the American taxpayer gave the banks for their ruinous behavior, the banks now turn around to that very same taxpayer looking for loan modification and screech: “F--- you.”
In fact, one retired loan officer told me that she’s been getting calls from former clients asking what they can do to work with their bank to stay in their home. She’s discovered that the banks don’t give a damn about your problems. (As if they ever did.) She said the banks are just writing off the losses and collecting the properties. And she is disgusted with them.
It’s what I predicted when the bankruptcy laws were re-written during the Bush Administration. We’re witnessing the greatest land grab since the Great Depression.
Who benefits? The very rich, of course. They’re swooping in and picking up those vacant subdivisions throughout Bend for a third of the asking price.
And it’s not going to look any better anytime soon.
The reason? The other shoe is about to drop.
“There is a commercial real estate crisis on the horizon, and there are no easy solutions to the risks commercial real estate may pose to the financial system and the public," says a report issued Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel, the bailout watchdog led by Harvard Law professor and middle-class advocate Elizabeth Warren.
This is from the Huffington Post: “Over the next five years, about $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans will reach the end of their terms and require new financing. Nearly half are ‘underwater,’ meaning the borrower owes more than the property is worth. Commercial property values have fallen more than 40 percent nationally since their 2007 peak. Vacancy rates are up and rents are down, further driving down the value of these properties.”
Bend, of course, is poised to be a poster child for this crisis, too. Vacant commercial properties litter the landscape like cardboard boxes.
The bottom just seems to get deeper and deeper.
Well xray I can only say one thing.
ReplyDeleteYou be a newbie post 1984 and you didn't see Bend in 1982, then you would know something about cardboard and plywood commercial real estate.
There is nothing new in Bend, its a cyclic recurrence to sell this worthless desert land to the tourists and then buy it back for penny's on the dollar. Been going on here forever.