Wikinvest Wire

A sign of the times in Bend, Oregon

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

We were out and about earlier today and happened to go look at the latest golf course that was built here in Bend, Oregon. Going by the name Tetherow, it had the misfortune of opening up last summer, just in time for the financial market meltdown and the subsequent rethinking by tens of millions of Americans about how much money they spend and where.

Right next to the Tetherow sign on the main road was an Open House sign, so we followed it.

The golf course looked absolutely gorgeous, as it should for the amount of money they are charging the public to play there (between about $115 and $195), management having long since given up trying to make a go of it as a private club.

Though there were about a half dozen homes under construction, we arrived at what appeared to be the only completed home, part of a planned 380 home development that is clearly going nowhere fast.

As it happens, there's a big "Tour of Homes" in the area over the next two weeks, sponsored by the local homebuilders to feature their fine work and, hopefully boost new home sales. The tour was announced loudly in the local paper today with an enormous supplement shown above (an online version of the guide can be seen here).

Anyway, arriving at the open house and noting that the price had just been reduced from somewhere around $1.4 million to around $1.1 million, we asked if the home was going to be featured on the Tour of Homes in the weekends ahead.

The gentlemen greeting prospective buyers replied, "No, but it was on it last summer".

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha. The guy probably didn't have a clue how lousy he just admitted the Bend housing market is.

And it might well be in the Tour of Homes next year. And the year after that.

Who the hell wants to spend a million bucks on a house in a town with no (non service-sector) jobs or even a self-sustaining economy?

If it wasn't for tourists and equity locusts, Bend would be one tenth its size, with no million dollar homes... about like it was in the 1980's

Anonymous said...

Try being informed instead of just opinionated.

fish said...

The same thing happened just over the hill from where I work! The Diablo Grande development outside of Patterson California, just off I-5 was going to be one of these "Master Planned Golf Lifestyle Communities". I played there a few times at a day after Thanksgiving tournament put on annually by a supplier to my employer. It was a nice course with nice facilities but has now fallen on exceptionally hard times!


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/20/RECH11QS8K.DTL

Tim said...

I know of a guy who bought a place there at Diablo Grande. Unfortunately, he forgot to sell his other house first.

bear said...

It is pretty sad how properties continue the decline. How is someone supposed to get the 20% down needed for a million dollar home on a jumbo loan. I'm sure most people dont have that. I think it is better to just stay in your home and get your carpets cleaned www.carpetcleaningbendoregon.com and enjoy living in your home because you wont be able to sell it for what you want for another 10 years. Might as well enjoy it or foreclose it.

Anonymous said...

Anon #1 again. Just wanted to see if there were further comments.

I was exhorted to get informed rather than put out an opinion, so I googled "Bend economy", and found this: http://bendoregonbubble.blogspot.com/

Ahahahaha, lol, lmao.

"The whole town of Bend needs to say the Serenity Prayer right now, because the real estate market and local economy are tanking, and are going to keep tanking for some time to come, and there's nothing anyone in Bend can do to stop it."

and

"People like "Mr. April 25" Dana Bratton and the coalition of local real estate forces behind the "Best Buyers' Market in 20 Years" media intimidation campaign think that with The Power of Positive Thinking, the local real estate market (real estate being the only industry in Deschutes County history ever to achieve $1,000,000,000 in one-year sales) can recover."

Goddam, sounds like my uninformed opinion of Bend's economy was *way* off now, doesn't it?

Now that I am informed about Bend, however, I haven't changed my opinion of it. Call me if they ever decide to build a factory that makes, you know, stuff.

IMAGE

  © Blogger template Newspaper by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP