The year 2020 will certainly go down as one for the books and with a global pandemic in our midst, the housing market was not left untouched. Like all of us, we have had to adapt to a new way of living and doing business like never before. Here are some things to be aware of about how the pandemic has impacted renting a home in Central Oregon:
The market is booming and we better get used to it.
While some major cities and urban areas across the country experienced dips in their housing markets with residents fleeing and prices dropping along with them, Central Oregon started breaking different records: our market is booming. What was already considered a hot housing market and desirable place to live just became even hotter through this pandemic.
In July, the median home price for a single-family home jumped up 13% from the year prior, according to a report from Beacon Appraisal, and the median sale price was $529,000. Skip ahead to October and that median home price is now $560,000. The rental market has kept pace with that demand and vacancies are at all-time lows and rent prices at all-time highs.
What’s causing the boom? Bend is drawing the attraction of city-dwelling professionals who are no longer tied down by their jobs and have the ability to work remotely from anywhere. As more and more companies lean into satellite-based employment for the foreseeable future, their employees are taking this opportunity to pack up and head out to smaller, more idyllic destinations outside the cities they came from.
Protip: If you’re considering a move and see something available that interests you--act quick before it gets gobbled up. The inventory shortage and high demand means most properties won’t stay available for long.
Answer that FaceTime call - it’s your leasing agent ready for your showing!
Remember the good old days of shaking hands and meeting face-to-face? We miss them, too. But thankfully, technology has allowed us to continue to keep homes renting with virtual showings for prospective renters looking to move. Truth be told we’ve been doing this all along since we rent to many folks from outside the area, but now virtual showings through FaceTime or Google Duo are now some of our main methods of meeting with new renters. The leasing process is also all online and applicants can fill out applications from our website and sign a lease electronically through DocuSign.
Lights, Camera, Action!
In some situations where the home we need to list for rent is currently occupied, we may ask to come by and take some recorded video footage of the home to offer to prospective renters instead of a virtual showing. This helps us reduce the number of times we need to enter the home. We always wear a mask and follow Covid-related precautions and ask that tenants do as well. And if a tenant is concerned about anyone coming to the home period, we may instead ask them to take some snippets of video footage for us. But ultimately, we rely heavily on our listing photos and familiarity with our homes to help both current tenants and prospective renters feel at ease with the situation.
All in all, 2020 has forced us to be a little more creative with our methods and flexible with how we adapt. We will continue to take each day as it comes and learn along the way to better serve our community and industry as best we can.