Oct 05 2007
Bend Bulletin: “Builders tweak homes, prices”
This is an earlier post from this year. Two quick comments:
- Here you have the winter look/feel of this home.
- This story by the Bend Bulletin is very similar to what George wrote Oct. 3rd:
Builders tweak homes, prices
Prices and amenities trimmed to troll for cash-strapped buyers
By David Fisher / The Bulletin
Published: February 04. 2007 5:00AM PST
At WoodHill Homes‘ new WoodHill Park neighborhood in north Bend, the upsides and downsides of this year’s housing market will soon go on display.
On the upside, little homes will soon begin rising, built to Earth Advantage energy conservation standards and pre-wired for solar hot water and electricity.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for granite countertops and extensive hardwood flooring - at least in the standard model - you’ll be hard-pressed to find it.
And other expensive details, like iPod docking stations and built-in stereo sound?
Forget it.
Unless you’re willing to pay extra for it.
In the boom days of 2005 and early 2006, virtually everything sold fast, and builders didn’t have to devote a lot of thought to keeping prices down, WoodHill partner George Hale said.
This year, times have changed.
With more than 1,100 homes on the market in Bend alone, Hale and and his partner, Jay Campbell, say they’re shedding some of the expensive features that crept into their standard-model homes over the past few years, hoping to stand out on price instead of the eye-popping details on the 95-or-so homes they plan to build this year.
The net result?
Homes in the WoodHill Park subdivision off Empire Road - 1,400- to 1,800-square-foot homes that would have been priced “in the high 200s” early last year - will go on the market for somewhere around $250,000 this spring, Hale said.
A little higher up the price and size scale, homes in WoodHill’s Reed Pointe development off 15th Street near Reed Market Road will go on the market for $334,000 to $379,000, Hale said, down from the high $300,000s to $400,000s that similar models would have brought last year.
- Read the full article here
- The Case For Buying A House Now (How do you know when we’ve hit the ‘bottom?’)
- October 6 and 7: HospiceCenter’s “Wine by the River” This Weekend in Bend and it’s FREE
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