Bend and Redmond Home Prices Both Dropped in August. The Reasons Don't Match
October 1, 2026
October 1, 2026
Bend's median single-family home price fell from $780,000 in July to $721,000 in August 2026, a $59,000 drop in a single month. Redmond's median fell too, from $525,000 to $480,000, down $45,000. Set those two numbers side by side and the story writes itself: Central Oregon is cooling, and it's cooling everywhere at once.
The rest of the same report, compiled by appraiser Donnie Montagner of Beacon Appraisal Group from Central Oregon MLS data, doesn't support that reading. Bend and Redmond produced the same headline number for opposite reasons, and if you're comparing the two markets right now, that difference matters more than the dollar figure on either one.
Bend's drop came bundled with everything else you'd expect from a market losing momentum. Closed sales fell from 187 in July to 160 in August. Homes that did sell took longer to do it, with median days on market climbing from 27 to 34. The median price per square foot also declined, from $373 to $360. Part of the drop traces to fewer sales above $1 million during the month, but the direction across every metric points the same way: fewer buyers closing, more time on market, and less paid per square foot for the homes that did trade hands. Inventory sat at roughly 3.5 months, in the range that tends to favor buyers over sellers.
That combination, fewer sales plus longer marketing time plus a falling price per square foot, is what a genuine cooling looks like in the data. It's not a single number moving. It's four of them moving together.
Redmond's median fell by almost as much in dollar terms, but none of the supporting numbers matched Bend's pattern. Closed sales held flat at 44, the same count as July. Median days on market dropped from 27 to 19, meaning homes sold faster in August than they had the month before. Price per square foot rose, from $295 to $316. Inventory sat at about four months.
A market that is losing value doesn't usually sell faster and command more per square foot at the same time. Redmond's numbers describe a market where demand, if anything, firmed up in August, even as the median sale price fell.
The median sale price is the midpoint of whatever closed that month. It isn't an index of home values, and it isn't adjusted for the size or type of home that sold. Price per square foot is calculated separately, from the same closings, and it measures something closer to what buyers are actually paying for square footage regardless of how big or small the home was.
When both numbers fall together, as they did in Bend, that's a signal the value of comparable homes is genuinely softening. When the median falls but price per square foot rises, as happened in Redmond, the more likely explanation is that the mix of what closed shifted toward smaller homes. A month with more compact, efficiently priced properties closing can push the median down even while each square foot is fetching more than it did the month before. Nothing about the underlying value declined. The sample of homes that happened to sell in August looked different from the sample that sold in July.
This is exactly the kind of month where a comp list built on the median alone would mislead a seller or a buyer in either direction. Bend's story and Redmond's story fit the same one-line headline, and they don't fit the same explanation.
If you're preparing to list in Bend this fall, the August numbers argue against pricing off a July comp that no longer reflects where buyers are. A home that would have supported a $780,000 asking price in July is competing against a market where the median buyer is now closing near $721,000, days on market have stretched by a week, and price per square foot has come down. That doesn't mean cutting a price to match the median. It means pulling the most recent closings for your specific size, condition, and location rather than anchoring to a number from earlier in the summer.
It also means paying attention to days on market as a pricing signal in its own right. A jump from 27 to 34 days isn't dramatic on its own, but combined with fewer closings and a falling price per square foot, it suggests buyers are taking more time to compare options before committing. Homes that launch at a price aligned with the most recent data tend to draw stronger early interest than ones that wait for a price cut to catch up with where the market has already moved.
If you're weighing the two cities as a buyer, Redmond's lower headline number can look like an opening to negotiate hard. The days on market and price per square foot data suggest the opposite. Homes there sold faster in August than in July, and per-square-foot pricing moved up, not down. A buyer expecting Redmond to behave like a market in retreat, the way Bend's numbers describe, may find less room to negotiate than the median price alone implies.
A short checklist for reading any month's report from either market:
Does a falling median mean I should lower my asking price? Not automatically. Check whether price per square foot and days on market moved the same direction as the median for your specific property type. If they did, as in Bend's August numbers, that's a stronger case for adjusting expectations. If they didn't, the median may be reflecting which homes happened to close rather than a shift in value.
How often do medians and price-per-square-foot move in opposite directions like this? It happens most often in markets with a smaller number of monthly sales, where one or two unusual closings can swing the median without changing the broader trend. Redmond's 44 sales in August is a smaller sample than Bend's 160, which makes it more exposed to this kind of mix effect in any given month.
Where can I see this data myself? The monthly figures come from the Beacon Report, compiled by Donnie Montagner of Beacon Appraisal Group using Central Oregon MLS data, with archived monthly reports available directly through the Beacon Appraisal Group site.
If you're weighing a Bend listing against this month's numbers, or trying to figure out what a Redmond comp actually tells you, I'm happy to pull the specific closings that apply to your situation rather than the citywide average. Erica Callfas — Let's Connect.
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