Friday, May 27, 2011

Have you Seen the Signs? It's All Part of Bend, Oregon Green Real Estate!

We were so excited to launch QR codes on our "for sale" signs recently - a first for Bend, Oregon real estate. What's a QR code you may ask? Well, QR - or Quick Response - is a matrix barcode that is readable by smart phones. When the code is scanned, your phone will show you some interactive content. In our case - it's more information about the house for sale. 

This is a great initiative for us for many reasons, one of the top being that we're committed to sustainability. The QR codes on the signs reduce the need for printing fliers for distribution at sales locations, as most people can get the information that they want through their mobile device. This saves paper and contributes to our overall goals for conducting a green real estate business in Bend, Oregon. 

“There’s been a lot of hype in the real estate industry surrounding the use of QR codes, but no one has given a lot of attention to the green aspects of using codes instead of fliers,” said Sandy Garner, President and CEO of The Garner Group. “We obviously wanted to use them to help people find the information they needed quickly and easily, but we also see them as contributing to our corporate sustainability goals by reducing our paper usage.”

This isn’t our first step toward a more sustainable future. In 2009, we relocated its headquarters to the award-winning, “green” neighborhood of NorthWest Crossing. The building that houses its offices was built to high standards for sustainability and energy efficiency.

In addition, we have more agents than any other Bend, Oregon real estate company that have earned the National Association of Realtors’ GREEN designation. The certification by NAR’s Green Resource Council is earned through the completion of a three-day course focusing on fundamentals of green building practices, consumer awareness and marketing of homes built to green standards. The Garner Group has nine agents that hold this green real estate designation.

Going green! Scan one of our QR codes next time you see one! 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Pendulum is Swinging in Bend, Oregon Real Estate: A Look at the Numbers

With trustworthy amounts of sunshine becoming a reality in Bend Oregon, people are starting to think about spring and summer activities. There are street festivals, outdoor concerts, paddle boarding, hiking, biking and so much more to do all around Central Oregon. Typically, spring also brings heightened activity in the Bend Oregon real estate market, where the number of available homes has been decreasing while the number of homes sold has jumped dramatically.

Realtorsรข and other crystal ball gazers study absorption rates—the comparison of inventory and sales figures used to calculate the theoretical number of days it would take to sell the plate clean. From this source, we can compare sales and listing totals accrued from December through May of this year with comparable six-month numbers in each of the three previous years (12 months in the case of 2008). The number of homes sold over the full period increased by 72% while the number of active listings dropped by 64%. (Figures based on MLS statistics for Bend, Oregon residential listings on less than one acre.)

Date of Report        Active Listings            Homes Sold in the Prior 6 Months

May 2008                    1417                            473
May 2009                    1131                            490
May 2010                    738                              639
May 2011                    513                              814

What follows is a little wonky but stick with us: Annual rates of change were not equal between active listings and sales. Six-month totals ending in May 2009 showed the number of active listings dropped 20% while the number of sales increased only 4% over the comparable period a year before. The pace of sales picked up considerably the following year, to 30%, increasing another 27% for the six months ending May 2011. The number of listings continued to dive, 35% and 30% in subsequent years, measured in comparable six-month periods.

Bend Oregon real estate sales exceeded the number of active listings for the first time in the six months that ended this May. During the same period, Bend had one-third as many residential real estate listings as it did in 2008 and nearly twice the number of homes sold. While we see more listings coming on the market as spring moves toward summer, the numbers don’t lie. We can see the pendulum swinging back toward a seller’s market. This is good news for homeowners, and a little push for buyers to start finding their dream homes.

With fewer active listings and more sales, demand is outpacing supply. And that’s something we can all cheer about!