Photograph by Allen Kennedy
Location: Bend, Oregon
January 1, 2005
The mountain town of bend, ore., with its dramatic vistas, crisp air, clean
water, thriving gallery and culinary scene and every outdoor recreational
activity under the sun, is fast becoming the new Aspen. Mount Bachelor attracts
world-class skiers, the famed Pacific Crest Trail brings hikers, the National
Volcanic Monument lures mountain bikers and rock hounds, and the Deschutes,
McKenzie and Metolius rivers reel in white-water rafters and fly fishermen. In
addition, Bend is still relatively undiscovered, and it boasts 300 days of
sunshine and golf–lots of it.
What started as a timber town in the 1900s matured into one of the nation’s
hottest ski destinations. But Bend, with its enviable weather–summer
temperatures average 78 degrees and annual rainfall is minimal, unlike nearby
Portland–is quickly becoming the Northwest’s premier golf destination with its
25 courses, surrounded by master-planned luxury communities, and its extra-long
golf season. No wonder Bend is nationally ranked as one of the
best places to retire.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’ve never been this busy,” says real
estate broker Chuck Overton of Coldwell Banker Morris Real Estate. “We are
seeing 15 percent appreciation on bare land compared to the usual 5 to 8
percent. And every month for the last 12 months, we have been up 10 to 20
percent in sales.” In this high desert plateau region, homes and lots ranging
from $500,000 to $3 million are as commonplace as the native ponderosa pines and
sagebrush.
Sunriver Resort, open since 1968, is the area’s first planned community.
Southwest of Bend, Sunriver’s 4,000 homes and condo offerings are 96 percent
built out, but home resale activity is bustling (properties range from $300,000
to $2 million). “We have 12 resales on the market–the smallest inventory
we’ve had in years,” says real estate broker John Fettig. When a townhome
project sold out quickly in 2003, Fettig says, a 12-unit condo project broke
ground soon after and garnered 41 written offers in a special one-day offering.
Sunriver guests and residents enjoy three championship golf courses, a country
club, a 35,000-square-foot spa fac-ility and racquet club, an executive airport
and a shopping village on the 3,300-acre property.
Crosswater, Sunriver’s newest high-end development, centers around a semiprivate
golf course that is nationally ranked. At press time, only six of the 117
homesites remained (priced from $350,000 to $600,000). A new Sunriver resort
development will open in 2006 across the street, offering 350 homesites and 75
condo units.
Broken Top, a gated golf community 20 miles northwest of Bend, is named after a
dormant volcano and has 669 single-family homesites (from $339,000 to $3.2
million) and 201 attached townhomes (from $189,000 to $479,000); 400 of the
homesites are for custom homes. Lava outcroppings and deep lakes make its
private golf course unusually challenging. The 27,000-square-foot clubhouse,
designed by Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Woo, overlooks stunning views of the
Cascade Mountains.
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