The news landed in Bend on Wednesday like a shell from a howitzer: A survey from the American Chamber of Commerce Research Association found that in the fourth quarter of 2001, Bend was the most expensive city in Oregon to live in.

Gary Peters, the Bend Chamber of Commerce’s president, has been talking on the phone ever since. The Bend chamber, as well as chambers throughout the United States, gathered the local data last October that was used in the survey.

”I’ve gotten calls all day,” he said.

But is Bend in fact the most expensive city in Oregon in a snapshot taken five months ago, according to the data collected by the national chamber’s research? The short answer seems to be, barely. And that’s if you accept the theory that the data are valid.

Peters doesn’t necessarily subscribe to that theory.

”You could make a case that the data are inconsistent,” he said. ”Did everyone find out the price of a gallon of gas on the same day?”

According to the national chamber’s research, which consisted of 59 questions surveying things such as the costs of a new, 2,400-square-foot house, a pound of ground beef and a gallon of gasoline, Bend barely beats out Corvallis and Portland for the title of most expensive.

Keep in mind, however, that the national chamber’s survey is voluntary, and only six Oregon cities – Bend, Corvallis, Klamath Falls, Lincoln City, Portland and Salem – took part in the fourth quarter 2001 survey.

Some comparisons:

-A brand new, 2,400-square-foot house in Bend on an 8,000-square-foot lot in what the national chamber describes only as a ”good” neighborhood was $272,800.

See Living costs / D6