One of the state’s largest builders of high-end, environmentally friendly homes announced this week that it’s planning to build several hundred homes in Bend over the next year or two – another indication that builders are still bullish about the Central Oregon real estate market.

Portland-based Renaissance Homes hopes to build around 270 homes and 30 townhomes in the Bend market over the next one to two years, company President Randy Sebastian said.

That’s a big leap into a market where the largest local builder, Pahlisch Homes, sold 240 homes in 2005. But Sebastian, a native Oregonian who’s been vacationing in Central Oregon for more than 30 years, said he thinks the time is ripe.

”A lot of people are moving to Bend with financial resources,” Sebastian said. ”So I think that the Bend market is probably a little more stable than some other areas of the state where people could build.”

The company expects most of its Bend homes to sell in the $500,000 to $900,000 range.

Brian Bergler, Pahlisch Homes’ vice president for sales and marketing, said he would tend to agree, despite economists’ predictions of a slowdown in the national real estate market.

Statistics tell part of the story of the area’s recent growth.

The city of Bend issued 1,941 building permits for single-family dwellings through November 2005, according to U.S. Census data, more than twice the 891 permits issued by the city of Portland and four times the 481 issued by fast-growing Medford in Southern Oregon.

Bergler expects some slowing in the Central Oregon market next year as interest rates stabilize and red-hot markets in California and elsewhere cool off. But especially in Bend, a shortage of land to build on will be more of a limiting factor than a slowdown in demand.

About 60 percent of Pahlisch’s business in the last two years has come from buyers moving from outside Central Oregon, Bergler said, bringing in money that was not generated by the local economy.

”Is there room in the market?” Bergler said. ”I think so.”

At least initially, Renaissance’s entry into the Bend market will not be slowed by a lack of land.

The company controls about 100 acres of land on the city’s west side, according to a company press release, enough to build a projected 210 homes in its new Renaissance Ridge subdivision at Brookswood Drive and Aspen Rim Lane, along with a 60-home development in Shevlin Park and a 30-unit townhome development in NorthWest Crossing.

The company hopes to open sales and construction on those projects this year, Sebastian said. It hopes to start work on another 85-home development farther south on Brookswood in 2007.

Renaissance will maintain operations in Portland and Seattle, but its expansion into Bend could signal significant growth. It expected sales to clear $215 million in 2005, according to the company’s press release. It estimates that its initial projects in Bend will be worth about $183 million.

Renaissance uses a ”production-builder” approach to building luxury homes, Sebastian said. Buyers can select from more than 35,000 pre-priced amenities in the company’s design centers, including high-end touches like imported Italian granite countertops, before construction starts. Its subdivisions are built out in single phases and all of its homes are built to energy-saving standards.

Homes in the Renaissance Ridge development are expected to run from $500,000 to nearly $900,000. Its Shevlin Park homes are expected to bring $600,000 to $900,000 apiece. The NorthWest Crossing project, which will include 600 square feet of commercial space, is expected to sell for $400,000 to $800,000 per unit.