Home prices keep climbing

Rising home prices put Bend-Redmond in eighth place among U.S. metropolitan statistical areas with the highest yearly home price increases, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency data released Tuesday.

Median home prices in the Bend-Redmond metro area, which includes all of Deschutes County, climbed 19.16 percent in the year ending Sept. 30, according to the report. Home prices climbed more than 5 percent between the second and third quarters last year.

Deschutes County ranked fourth in the U.S. for fastest rising home prices in mid-2013.

The median price for a home in Bend, according to the Bratton Appraisal Group, stood at $267,000 in December. In Redmond, the median home price stood at $165,000, according to the group.

The quarterly house price index showed Oregon in eighth place among states with the highest rates of home price appreciation, the report showed. Home prices in the Pacific Census Division, which includes Oregon, showed the strongest third-quarter increase, 4.2 percent. Fifteen of the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest annual appreciation rates were in California, according to the FHFA.

The cost of housing nationwide rose dramatically in 2013 compared to other goods and services, according to the FHFA report. The house price index rose 7.7 percent in 2013; the price of other goods and services rose 0.7 percent, according to the report.

— Bulletin staff report