Homes are under construction Thursday at the Eastridge subdivision, a project of SGS Development on NE Faith Drive in Bend. (Andy Tullis/Bulletin photo)

The forthcoming Eastridge subdivision in Bend seems like a safe bet to Monte Vista Homes owner Luke Pickerill and his land-development partner SGS Development. Monte Vista plans to build 31 homes on 5.3 acres in an area east of 27th Street near Mountain View High School. It’s nowhere near the size of subdivisions that were planned during the last housing boom, and Pickerill said he likes it that way.

Considering the losses builders and developers experienced when the housing bubble burst, he said, “I don’t know that anybody has the appetite to do that level of 
development in Bend.”

That shows in the activity at Bend’s Community Development Department. Last year, the largest subdivision the city approved was 56 lots, Butler Crossing; in 2006, it was 265 lots at the Mirada subdivision. The number of subdivision applications is down, as well. In 2006, developers filed 46 applications; in 2016, 11.

While the scale and pace of new developments suits a reformed homebuilding industry, it’s not keeping up with demand, which is supported by historically low unemployment rates and an influx of new residents. A short supply of new single-family homes is one reason prices in Bend are so out of reach to the local workforce, University of Oregon economist Tim Duy said.

“I think the region is under-building,” he said.

Builders cite several reasons for the measured pace and scope of activity. They’re finishing projects that stalled out during the Great Recession. There are fewer large tracts of land served by the city sewage system. Borrowing money is more difficult and expensive because it’s coming from private lenders, rather than banks, and the cost of preparing raw ground for building has gone up.

The number of building permits issued in Deschutes County hasn’t bounced back to pre-recession levels, but the number of homes sold is getting close to the 2006 peak, Duy said. So even if the pace of sales stays level, the supply won’t catch up to demand, he said.

Duy thinks Deschutes County could use more of those large-tract developments. “But it seems that much of the market is small developments and one-offs. That tends to be more expensive homes.”

New, large master-planned communities are on the books in Bend and Redmond. But even as builders see homes selling as soon as they’re vertical, they say they don’t know how quickly they could work through subdivisions with hundreds of lots.

“There’s the appearance of unlimited demand right now,” said Geoff Harris, regional director at Hayden Homes. “We are not forgetting what we’ve lived through. You never do exactly know.”

Hayden Homes’ Maple Meadows is so far the largest master plan Redmond has approved in the past three years. The plan calls for a total of 314 units, including 152 single-family lots, duplexes, townhomes, cottages and apartments.

Hayden is working on Obsidian Trails, which calls for 182 units, including 114 single-family homes.

Although the homes are selling quickly, Harris said the company is working in phases of two or three dozen lots because of a shortage of construction labor.

“I can sell twice as many homes as I am,” Harris said.

But if he did that, Harris said, the buyers would be waiting a year for their homes to be finished.

Redmond is handling more large master plans now than it did during the last housing boom, senior planner Scott Woodford said. The city expanded its urban-growth boundary in 2006, but not many larger properties were annexed at that time because developers were working on smaller parcels in the city limits, he said.

In the past three years, Redmond has approved five master plans with a total of 1,030 dwelling units. Half of that is in the form of duplexes, townhomes, apartments and cottages, but Woodford said it’s not clear when anyone will build that housing, which the local workforce could afford.

“Some of the developers, that’s not in their wheelhouse,” Woodford said.

Redmond requires a mix of commercial space and housing types, so developers include multifamily housing in their master plans with the expectation that they can sell multi-family phases to another entity, Woodford said.

The Redmond City Council wants to ensure that multifamily housing doesn’t get put off until the final phase of a master plan, Woodford said.

“We’re starting to explore some of the options.”

Bend approved new master plans since demand for housing resumed, but one of them continues to live on paper only.

Wildflower, approved in 2015, is more than 30 acres between 15th Street and the Larkspur Trail. The master plan calls for areas of single-family homes, multifamily housing and a commercial area with apartments in the upper stories. Altogether, Wildflower could be as many as 851 residential units, according to a recent for-sale listing.

Wilson Heights Partners, which sought and received the master-plan approval, is trying to sell the property to one or more developers who have the expertise to carry out a mixed-use project, said Walt Ramage, a commercial real estate broker at NAI Cascade.

Three master-planned projects are also in the southeast quadrant of Bend. Stone Creek, between Reed Market and Brosterhous roads, calls for 557 single-family homes, plus apartments and townhomes.

Farmington Reserve is 65 lots in the same vicinity.

Shilo, which could be 216 single-family homes off Country Club Drive, has been approved by the Bend City Council but is in the master-planning process, planner Amy Barry said.

Darrin Kelleher, owner of Franklin Brothers Homes, said he has enough work to keep his company busy for the foreseeable future. He’s building out Mirada, the northeast Bend subdivision that he was involved in more than a decade ago at its inception.

Mirada has evolved into a 227-lot subdivision with a 4-acre park and neighborhood pool, he said.

Franklin Brothers is working with Kelleher’s land-development partner, Lands Bend of California, on Stone Creek. Kelleher said he and his peers in the homebuilding industry have learned the importance of not taking on too much at once.

“If the economy quit, people would be disappointed,” he said, ”but you wouldn’t see people running for cover, wondering how they’re going to survive it.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com

“There’s the appearance of unlimited demand right now. We are not forgetting what we’ve lived through. You never do exactly know.”— Geoff Harris, regional director at Hayden Homes.