The state of Oregon and regional community action agencies spent or committed $363.4 million in the past year to help pay rent for 55,656 households statewide.

Homebuyers who thought last month’s median single-family home price in Bend was the highest, now have a new yardstick: The median price in Bend soared to $773,000 last month, more than $180,000 higher than a year ago, according to a monthly real estate report.

“Definitely prices are increasing, but there are a lot of sales over $600,000 in Bend,” said Donnie Montagner, Beacon Appraisal Group CEO. “At this time of year it’s not uncommon to see the sales jump up.”

In Redmond, the story was similar with the median single-family home price reaching a record $520,000, according to the Beacon Report, which is produced by the Beacon Appraisal Group in Redmond to track single-family home prices in Central Oregon.

In all markets, the number of days on the market were less than two weeks, with homes in Sisters averaging two days before being sold. Low inventories are tied to demand, Montagner said.

“This is how robust the market is,” Montagner said. “The only way to temper that is rising interest rates and raising the inventory levels. The inventory is a key part of this. As long as we’re hovering around a half-month’s supply the price trajectory will continue to go up.”

A majority of the single-family home sales were completed by conventional mortgages in Bend, but 45 of the sales were paid in cash in March, according to the report. The median single-family home sales price in March 2020 in Bend was $468,000,according to the report.

In Redmond, the $520,000 median single-family sales price is $37,000 higher than it was in February. A year ago the median sales price of a single-family home in Redmond was $373,000.

The Beacon Report uses the median sales price, which is the midpoint value of all transactions in a month. Prices have been soaring upwards since before the pandemic.

In March, there were 64 Redmond single-family homes that sold using a conventional mortgage and 21 with cash, according to the report.

The median single-family home price in Sisters was $695,000 in March, a $70,000 increase over the prior month.

In Sunriver, median single-family home prices rose $65,000 in March to $950,000 . The community has less than a week’s worth of inventory for sale.

La Pine’s median sales price of a single-family home hovered around the same $455,000 level in March compared to $434,000 the month before.