Hike to Paulina Falls in the Winter for a Unique Experience

Once the roads into the high Cascades have been closed for the winter, there are more limited hiking opportunities for Central Oregonians. However, one favorite hike is close to La Pine state park and on the road to Newberry Crater. This is the Peter Skene Ogden trail which follows Paulina Creek all the way to Paulina Lake. Hikers can take the trail as far as they wish, although during winters with heavy snow, it can be challenging and snow shoes would be recommended.

November 2, 2024 was scheduled to be cloudy, but dry. The lower elevations of Peter Skene Ogden Trail had patchy snow, but it was easy walking.

Two and a quarter miles into the hike, the second large, "twin" waterfall is passed and then the hike steepens until the bridge is reached which crosses over Paulina Creek. Past the bridge the snow deepened and hikers without snowshoes had to post hole in soft snow to get any further. 

The path also steepens past the bridge and there was more accumulated snow. Central Oregon typically doesn't get a lot of snow early November, but 2024 was different with the snow depth on Peter Skene Ogden Trail over a foot at Paulina Falls. With more snow falling and the trees covered in a snow blanket, it was truly a winter wonderland with no other hikers seen. The entire hike up and back was just under twelve miles and over 1500 feet of elevation gain.

Bend Home Prices Up In October

The trend seen over the past four months changed in October when year over year Bend home prices rose rather than fell. Both average and median Bend single family home sales prices were up, perhaps a reflection of lower interest rates seen in September which enabled more home buyers to purchase higher priced homes or an unusual anomaly which was reflected with a large number of million dollar plus homes (over 35% of total home sales) closing. Typically in the fall,

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Bend Luxury Home Inventory is Up

For Bend buyers looking for their ideal luxury home, there was a significant increase in the number of homes for them to pick from in 3rd quarter 2024. When we look at Bend million dollar homes, the categories of homes for sale over $1,300,000 had anywhere from 45% to 89% more listings for buyers to consider. It appeared that more sellers were willing to list their property in 2024 than in 2023, perhaps tied in with lower

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Did you know? Homeowners are often able to put more money down when they buy their next home. That's because, once they sell, they can use the equity they have in their current house toward their next down payment. And it's why as home equity reaches a new height, the median down payment has too.

According to the latest data from Redfin, the typical down payment for U.S. homebuyers is $67,500—that's nearly 15% more than last year, and the highest on record (see graph below):

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Is Central Oregon Real Estate Moving to a Balanced Market?

In Q3 2024, the Bend Oregon Real Estate market and surrounding communities experienced a change, moving closer to a balanced market after many years of being a seller's market. The number of listings grew, days on market increased, but prices appear to have leveled off, at least within Bend and Redmond. In Bend, Redmond, Powell Butte and Black Butte Ranch, the number of sold homes increased as third quarter 2024 also saw mortgage interest rates drop. Outside of Redmond and Sunriver, all of the Central Oregon real estate markets saw an increase in new listings year over year, many above 20%. This can partly be attributed to sellers recognizing that with lower mortgage interest rates, the cost of their replacement property would be less and the delayed move they planned on taking could finally happen.