The ADU Rules Are Changing in a Big Way, and Bend Homeowners Should Be Paying Attention

If you own a home in Bend, or anywhere in Central Oregon, some of the most significant housing news in years is unfolding right now, and most people have not caught up to it yet. A combination of new state law and local action is about to make building an accessory dwelling unit, better known as an ADU, dramatically easier. For a lot of homeowners, the door that used to be locked is being unlocked. At Tuttle & Tuttle Group, we think this is worth understanding, whether you are dreaming about rental income, planning for family, or simply thinking about the long-term value of your property.

Here is what is happening, in plain English, and what it could mean for you.

First, a quick refresher: what is an ADU?

An accessory dwelling unit is a second, smaller home on the same lot as your main house. An ADU has its own kitchen, bathroom, and living space, and it can be attached to your home, built above a garage, or sit as a standalone structure in the yard. People use them for aging parents, adult kids, guests, a home office, or rental income. They have become one of the most popular ways for homeowners to add flexibility and value without moving.

Until recently, two big obstacles stood in the way for a lot of people. One was local zoning. The other, for many neighborhoods, was the homeowners association. Both of those obstacles are now shrinking at the same time, and that is what makes this moment unusual.

Change number one: HOA and CC&R roadblocks are being cleared away

This is the one that surprises people the most. For years, even when a city allowed ADUs, your neighborhood's private rules could still stop you cold. Those rules, the covenants, conditions, and restrictions known as CC&Rs, are set by homeowners associations, and many of them flatly prohibited second dwellings. You could have the perfect lot and the city's blessing and still be told no by your HOA.

Oregon's House Bill 2138, passed in 2025, changes that. The law prohibits private restrictions, including the governing documents of planned communities and HOAs, from limiting ADUs, middle housing, and added density. In other words, a CC&R that bans an ADU is being set aside by state law. What makes this especially powerful is that it is written to apply retroactively, so it reaches existing covenants, not just new ones written going forward.

For homeowners in HOA neighborhoods who assumed an ADU was simply off the table, this is a real shift. The rule that said no may no longer carry the weight it once did.

One important note, and it is the honest kind of note a good agent should give you. The exact date this covenant provision takes effect, and the fine print of how it is enforced, are details worth confirming for your specific property before you start drawing up plans. Laws like this phase in on their own timeline, and your situation deserves a precise answer rather than a general one. We are happy to help you track that down.

Change number two: Bend now allows two ADUs per property

While the state was working on the HOA piece, the City of Bend made its own move. Bend used to allow just one ADU per lot. The city now allows two. The first unit can be up to 800 square feet, and the second can be up to 500 square feet.

Two units on one property opens up possibilities that one unit never could. Picture a backyard cottage for a parent and a smaller studio above the garage that generates rental income. Or a guest space for family and a long-term rental that helps with the mortgage. The math and the flexibility change meaningfully when you can build two instead of one.

This change applies within the City of Bend. If your property sits in another Central Oregon community, the local rules will differ, and that is exactly the kind of thing we can check for you based on where you live.

Change number three: five pre-approved plans that are ready to build

Here is the part that takes the biggest headache out of the process. One of the most expensive and time-consuming steps in building an ADU has always been the design and plan review. You hire an architect, you submit plans, the city reviews them, you make changes, and you wait. It adds cost and months to the timeline.

Bend created a Pre-Approved Plans Program to solve this. The city started with one pre-approved ADU design and has since added four more, so there are now five ready-to-build plan sets that the city has already reviewed for building code compliance. Homeowners can use these plans at no charge for permitting within Bend, which skips the repeated review steps, shortens the timeline, and lowers the overall cost. The plans are flexible enough to work for a range of housing types, not just a single cookie-cutter cottage.

For a homeowner who wants an ADU without starting from a blank page, this is a genuine shortcut. A pre-reviewed plan means you are not paying to reinvent something the city has already approved.

Why this matters for you as a homeowner

Put these three changes together and you get a picture that did not exist a couple of years ago. A path that used to be blocked by HOA rules, limited to a single unit, and slowed by expensive plan review is now, for many homeowners, open, doubled, and streamlined.

What could that mean in practical terms?

It can mean added value. A well-built ADU can increase what your property is worth, and it broadens the pool of future buyers who want flexible space.

It can mean flexibility for your family. Aging parents, adult children returning home, or a dedicated space for guests and work are all easier to accommodate when you can add a second dwelling.

It can mean rental potential. Central Oregon has steady demand for smaller, well-located rentals, and an ADU can become a source of income. We will always give you the honest version here. Rental income depends on your costs, your financing, your location, and the market, and gross rent is not the same as profit. An ADU is an investment that deserves real numbers before you commit, not a guarantee. But the opportunity is real, and it is more accessible now than it has been in a long time.

A few honest things to keep in mind

We would not be doing our job if we only gave you the exciting half. Building an ADU is still a real project. You will still need permits and site-specific approval, even with a pre-approved plan, because every lot has its own setbacks, utilities, and site conditions. Construction costs money, and financing an ADU is its own conversation worth having early. Not every lot is a good fit, and the right answer depends on your property, your goals, and your budget.

The good news is that every one of those questions has an answer, and finding it is exactly the kind of thing we do every day.

Where to start

If you have ever looked at your backyard and wondered what might be possible, this is a good time to ask the question seriously. The rules are moving in your favor on multiple fronts at once, and that does not happen often.

Reach out to Tuttle & Tuttle Group and we can help you think it through. We can look at your specific property, check which rules apply where you live, point you toward the pre-approved plans, help you understand the realistic value and income picture, and connect you with the right people to take the next step. No pressure, no hard sell, just straight answers from people who know this market and are watching these changes closely.

The ADU landscape in Central Oregon is changing fast. Let's make sure it changes in your favor.

This article is for general information and reflects housing law and local rules as we understand them at the time of writing. Laws change and effective dates and details vary by property, so confirm specifics for your situation with the City of Bend or qualified counsel before making decisions. We are glad to help you find the right answers.

Central Oregon's Fall Market: Why Right Now Is a Window for Buyers and Sellers Alike

If you have been waiting for a clear read on the Central Oregon market, this is a good moment to pay attention. The frantic, bid-over-asking years are behind us, and what has taken their place is something a lot of people have been hoping for: a balanced, sensible market where both buyers and sellers can make smart moves. At Tuttle & Tuttle Group, we live and work in these neighborhoods every day, from Bend to Redmond to La Pine, and here is what the latest numbers are telling us this fall.

The big picture: balance is back

For the past few years, the story was all about scarcity. Too few homes, too many buyers, prices climbing faster than anyone could keep up with. That has cooled into something much healthier. Prices across our region have largely leveled off rather than falling off a cliff, and there are more homes on the market than we have seen in a while. That combination is good news no matter which side of the table you are on.

Homes that are priced correctly are still selling, and they are still selling close to what sellers are asking. At the same time, buyers finally have enough choices to be thoughtful instead of rushed. That is what a normal market looks like, and it has been a long time coming.

Bend: steady prices and still a seller's edge

Bend remains the anchor of the region, and it is holding up well. The median sale price in September was $715,000, essentially flat compared to a year ago. That stability is the real headline. After years of whiplash, Bend prices have found their footing.

Homes are selling at roughly 98 percent of their asking price, and the typical home goes under contract in about seven weeks. There are just over a thousand active listings across the greater Bend area, which means buyers have real selection. Interestingly, inventory has actually tightened a bit as we move into fall, which tends to keep a floor under prices. In the core 97701 zip code, the market still leans slightly in favor of sellers.

What this means: Bend sellers who price their homes right and present them well are still in a strong position. Buyers have more room to breathe than they did a couple of years ago, but the best homes in the best locations still move quickly, so being ready to act matters.

Redmond: more choice than it has had in years

If you are a buyer who felt boxed out of the market, Redmond deserves a close look. Active listings there are up about 27 percent compared to a year ago, which is a significant jump in options. The median sale price in September was $499,000, down roughly 4 percent year over year, so pricing has softened just enough to open doors without the market losing its footing.

Even with all that added inventory, homes are still selling at nearly 99 percent of asking and moving in about six weeks, which tells you demand is still very much alive. Redmond continues to attract families and first-time buyers drawn to its value, its growth, and its easy access to everything Central Oregon offers.

What this means: Redmond is arguably the sweet spot for buyers right now, with the most new choices and gently softening prices. For sellers, the added competition makes sharp pricing and strong presentation essential, and that is exactly where having the right agent pays off.

La Pine: the value play

La Pine remains the most affordable entry point into Central Oregon, and that is a big part of its appeal. The median sale price in September was $368,750, about flat from last year. Homes here take a little longer to sell, closer to eight weeks, and buyers currently have a slight edge in the market.

That patience cuts both ways. Buyers have genuine room to negotiate and time to make sure a home is right for them. Sellers, meanwhile, benefit from steady values and a steady stream of buyers who are priced out of Bend and looking for more home and more land for their money.

What this means: La Pine is where your dollar stretches furthest, and for buyers who want space, affordability, and access to the outdoors, this is a market worth exploring closely.

So, is it a good time to buy or to sell?

The honest answer is that it is a good time for both, and that is rare. Here is how we see it.

If you are buying, you have more selection and more negotiating power than you have had in years. You can take your time, compare homes, and make an offer with conditions that protect you, rather than waving everything in a panic to win a bidding war. Interest rates and monthly payments still matter, so working with someone who can help you run the real numbers is key, but the leverage has shifted back toward you.

If you are selling, the leveling of prices is not a reason to wait. Well-priced, well-presented homes are still selling and still fetching close to asking across all three markets. The mistake we see is overpricing into a market that rewards accuracy. Price it right from day one, and buyers respond. The data backs this up: sale-to-list ratios across our region are still sitting in the high 90s, which means sellers who price correctly are not leaving much on the table at all.

Why local expertise matters more in a market like this

In a red-hot market, almost anything sells. In a balanced market, the details decide everything: how you price, how you prepare a home, how you write and negotiate an offer, which neighborhood is heating up and which is cooling. Averages across a whole city only tell you so much. The real story lives block by block, and that is where we spend our time.

That is the difference between reading a market report and actually knowing the market. We track these numbers every week, we walk these homes, and we know the builders, the neighborhoods, and the micro-trends that a spreadsheet will never capture. When the market rewards precision, that local knowledge is worth real money in your pocket.

Let's talk

Whether you are thinking about buying your first home in Redmond, trading up in Bend, finding value in La Pine, or selling a home you have loved for years, we would be glad to help you make sense of where things stand and what it means for you specifically. No pressure, no hard sell, just straight answers from people who know this market inside and out.

Reach out to Tuttle & Tuttle Group any time. We are proud to be your local experts for all of Central Oregon.

Market figures reflect September 2026 closed sales for Bend, Redmond, and La Pine, along with current real-time list price and market activity data by zip code. Market conditions change; contact us for the most current numbers for your specific neighborhood.

Where to Buy a Second Home in Central Oregon, Based on What You Actually Want to Do

Most second-home conversations start with the wrong question. People ask me where they should buy. The better question is what they are coming here to do, and in which season they will actually be here.

Central Oregon looks like one market from a distance. On the ground it is four fairly different places, and the right answer changes completely depending on whether you picture yourself on a chairlift, a mountain bike, a snowmobile or a dock.

Here is how I break it down.

Bend, if you do not want to drive to your hobby

Bend is the hub, about 107,000 people, and its case is simple. Almost everything is close.

Winter. Mt. Bachelor is 22 miles west, under 30 minutes in normal conditions. The mountain runs 101 trails over 4,323 skiable acres with 3,365 feet of lift-served vertical. Past the ski area, the Cascade Lakes Highway corridor is a string of sno-parks, each with a different personality. Virginia Meissner has roughly 30 miles of groomed Nordic trails and is the serious cross-country venue. Swampy Lakes adds about 25 more. Wanoga is the family park, with sledding, snow play, fat biking and dogs welcome off leash. Edison is the motorized hub, with access to 150 miles of snowmobile trail. Dutchman Flat sits directly across from Bachelor. You need an Oregon Sno-Park permit from November 1 through April 30.

Summer. This is the deepest mountain bike network of the four by a wide margin. The Phil's Trail complex alone counts 112 trails and 188 miles, and the trailhead is about three miles from downtown. The Wanoga complex, roughly 14 miles west on Cascade Lakes Highway, adds Tiddlywinks, Funner, Storm King and a newer gravity cluster.

Water. The Deschutes runs through the middle of town, and Bend is the gateway to the 66-mile Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. Sparks Lake is about 25 miles out, Elk about 32, Cultus about 47. The byway closes beyond Mt. Bachelor in winter and typically reopens between mid-May and June.

Everything else. Ten-plus golf courses, the Old Mill District on the river, and more than 30 breweries and tasting rooms on the Bend Ale Trail.

What a buyer needs to know. Bend has the strictest short-term rental rules of the four, and they tightened recently. You need two separate approvals, a land use permit and an operating license, and the code now requires at least 500 feet of separation between short-term rental properties in residential zones. Occupancy caps at two people per bedroom plus two. Room tax runs 10.4 percent of gross revenue.

The trap, and I see people fall into it: permits are not transferable. If you buy a house that is currently operating as a short-term rental, you do not inherit that status. You reapply under current rules, and if a neighboring property has a permit inside the 500-foot radius, you may not get one. A few areas are exempt from the concentration limit, including Mt. Bachelor Village, Deschutes Landing and Courtyards at Broken Top, which is why those pockets trade differently than the rest of town.

Bend is on city water and sewer inside the city limits, though a few areas are served by Avion or Roats Water.

Sisters, if you want a small town and easier trails

Sisters is about 3,800 people at 3,189 feet, and it runs an arts and events calendar that would embarrass towns ten times its size.

Winter. This is the weak spot. There is no direct route from Sisters to Mt. Bachelor. You drive into Bend and back out Century Drive, which makes it the longest ski commute of the four. Sisters' natural hill is Hoodoo at Santiam Pass, not Bachelor. If downhill skiing at Bachelor is the whole reason you are buying, Sisters is the wrong pick.

What Sisters does have is its own separate sno-park system. Three Creek Road Sno-Park sits about 9.5 miles south of town with 12 miles of Nordic trails plus groomed snowmobile access, and Ray Benson, 22 miles northwest on Highway 20 near Hoodoo, covers snowshoe, Nordic and snowmobile.

Summer. Peterson Ridge is the local trail system, over 20 miles of singletrack with the trailhead about half a mile south of downtown. It is mostly level and largely free of technical obstacles, which makes it genuinely beginner and family friendly. If you have been intimidated by what comes out of Bend, this is a different experience.

Water. Sisters faces the Metolius basin rather than the Cascade Lakes. Suttle Lake is a 14-mile drive on Highway 20, with trout, paddle rentals and a 3.5-mile loop trail. The Metolius River, federally designated Wild and Scenic for 29 miles, emerges from a spring at the base of Black Butte and is blue-ribbon fly fishing water.

Golf. Aspen Lakes in town, plus Black Butte Ranch's Big Meadow and Glaze Meadow courses eight miles northwest.

What a buyer needs to know. Short-term rentals are allowed but capped by density. There is a $500 application, then a business license and operating license within 60 days of approval, annual renewal by June 30, and monthly room tax reporting. Sisters expanded its concentration limit from 250 feet to 500 feet in 2024. Permits issued after December 28, 2018 do not transfer to a new owner. Short-term rentals are prohibited in urban growth boundary expansion areas.

Inside the city, water comes from four municipal wells and the city runs its own wastewater treatment. Outside the city limits the situation varies and has to be confirmed property by property.

Sunriver and Three Rivers South, if you want the river and a turnkey setup

Sunriver is a 3,300-acre master-planned community on the Deschutes about 15 miles south of Bend, built on the site of a World War Two Army camp, with development starting in 1968. It has 4,177 homesites, and most of them are second homes or rentals. The 2020 census counted 2,023 residents, which tells you almost nothing about how busy the place actually is.

Three Rivers South sits immediately south, unincorporated, about 3,925 residents in 2020. Its defining feature is water. The Deschutes and Little Deschutes join inside its boundaries, and the spring-fed Spring River runs through the north end.

Winter. Sunriver is the closest of the four to Mt. Bachelor in raw mileage, via the Forest Road 45 connector. One important caveat for anyone buying on that basis: the 45 Road is plowed, but Deschutes County treats it as a lower plow priority than the main Sunriver arterials, and it does close during heavy snow. Budget real winter drive time rather than the number a mapping app gives you in July.

Sunriver has no sno-park of its own. You use the Cascade Lakes corridor via the 45 Road, with Kapka Butte the nearest, then Wanoga and Edison.

Summer. Biking here is paved rather than technical. The homeowners association maintains 34 miles of paved pathways, including a 15-mile main path connecting the Village to the residential districts. For dirt, the Deschutes River Trail runs about 11 miles north toward Bend.

Water. The strongest position of the four. There is a marina and boat launch on the Deschutes, and going up the 45 Road puts Sunriver closer than Bend to the southern Cascade Lakes, including Crane Prairie, Wickiup and Cultus.

Golf and amenities. Three courses in the community: Sunriver Golf Club (Meadows), Crosswater, and Caldera Links at Caldera Springs. SHARC covers aquatics, an amphitheater, courts and a fitness center, with access tied to owner membership.

What a buyer needs to know, because this is the most HOA-driven of the four. Membership in the Sunriver Owners Association is automatic and mandatory. Dues run $172.94 per month in 2026, or $2,075.28 for the year, with a 3 percent discount to $2,013.02 if you pay in full by January 25. Some condo and townhome owners pay sub-association dues on top of that. Exterior changes go through design review.

Renting is where the math gets interesting. Because Sunriver and Three Rivers South are unincorporated Deschutes County, there is no county land-use regulation of short-term rentals at all. No density limits, no property manager requirement, no occupancy standards. You register with the county tax office, get a Deschutes County Certificate of Authority, which costs $300 initially and $150 to renew as of September 2025, and pay 8 percent transient room tax on gross rent including mandatory cleaning, pet and parking fees.

The real cost sits at the HOA level. To give your guests access to SHARC and the association amenities, you enroll in the Recreation Plus Program, which runs from $1,380 a year for a one-bedroom up to $6,210 a year for an eight-bedroom. A rental without that enrollment is a rental whose guests cannot use SHARC, and that shows up in what you can charge. Price it in before you model anything.

One more thing people get wrong: Sunriver is not on well and septic. A private utility, now affiliated with NW Natural Water, provides both water and wastewater to roughly 4,700 accounts from its own wells and treatment plant. Three Rivers South, by contrast, is well and septic.

La Pine, if you want space, snow machines and a lower entry point

La Pine is Oregon's newest incorporated city, established in December 2006, at 4,229 feet, about 30 miles south of Bend and 60 miles north of Crater Lake. Population was 3,223 as of July 2025, and it posted the fastest percentage growth of any local city that year.

Winter. This is La Pine's strongest claim, and it is motorized. The 10 Mile Sno-Park opens up the Newberry Caldera for both snowmobiling and non-motorized use. The La Pine Chamber cites 155 miles of groomed trails off the Six Mile and Ten Mile sno-parks, maintained by the La Pine Lodgepole Dodgers Snowmobile Club, along with a lot of unmaintained terrain. If you are buying because you own sleds, this is the address. For groomed Nordic skiing you will drive up to the Cascade Lakes corridor like everyone else.

Summer and water. La Pine State Park covers 2,000 acres with 15 miles of singletrack, paddling launches on the Deschutes and Little Deschutes, and "Big Red," Oregon's largest ponderosa pine at 162 feet. Paulina Lake and East Lake sit inside Newberry's 17-mile caldera about 19 miles from town, within a 54,000-acre national monument that also holds Paulina Peak at 7,985 feet. Wickiup Reservoir, known for brown trout and kokanee, is a considerably shorter run from here than from Bend. Golf is Quail Run.

What a buyer needs to know, and this is the big one. South Deschutes County has a documented groundwater issue. The county runs a South Deschutes County Groundwater Protection Project addressing nitrogen contamination from conventional septic systems in the La Pine sub-basin. A 2008 ordinance that would have mandated upgrades was rescinded by voters in 2009, so there is no requirement in force today, but the county maintains alternative treatment technology standards and a financial assistance program. If you are buying on well and septic down here, have the system type and any treatment requirement verified during your inspection period. It is the most commonly skipped item in south county and the most expensive one to discover late.

Inside the city limits, the City of La Pine provides water and wastewater, though you should confirm that a specific property is actually connected rather than assuming. Most of what people call "the La Pine area" sits outside the city on private well and septic.

On rentals: outside the city, the county rules described above apply. Inside the city, the council adopted a short-term rental ordinance in 2025. Confirm the current standards with the city before you count on rental income.

Three questions before you pick

Which season are you actually coming for? Be honest. People buy for the January they imagine and then spend every August here instead.

Do you plan to rent it, and have you priced the real carrying cost? Not the nightly rate. The permit fees, the room tax, the HOA dues, the amenity program, and whether the permit even transfers.

Will you drive to the thing you came for, or walk out the door to it? This is the question that actually separates these four places, and it is worth more than any comparison of price per square foot.

I am not going to tell you any of these areas is a better investment than another, because I do not know what prices will do and neither does anyone else. What I can do is walk a specific property with you and tell you exactly what the rules, the dues and the water situation are before you commit. If that would help, get in touch.

What All Those Events Actually Do for Central Oregon

There is a version of this conversation that turns into a brochure, and I want to avoid it. So here is the version with numbers in it, including the ones that complicate the story.

Central Oregon runs a full year of rodeos, races, concerts and festivals. That activity does two things at once. It supports a meaningful share of the local economy, and it functions as the region's most effective recruiting tool, because a lot of people who now live here first showed up for a weekend.

The money is not small

Visitors spent $1.102 billion in Deschutes County in 2024, according to the 2024 Visitor Economic Impact Report from Visit Central Oregon, which uses the travel impact data prepared for the Oregon Tourism Commission. Across the four-county Central Oregon region, direct visitor spending reached $1.298 billion in 2025.

That spending supported 8,660 jobs in Deschutes County in 2024, and about 11,010 jobs regionally in 2025. For a wider sense of scale, the Oregon Employment Department counted 17,310 people working in leisure and hospitality in Deschutes County in 2024.

In Bend alone, travel spending came to $386.3 million in 2024, supporting about 3,500 direct travel-related jobs.

Those visitors also pay for a good deal of local government. The region collected $27.1 million in transient room tax in 2024, and the most recent fiscal year shows the trend holding:

• City of Bend: $15,166,602 in FY 2025/26, up 4.03 percent
• Deschutes County, unincorporated (which includes Sunriver and Three Rivers South): $13,373,608, up 5.19 percent
• Redmond: $1,888,481, up 5.06 percent
• Sisters: $1,174,368, up 1.80 percent
• La Pine: $193,251, down 9.25 percent

That last line is worth pausing on. La Pine's lodging tax went down while every other jurisdiction went up. South county simply does not have the lodging inventory the rest of the region does, and it shows.

Where does Bend's share go? Visit Bend receives 35.4 percent of the city's lodging tax revenue. The rest goes to the general fund and public safety. Some of the tourism share loops back into the community directly: the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund has awarded nearly $2.9 million to 60 organizations since 2013.

What individual events are worth, with a caveat

This is where I have to be careful, because the numbers people quote about specific events are mostly organizer estimates rather than independent studies. I will pass them along with that label attached.

The Old Mill District's marketing director has estimated that a sold-out show at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater generates about $2.3 million, and that the venue hires roughly 800 seasonal employees for the concert season. The Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center's director has cited over $50 million a year, though the framing suggests that covers the fairgrounds' full slate of roughly 250 events annually with year-round attendance near one million, not the five-day fair by itself. In Sisters, a figure of about $10 million gets quoted, but it covers the rodeo, the quilt show and the folk festival combined.

None of these come with published methodology. Treat them as directionally useful and not as research findings. I would rather tell you that than repeat a number as though it were gospel.

The part everyone assumes but nobody has measured

Here is the claim you hear constantly in this business: most people who buy here came as visitors first.

I went looking for the study behind that. It does not exist. I checked Visit Bend's published research, Visit Central Oregon's research library, Travel Oregon and EDCO. Nobody has surveyed Central Oregon buyers and asked how they first encountered the place. There is no conversion rate to cite.

I bring that up because you will see brokers put a percentage on it, and I do not know where they get it. What I can tell you is what I see in my own business, which is that a large share of the people I work with describe a first trip here before they describe anything else. That is an observation from one broker's client list, not data, and I will label it that way.

What we do have is migration data, and it tells the story well enough on its own.

Growth, and where it comes from

Portland State University's Population Research Center, which produces Oregon's official population estimates, put Deschutes County at 213,886 as of July 1, 2025, up 1.3 percent in a year. Bend was 107,079, up 1.46 percent, and accounted for more than half the county's total growth. Redmond came in at 37,460, Sisters at 3,834, and La Pine at 3,223. La Pine posted the fastest percentage growth of the local cities at 3.38 percent.

Zoom out and the contrast gets sharper. Census Bureau estimates released in March 2026 show Deschutes County added 14,811 residents since 2020, a 7.5 percent increase and the largest numeric growth of any county in Oregon this decade. Meanwhile the state as a whole grew 0.3 percent in the most recent year, and more than a third of Oregon counties lost population outright.

Roughly 97 percent of Deschutes County's growth this decade has come from net migration rather than from births exceeding deaths. People are choosing to come here.

Where from? The IRS migration data for tax years 2021 to 2022 shows 13,327 people moving into Deschutes County and 11,479 moving out, for net in-migration of 1,848. The largest identified origins were Multnomah County (1,004), Washington County (772), Clackamas County (592), Lane County (481), and King County, Washington (446).

That is a useful correction to a story you hear a lot around here. The biggest single source of newcomers is not California. It is the Portland metro area. People who were already in Oregon, already visiting Central Oregon on weekends, deciding to stop driving home on Sunday.

The honest other side

I am not going to write a thousand words about tourism without acknowledging the friction, because anyone who lives here already knows about it and anyone moving here deserves to.

The same visitor economy that fills the room-tax accounts also competes for housing. Oregon's 2026 Housing Needs Analysis estimates the Bend urban growth boundary needs 2,010 units annually, or 34,116 units over twenty years. It further estimates that Oregon statewide needs to build 17,300 additional homes over twenty years just to offset units lost to short-term rentals and second homes, and projects second and vacation home demand in the Central region at 3,497 units over the same period.

Those are not small numbers, and they are the reason cities here have been tightening short-term rental rules. Bend now requires 500 feet of separation between short-term rental properties in residential zones, and Sisters doubled its own buffer from 250 feet to 500 feet in 2024. If you are buying with rental income in mind, this is the single most important thing to research before you write an offer, and I will cover it property by property in the next post.

What this means if you are thinking about buying

Not a prediction about prices. I do not make those, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does.

What it means is narrower and more useful. Central Oregon has a diversified set of reasons for people to want to be here, spread across all four seasons rather than concentrated in one. The demand is not only local, it is not only tied to one industry, and the migration data suggests it has been steady rather than a spike. At the same time, the housing supply gap is real and documented, which affects both what you will pay and what your carrying costs look like.

Both of those things are true at once. Anyone telling you only one of them is selling you something.

If you want to talk through what any of this means for a specific budget and a specific part of the region, reach out. That conversation is free, and it is usually more useful than another hour on Zillow.

A Year of Events in Central Oregon: What Actually Comes to Town

People who are thinking about moving here almost always ask some version of the same question. Is there anything to do?

The honest answer is that the calendar is close to full, and it stays full in months when most mountain towns go quiet. What follows is a season-by-season look at what genuinely draws people to Central Oregon. Some of it is world-class. Some of it is small and local and better for it. All of it is real, and I have tried to note where things have changed, because a few long-running events are no longer with us and there is a lot of outdated information floating around.

Winter

Winter here starts at Mt. Bachelor, 22 miles west of Bend. The mountain runs 101 trails across 4,323 skiable acres, with a 9,065-foot summit and 3,365 feet of lift-served vertical. That is a big mountain by any standard, and it is the reason a lot of people first come to look at Bend in February rather than July.

The Dirksen Derby takes over Bachelor in mid to late December. It is a hand-built banked slalom snowboard race, capped at 500 racers with equal spots for men and women, and it has the feel of a community event more than a competition.

In mid-February, the Old Mill District hosts Oregon WinterFest, which you will also see billed as Bend WinterFest. Three days of live music, fire sculpture, ice carving, a wine walk and the Hot Cocoa Run 5K.

Winter PrideFest lands in early March, split between Mt. Bachelor and venues around Bend. It is a good example of how fast something can grow here. It debuted in 2018 with about 150 participants and drew over 2,400 attendees in 2025.

Late February brings the Great Nordeen, a cross-country ski and fat bike race running from Mt. Bachelor down to Wanoga Sno-Park, named for Central Oregon ski pioneer Emil Nordeen. It is heading into its 24th year.

Spring

The big one is the SELCO Pole Pedal Paddle in mid-May, which ran its 50th edition in 2026. Six legs: alpine ski or snowboard, Nordic ski, bike, run, paddle and a final sprint, starting at Mt. Bachelor and finishing at the Old Mill District. Over 2,000 people take part every year, and it benefits the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation. If you want one event that explains this place to an outsider, it is this one. You can start your morning on snow and finish it on the Deschutes.

Spring also brings the Bend Marathon and Half in April, running out of the Old Mill through ponderosa forest and along the river, plus the Bend Beer Chase in early May, a team relay linking Bend breweries.

Late May has two worth knowing. Bend Brews & Beyond takes over Drake Park with 50-plus Oregon breweries and cideries, capped at 5,000 attendees, benefiting the Oregon Brewers Guild. And the Cascade Gravel Grinder runs out of Sisters with 44 to 94 mile options and up to 8,600 feet of climbing.

Summer

Summer is when the region runs hot on every front at once.

The Hayden Homes Amphitheater at the Old Mill District anchors the music season, running from Memorial Day weekend into the first week of October, with capacity up to 8,000 and more than 50 shows in 2025. Worth noting if you are reading older articles: this is the venue that was the Les Schwab Amphitheater from 2002 until it was renamed in late 2021. Same place, new name, and it is marking 25 years of music in 2026.

Munch & Music runs Thursday evenings from early July through early August in Drake Park. It is free, it is in its 35th season, and it is the closest thing Bend has to a standing summer tradition.

Sisters punches far above its size all summer. Sisters Rodeo comes mid-June, a PRCA rodeo running since 1940, billed as "The Biggest Little Show in the World," and 2026 was its 86th year. The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show takes over downtown on the second Saturday in July, hanging more than 1,300 quilts on the buildings and drawing roughly 10,500 visitors from all 50 states in a single day. It has run since 1975.

Late June in Bend brings the Bend Summer Festival downtown and the Cascade Cycling Classic Criterium. One correction there, because it comes up: the Cascade Cycling Classic used to be a multi-day stage race, went dark for about seven years, and has returned as a one-day downtown criterium. Different event, same name.

Also late June, the Cascade Lakes Relay covers 216.6 miles from Diamond Lake Resort to Riverbend Park in Bend, with teams of six to twelve running through the night. It has given more than $600,000 to local charities since 2008.

July fills in fast. The Oregon High Desert Classics brings a nationally designated hunter and jumper horse show to the J Bar J Boys Ranch on Hamby Road, drawing hundreds of horses. La Pine Frontier Days runs July 1 through 4 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2026, with a parade, fireworks, a midway and lawnmower races. Balloons Over Bend puts sunrise hot air balloon launches over Bend in late July, with night glows in both Bend and Redmond.

The Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo in Redmond runs from late July into early August and calls itself Central Oregon's largest annual event. Roughly 170,000 people came through over five days in 2025.

August belongs partly to Sunriver. The Sunriver Music Festival brings classical performances to the resort's Great Hall and Bend's Tower Theatre in mid-August, with 2026 marking its 49th season. The Sunriver Art Fair runs in early August and funds the Sunriver Women's Club grant program, which gave $96,500 to 20 organizations in 2025 and has given over $1.2 million in south Deschutes County since 1999.

Elsewhere in August, the Haulin' Aspen trail marathon runs out of Wanoga Sno-Park, and the Airshow of the Cascades in Madras puts about 150 aircraft on display for roughly 10,000 visitors.

Worth knowing if you are looking at the wider region: Prineville runs the Crooked River Roundup, with a PRCA rodeo in late June and horse races in mid-July that are the largest parimutuel races in Oregon. The Crook County Fair and the Jefferson County Fair & Rodeo in Madras both run free admission.

Fall

September and October are quietly the best months here, and the calendar reflects it.

Bend Roots Revival runs mid-September across small Bend venues, free and volunteer-run, celebrating local musicians. It reached its 20th season in 2026. Bend Oktoberfest takes over the Deschutes Historical Museum grounds downtown in mid-September.

The Sisters Folk Festival comes in late September, spread across seven small stages around downtown with more than 30 artists, running since 1995.

October brings the Bend Fall Festival downtown in the first week, and the BendFilm Festival, an independent film festival now in its 23rd year that expanded from four days to five in 2025. Late October has the Happy Girls Run in Sisters and the Sisters Artists Studio Tour, a free self-guided tour of working studios.

One honest note

The calendar is not static, and a fair amount of what you will find in older roundups is gone.

Bend Brewfest has not run since a scaled-back 2022 edition and is effectively defunct. The Little Woody barrel-aged beer festival announced that its August 2026 event was its final year after running since 2009. The 4 Peaks Music Festival was cancelled for 2026. Out in Redmond, both the FairWell Festival and the Cascade Equinox Festival cancelled, with Cascade Equinox rescheduled for 2027. The Pacific Crest Endurance Sports Festival, which a lot of people still associate with Sunriver, actually moved to Bend in 2022 and was cancelled for 2026.

I mention all of this because people plan trips and even purchases around a specific weekend, and nothing is more frustrating than driving in for something that no longer exists. Check before you plan.

What it adds up to

A region of about 214,000 people in Deschutes County supports a professional rodeo, a 49-year-old classical music festival, an 8,000-seat amphitheater, a 216-mile relay, an independent film festival, and a one-day quilt show that draws visitors from every state in the country.

That is not an accident, and it is not only a nice thing to have. It has real economic weight behind it, and it shapes who ends up living here. That is the subject of the next post.

If you are weighing a move or a second home and want to talk through which part of the region fits how you actually spend your time, reach out. It is the conversation I have most often, and it is usually more useful than looking at listings.

The Lifestyle and Financial Benefits of Owning a Vacation Home in Caldera Springs

There is a particular kind of buyer who is drawn to Caldera Springs, and it is usually not the person hunting for a hands-off income machine. It is the person who already loves Central Oregon and wants a home base here, a place for ski weekends and summer reunions and lazy September golf, that can also help pay for itself by welcoming guests when the family is not around.

That distinction matters, so let's be honest about it up front. A Caldera Springs home is not a guaranteed passive-income investment, and anyone who tells you it "pays for itself" is skipping past the fine print. The more accurate and, in our experience, more satisfying way to think about it is this: you are buying a high-end Central Oregon retreat you can genuinely enjoy, with the ability to earn rental income during the stretches when it would otherwise sit empty. When you frame ownership that way, the benefits line up nicely.

A basecamp that is truly yours

Start with the part no spreadsheet captures. When you own here, you are not booking a hotel room and living out of a suitcase. You have a familiar place with your own bedrooms, a full kitchen, laundry, a garage for bikes and skis, a deck and, in many homes, a hot tub. Your belongings stay onsite. Planning a trip stops being a project and becomes a decision to simply go.

Over the years, that consistency becomes tradition. The same summer week every July. Thanksgiving with the whole family under one roof. A recurring ski trip the kids grow up expecting. A home gives those rituals a permanent address, which is something a rental reservation never quite delivers.

A community built around recreation

The second benefit is everything waiting outside your door. Caldera Springs spreads across roughly 1,000 acres and was designed so that recreation lives inside or right around the community. Owners have access to pools and outdoor spas, more than 13 miles of trails, lakes and streams for canoeing, kayaking and paddleboarding, catch-and-release fishing, a family-friendly executive golf course, tennis, pickleball and basketball, playgrounds and parks, a dog park and even a sledding hill, plus restaurants and gathering spaces.

Recent additions have raised the bar further. The Forest House, which opened in 2024, brought multiple pools, a double-racer water slide, bowling, fitness facilities, a family room and dining. The reimagined Lake House offers indoor and outdoor dining overlooking Obsidian Lake. And Caldera Links access fees are included in owner assessments, so the golf is part of the package rather than an add-on. Beyond the gates, Mt. Bachelor, the Cascade Lakes and Bend are all close, giving you the best of a private resort community with a real city fifteen miles up the road.

Rental income as a carrying-cost offset

Now the financial side, described the right way. Any second home costs money whether or not you are in it. Mortgage, property taxes, insurance, association assessments, utilities, maintenance, landscaping and snow management continue every month. A home that only sees its owners a few weeks a year still runs up all of those bills.

This is where renting earns its place. During the weeks you are not using the home, guest income can help offset those carrying costs. Notice the word: offset, not erase. The published rental-program examples give a sense of scale, and they are worth quoting carefully. Sunriver Resort Vacation Properties' March 2026 guide shows a Forestbrook three-bedroom residence with an average gross revenue of about $74,000 a year, and a studio residence at about $16,000. Those are gross averages before expenses, not take-home profit, and not a promise for any specific home. After management commissions, cleaning, booking fees, maintenance, insurance, assessments and taxes, the net number is meaningfully lower. The right expectation is a home that helps carry itself, not one that mints money while you sleep.

Flexible floor plans that widen the audience

One of the smarter design ideas at Caldera Springs is the lock-off layout found in Forestbrook and Lakeside homes: a main residence paired with a separately rentable studio that has its own entrance, bathroom, kitchenette and patio. This flexibility lets a single property court very different guests. The studio can appeal to couples, wedding guests or shorter stays, while the main home draws families, ski groups and multigenerational travelers, and the combined home can host a large group that still wants some separation and privacy.

That range can help the property capture demand across more of the year. One honest caveat: whether you can occupy one portion while renting the other depends on the specific management agreement, the booking situation and the home's design, so it is a question to confirm for the exact property rather than to assume.

Professional care while you are away

For most owners, the home is not their primary residence, which makes management the quiet hero of the whole arrangement. An established onsite manager can handle reservations, housekeeping, linens, inspections, maintenance, guest communication, pricing and 24-hour guest support, along with the winter realities of a mountain home like snow response and protecting against frozen pipes.

This does not make ownership fully passive, and it is fair to say so. You still make decisions, cover expenses and keep the furnishings fresh. But professional management does mean you are not personally running a hospitality business from three hours or three states away.

Balancing enjoyment and revenue

The best part of owning here is that you get to choose your own balance, and there is no single right answer. A revenue-minded owner might keep the highest-value dates, July, the Fourth, Christmas through New Year's, Presidents' Day, open for guests, and take personal trips in April, May, October or early December instead. A balanced owner might claim one prime summer week and one winter holiday, use a few shoulder-season weekends, and rent the rest, accepting that peak personal use trims gross revenue. A lifestyle-first owner might reserve the major holidays and several summer weeks, offer the home when convenient, and value family access over yield, often choosing a custom single-family home for the added scheduling freedom that comes with not being a designated Overnight Lodging Unit.

The trade-off underneath all three is the same: the dates you most want for yourself are often the dates guests will pay the most to book. Using a shoulder-season week instead of a peak week is the simplest way to enjoy the home while protecting its most valuable rental inventory.

Who this really fits

The strongest Caldera Springs buyer already wants to own in Central Oregon, can comfortably afford the home without depending on a perfect rental year, values personal use, keeps financial reserves and understands that furnishings and upkeep are part of the deal. It fits less well for someone who needs rental income to cover every expense, expects steady monthly income, or is buying purely because of a revenue figure they saw once.

If you see yourself in the first group, the next step is not a leap of faith. It is a careful look at a specific property: its classification, its rental history, its true carrying costs and how its calendar lines up with the way your family actually vacations. That is exactly the work we do at Tuttle and Tuttle. Reach out and we will help you weigh the lifestyle and the numbers together, honestly, so you can decide whether owning here is the right fit for you.

When Do Caldera Springs Vacation Rentals Perform Best? A Guide to Seasons and Holidays

Ask any Central Oregon owner when their vacation home earns its keep, and the calendar tells the story. Rental demand here is not a flat line across twelve months. It rises and falls with school schedules, the weather, the ski season and a handful of holidays that travelers plan around. If you are thinking about buying in Caldera Springs, understanding this rhythm is one of the most useful things you can do, because it shapes both what the home can earn and when you will want to use it yourself.

A quick and important note before the numbers: every rental figure in this article is a gross average before expenses, drawn from published rental-program examples. It is not profit, and it is not a promise for any particular home. Actual results depend on the property, its condition, its floor plan, how it is managed and how the owner uses it. With that framing in place, let's walk through the year.

Summer is the engine

If Caldera Springs has a season that carries the calendar, it is summer. June, July and August are when the broader Sunriver market reaches its highest occupancy, and the published Forestbrook revenue illustrations show the same pattern. The reasons are easy to see when you are standing here in July. School is out. The weather is warm and dry. The pools are open, the lake is busy with paddleboards and kayaks, the golf course is in full swing and the trails are perfect. Families travel together, weddings fill weekends, and stays run longer than they do in the off-season.

To put a number on the appeal, the Sunriver Resort Vacation Properties management guide from March 2026 offers a Forestbrook three-bedroom example with a peak-season average rate of $618 per night, compared with $328 in the off-season. That gap between peak and off-peak is the whole story of seasonality in a single line.

Why July is the crown jewel

Among the strong months, July stands out. The latest Forestbrook revenue graphics show July producing the highest monthly gross revenue in the examples given. It is the collision of everything good for a vacation rental: the Fourth of July holiday, peak school vacation, reliably warm weather, every outdoor amenity running at full tilt and plenty of regional events.

For an owner, that has a flip side worth stating plainly. Because July is the most valuable month, blocking the home for your own use during July carries the greatest opportunity cost of any time all year. A July family week for yourself is wonderful. Just know that it is also the most expensive week to keep off the rental market.

The Fourth of July

The Fourth sits right in the center of that peak, and demand around it runs very high. Expect higher nightly rates, longer minimum stays, earlier booking and strong interest from families and multigenerational groups looking for larger homes with decks, hot tubs and room to gather. If your goal leans toward revenue, this is a weekend to protect for guests unless the holiday means more to your own family than the income it would generate.

August, then Labor Day

August stays near the top. Schools in many feeder markets have not resumed, the weather holds, and families squeeze in final trips as demand stretches toward Labor Day. It is worth acknowledging that August can occasionally be disrupted by wildfire smoke or extreme heat, which vary a great deal from year to year and should be planned for without being treated as inevitable.

Labor Day weekend then acts as the last big summer hurrah, with high holiday-weekend demand even when the weeks that follow soften. It is a valuable rental block, especially for larger homes.

The shoulder months

June and September bracket the peak, and they behave differently at their edges. Early June often starts below July but strengthens quickly as schools release; the second half of June can feel much more like peak season, supported by weddings, golf and long daylight. September works in reverse. Labor Day can pull peak demand into early September, but the rest of the month settles into a shoulder period as school resumes. September still appeals to couples, retirees, golfers and remote workers who like thinner crowds and mild weather, so a well-positioned home can still do meaningful business. Just don't expect it to match July.

These shoulder windows matter for a second reason: they are excellent times to use the home yourself. A September golf weekend or a late-June getaway lets you enjoy Central Oregon while leaving the very highest-value dates available for guests.

Winter has its own peaks

Central Oregon is a two-season rental market, and winter demand rides on Mt. Bachelor. Outside the holidays, ordinary ski-weekend demand is variable, depending heavily on snowfall, mountain operations, road conditions and how far ahead people book. But the holidays themselves create some of the strongest winter blocks of the year.

Thanksgiving brings a meaningful uptick, with families seeking larger homes that offer real kitchens, multiple bedrooms, hot tubs and fireplaces. Even in a low-snow year, people still travel for the gathering itself.

Christmas through New Year's is one of the strongest winter periods, full stop. It combines school vacation, family travel, Mt. Bachelor ski demand and holiday traditions, with longer stays and premium demand for fireplaces, hot tubs and big kitchens. Tellingly, Sunriver promotions routinely exclude Christmas and New Year's from discounted shoulder-season offers, which is exactly what you would expect from high-demand dates. Treat this as one of the most valuable winter blocks you own.

Presidents' Day weekend is a strong winter weekend thanks to Mt. Bachelor and school breaks, drawing ski groups and drive-market families for three- and four-night stays.

Spring break runs moderate to strong depending on the calendar and the snow. Because it is spread across different school districts, it does not compress into one exact week, but it is another period operators treat differently from ordinary low season, and it is frequently excluded from broad discount offers.

Memorial Day and the quiet stretches

Memorial Day weekend marks the seasonal turn, roughly when Quarry Pool and lake recreation traditionally open. It may not equal July, but it delivers a holiday-weekend bump and a running start into stronger June bookings.

The genuinely quiet stretches, early January after New Year's, April, early May, October and early December, are softer for rentals. That is not bad news for an owner. Those are often the best windows for personal use, maintenance and refreshing the home, precisely because you are not giving up peak income to enjoy them.

Reading the pattern for your own home

One more useful signal from the published examples: the three-bedroom Forestbrook illustration shows more meaningful winter activity than the studio illustration. That suggests larger, family-oriented layouts may be better positioned to capture holiday and ski-group demand, though that is an interpretation rather than a guarantee.

The lesson underneath all of this is simple. A home's annual result is not just about how many nights are available. It is about whether the home is available during the highest-value weeks. Two owners with identical properties can see very different returns purely because of which dates they kept for themselves.

That is the conversation worth having before you buy. At Tuttle and Tuttle, we can look at a specific home's rental history, its seasonal booking pattern and its published rates, then talk through a calendar strategy that fits how you actually want to use the place. If you would like to see how a particular property has performed across the seasons, get in touch and we will pull the details together.

How Owning a Vacation Rental in Caldera Springs Actually Works

If you have spent time in Central Oregon, you already understand the pull of Caldera Springs. It sits on about 1,000 acres near Sunriver, roughly 15 miles south of Bend, with Mt. Bachelor, the Cascade Lakes and the Deschutes River all close by. Inside its boundaries you will find lakes and streams, miles of trails, pools, a golf course, sports courts, restaurants and a 220-acre wildlife preserve. It is the kind of place people visit once and start imagining owning.

That daydream usually arrives with a practical question close behind: Can I own a home here, use it for my own family, and rent it out when I am not around? The short answer is yes. The longer and more useful answer is that Caldera Springs is not one single kind of property with one set of rules. Before you fall for a specific home, it helps to understand how ownership here is actually structured.

Caldera Springs is a resort community, not a subdivision

Caldera Springs was established as a destination resort under Oregon law and Deschutes County regulations. That legal foundation matters. Destination resorts are built to welcome a large seasonal and visiting population alongside full-time and part-time residents. In plain terms, this is a community designed with rentals in mind, and overnight rentals are permitted. You are not fighting an association that wishes guests would disappear. Renting is part of the original plan.

But "rentals are permitted" is where the nuance begins, because different property types carry different obligations.

The four main property types

There are four categories a buyer will typically encounter, plus undeveloped homesites.

Custom single-family homes are individually designed and built on traditional Caldera Springs lots. These tend to be the largest and most personalized properties, often four to six bedrooms with high-end finishes, big outdoor living spaces and room for a crowd. Importantly, the community's ordinary single-family lots do not carry the same minimum rental-availability requirement that applies to designated rental units. That does not mean they are exempt from every rule, but it does give owners more freedom to decide how often, and whether, they rent.

Caldera Cabins are privately owned vacation homes in the established part of the community, ranging from roughly 1,400 to 2,600 square feet and available for guest rental. The original Caldera Springs phase included 45 cabins, and some configurations can be divided into different rentable spaces depending on the original design.

Forestbrook homes were purpose-built to blend personal use with rental flexibility. A Forestbrook home can include a main residence plus an attached studio with its own entrance, bathroom, kitchenette and patio. Depending on the floor plan and how it is booked, the property can function as a studio, a larger residence, or a combined home sleeping one to four bedrooms' worth of guests.

Lakeside homes are a newer product built on a similar idea: a three-bedroom main home paired with a separately rentable studio, again with its own entrance, bathroom, kitchenette and patio.

Understanding which of these you are buying is the single most important step, because it determines the rules that follow.

The term you need to know: Overnight Lodging Unit

The biggest dividing line in Caldera Springs is between ordinary single-family homes and properties designated as Overnight Lodging Units, usually shortened to OLUs.

Forestbrook and Lakeside homes are OLUs. Caldera Cabins are part of the community's overnight-lodging inventory as well. Custom single-family lots generally are not subject to the same OLU availability rule.

Why does this matter so much? Because OLUs come with a specific commitment.

What the 38-week requirement really means

An OLU must be made available for public rental for at least 38 weeks each calendar year. That number tends to make buyers nervous at first, so let's be precise about it.

Thirty-eight weeks equals 266 days. But this is an availability obligation, not an occupancy guarantee. Your home does not have to be booked or occupied for 266 days. It simply has to be offered for rent for that portion of the year through an approved reservation system or a licensed property manager. Whether guests actually book those nights depends on the market.

Read the other direction, 38 weeks of required availability still leaves room for personal use across the year. And on a Forestbrook or Lakeside home, the requirement applies to each separately rentable portion, which is part of what makes those lock-off designs so flexible.

If maximum scheduling freedom is your priority, a custom single-family home may suit you better, since those lots do not carry the same availability rule. If you like the idea of a purpose-built rental with a studio you can market separately, an OLU may be exactly right. Neither is better in the abstract. It depends on how you plan to use the place.

How the money side is structured

Ownership costs go well beyond the purchase price, and they vary by property type. A few 2026 figures give you a feel for the landscape.

The standard Caldera Springs Owners' Association assessment is $360 per month, or $4,320 a year, covering common-area services like roads, snowplowing, trails and lakes. Caldera Cabin owners pay a higher assessment of $640 per month, or $7,680 a year, because it bundles cabin-specific services with the master association. Forestbrook owners pay the standard $360 monthly assessment plus a separate landscaping assessment of $3,744.36 a year, billed April through November, plus metered water. That puts a Forestbrook owner's known association-and-landscaping base at roughly $8,064 before water, insurance, utilities and management.

There are also one-time items at closing, such as a working-capital contribution, and for those building from scratch, design-review costs that in 2026 included a $7,000 review-and-completion fee, a $7,500 refundable construction deposit and a $1,250 address-sign fee. None of this is meant to scare you off. It is meant to make the point that every property has its own ledger, and you will want the full picture for the specific home you are considering.

How rental management works

Most owners here do not run the home themselves. Sunriver Resort Vacation Properties is the onsite manager affiliated with the developer, and it handles marketing, distribution across major booking channels, dynamic pricing, housekeeping, linens, inspections, maintenance, 24-hour guest support, concierge services and resort transportation. You get an owner portal and monthly reporting. Owners may also use another qualifying licensed property manager, subject to the property's governing requirements.

Here is a point worth slowing down on: different management programs may offer guests different levels of amenity access. Some programs unlock a broader slice of the Sunriver Resort experience, including additional golf, the spa and aquatic facilities, along with resort transportation. Because a richer guest experience can support higher nightly rates and more bookings, comparing managers on commission rate alone can be misleading. A lower percentage does not automatically mean more money in your pocket if the home ends up with lower rates or fewer reservations.

Setting your calendar

Once you own, you decide which dates to keep for yourself and release the rest for rentals, subject to the 38-week rule if your home is an OLU. The most consequential choice is not how many days you use, but which days. A week in October and the week of the Fourth of July both contain seven nights, but they are worth very different amounts. Using the home during peak season carries a real opportunity cost, a theme worth its own conversation.

The takeaway

Caldera Springs is not a uniform product, and that is a feature, not a flaw. Custom homes, cabins, Forestbrook and Lakeside all offer distinct blends of freedom, flexibility and rental structure. The right choice comes down to reading the specifics: the deed, the CC&Rs, any supplemental declarations, the association budgets, the management agreement and the OLU status of the exact home.

That is where local guidance pays for itself. At Tuttle and Tuttle, we help buyers sort through property classifications, governing documents, association costs, management options and rental histories so you understand exactly what you are buying before you commit. If you are weighing a home here, reach out and we will walk through the details for the specific property on your mind.0

What's Actually Happening in Central Oregon Real Estate Right Now

June 2026 | Central Oregon Market Update

If you have been watching the real estate market in Central Oregon, whether you own here, are thinking about making a move, or just like to keep tabs on things, June has some interesting signals worth paying attention to.

Here is what the data is telling us, and what it means for you.

The Regional Picture

Nationally, the conversation around real estate keeps circling back to two things: inventory and interest rates. Inventory has crept back up in many parts of the country, but it still has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels. And mortgage rates have kept a meaningful chunk of would-be sellers "locked in" (the phenomena of sellers reluctant to trade their existing rate for a new one). Central Oregon is living that same story. But our market has stayed active in ways that a lot of other regions have not.

In May, 238 homes sold across the Bend area. That is an 11% increase over the same month last year. At the same time, active listings actually dropped nearly 9% compared to May 2025. More buyers, fewer homes. You know where that math leads.

The median sale price is sitting at $792,500, up about 2.7% from a year ago. Homes are selling in a median of just 15 days, which is 40% faster than this time last year. And sellers are landing at 97%-98% of their asking price on average. This is not a soft market.

The COVID Pricing Conversation Nobody Wants to Have

During 2020 through 2022, the combination of record-low interest rates, remote work migration, and frenzied bidding wars pushed prices in Central Oregon to levels that, looking back, were not fully sustainable. Properties were going for tens of thousands over ask. People were waiving inspections. It felt like the rules had changed permanently.

They did not.

Prices have corrected from those peaks. Not catastrophically, but meaningfully. And the sellers who are finding success right now are the ones who have internalized that. They are pricing based on where the market actually is in 2026, not where it was in 2021. Those homes are moving. In many cases, they are moving fast.

The listings that are sitting, and right now, nearly half of active listings across the region have already taken a price reduction, are largely the ones anchored to that COVID-era peak. It is not that buyers are not out there. It is that buyers are doing their homework, and they are not paying 2022 prices in a 2026 market.

The good news is that current values are genuinely strong. Sellers who price to the 2026 market are still walking away with excellent outcomes. The equity is there. The demand is there. The right strategy just looks a little different than it did four years ago.

Breaking It Down by Area

Bend — 97701

The median list price in Bend is $690,000, and the Market Action Index (which measures the balance between supply and demand) is at 34 and ticking upward from last month's 33. That is seller's territory, and the trend is moving in the right direction for anyone who owns here.

New listings are entering the market at a median of $614,250, which is notably below the overall median. That gap reflects the broader pricing dynamic: the homes coming in priced for today's market are getting absorbed. Inventory has grown to 177 homes, which gives buyers slightly more to look at than earlier this year, but sales are still outpacing supply.

The market segments tell a useful story. The entry-tier homes (under $533K) are selling fastest: about 35 days on market. Move into the mid-range ($625K–$799K) and you are looking at 42 to 52 days. The upper tier over a million dollars takes longer, around 105 days, but it is still moving. Every segment of this market is active.

Redmond — 97756

Redmond is the most compelling story in Central Oregon right now. The median list price is $629,450, but new listings are hitting the market at a median of $834,950. That $200,000 gap tells you what sellers entering the market believe, that values are heading higher, and the data supports some optimism there. The MAI is 33, up from 32 last month, and the market narrative describes Redmond as approaching its all-time high.

For context, the entry tier here starts around $450K and is moving in about 49 days. Mid-market homes in the $550K–$730K range are active. The upper tier near $1.15M is more selective, but it is transacting.

If you own in Redmond, you are likely sitting on equity at or near its peak. That is a meaningful position to be in.

La Pine — 97739

La Pine reads differently than the other two markets, and that is worth understanding clearly.

The Market Action Index there is 27: a slight buyer's advantage. Inventory has grown to 187 homes, the highest relative to demand of the three areas we track. The median days on market is 70, which is meaningfully longer than Bend or Redmond.

What that means in plain terms: buyers in La Pine have more time, more choices, and more room to negotiate than they do anywhere else in Central Oregon right now. For sellers, it reinforces the pricing point above — the homes that are succeeding there are the ones priced to the current market, not to a previous one.

What La Pine offers that Bend and Redmond simply cannot is land. Half-acre to full-acre lots start around $378K. One to two and a half acre properties sit in the $479K–$569K range. If space, privacy, and value are the priority, this is where Central Oregon's best case is right now.

What This Means If You Own Property Here

Your equity position is real. Values have held near their highs (and in most pockets, they continue to climb) which puts current owners in a genuinely strong place. The absorption rate across the region has tightened to 4.6 months, below the 6-month threshold that traditionally marks a balanced market. We are still in seller-favorable territory, and that trend has been building all spring.

The opportunity is not gone. But markets shift, and the window that is open today will not be open forever. If you have been thinking about making a move, whether that is upsizing, downsizing, pulling equity to invest elsewhere, or exploring what your property is worth, now is a good time to have that conversation.

I track this data every week and I am happy to dig into what it means for your specific address. Reach out anytime.

Data sourced from First American Title Market Reports and MLS summary data for the Bend, OR area as of June 22, 2026. Market statistics reflect single-family residential properties.

Nobody Ever Looked Back and Wished They Hadn't Bought

There is a saying that floats around real estate circles so often it's almost become background noise: nobody ever regretted buying a home. Like most clichés, it survives because it keeps proving itself true. Over the years of working in Central Oregon real estate, I can tell you it's not sales pitch folklore. It's what the data consistently shows, and what I've watched play out in the lives of the people I work with.

So let's actually talk about why.

Your Mortgage Is the One Bill That Never Goes Up

Here's something worth sitting with: rent goes up. It has always gone up. Outside of rent-controlled markets (which make up a tiny fraction of housing in the country, and essentially none in Central Oregon) your landlord can, and will, raise your rent. Nationally, rents are projected to increase 3 to 4 percent annually through 2026, and that's considered a modest forecast compared to what we've seen in recent years.

Your mortgage payment, on the other hand, is fixed. The principal and interest you agreed to on day one is the same number you'll write the check for 10 years from now. While your neighbor's rent climbs a few hundred dollars, you're still paying the same amount you were when you moved in.

And that's before you factor in refinancing. When interest rates drop, you have the ability to refinance your loan and lock in a lower rate, reducing your monthly payment. You can also refinance once you've paid down enough principal to lower your payment without rates moving at all. Renters have no equivalent lever. Their options are pay more or move.

This sounds straightforward but the long-term math is striking. Over a decade, the divergence between what a renter pays and what a homeowner pays can be significant; and the renter has nothing to show for any of it.

You Are Building Something While You Sleep

Every month that you make a mortgage payment, two things happen. You reduce what you owe, and your home likely goes up in value. That combination is called equity, and it is the foundational mechanism of how most Americans build real wealth.

According to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, the median net worth of a homeowner in the United States is approximately $400,000. The median net worth of a renter is $10,400. That's not a typo. We're talking about a gap of nearly 40 to 1, and it has been widening. The National Association of Realtors, extrapolating from the same Federal Reserve data, puts the 2025 figures at $430,000 for homeowners versus $10,000 for renters — a 43 to 1 difference.

Home equity alone accounts for roughly half of a homeowner's net worth. The rest comes from the financial stability and discipline that tends to accompany owning property. But the equity is where it starts.

On the appreciation side, U.S. homes have historically increased in value at an average of roughly 4 to 5 percent annually over the long term, based on Federal Housing Finance Agency data going back to the 1970s. That's a 60-year track record. Even people who purchased near the peak of the 2006 housing bubble (arguably one of the worst possible times in modern history to buy) were, in most cases, back above water within seven to ten years and meaningfully ahead after that. The people who got hurt in 2008 were largely those who took on loans they couldn't sustain, not people who simply bought a home with a reasonable payment.

In Central Oregon, this story looks even better. Our market has outperformed national averages through multiple cycles, driven by the kind of lifestyle demand that doesn't evaporate when things get harder nationally. People want to live here. That doesn't change.

The "Just Rent and Invest the Difference" Argument

You've probably heard this one. The case goes: if your mortgage payment is higher than what you'd pay in rent, take the difference and invest it in the stock market. Over time, the stock market has historically outperformed real estate on a pure return basis.

This is a real argument, and in a spreadsheet it can hold up. But here's what the spreadsheet doesn't capture.

First, about 38 percent of Americans have no stake in the stock market whatsoever, according to Gallup. Not a brokerage account. Not an IRA. Nothing. Among households earning under $50,000 a year, that number drops further (only about 28 percent own any stock at all). The theoretical "invest the difference" strategy requires the discipline to actually invest it. The data says most people don't.

Second, roughly 27 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, according to a Bankrate survey. Only 46 percent of U.S. adults have enough emergency savings to cover three months of expenses. This isn't a judgment on anyone, rather it reflects how hard it is to consistently save and invest in an environment where costs keep rising. But it does matter for the math. The "invest the surplus" approach works if you actually put the money somewhere. Statistically, a large share of people spend it instead.

A mortgage is, in this sense, a forced savings account. Every month you make the payment, you own a little more of a real asset. You don't have to remember to transfer money. You don't have to resist the temptation to spend it. The equity builds whether you're being disciplined or not.

This is one of the most underrated aspects of homeownership, and it's why the Federal Reserve's own data keeps showing what it shows.

What Actually Makes the Difference: Buying Right

None of the above is an argument that everyone should buy a home regardless of their circumstances. It's an argument that people who buy in a healthy financial position almost always come out ahead over time; hence the cliché we started with. 

So what does a healthy buying position actually look like?

A fully funded emergency reserve is the starting point. Before taking on a mortgage, you want three to six months of living expenses in liquid savings. This is what protects you when the water heater fails, when you need a new roof, or when your employment situation changes. Buying a home without that cushion is what turns manageable situations into stressful ones.

Debt-to-income ratio matters more than most people realize. Lenders typically cap the back-end ratio (all your monthly debts divided by your gross monthly income) at around 43 to 45 percent. But in my experience working with buyers in Central Oregon, the people who feel best about their purchase long-term are those who keep that number meaningfully lower. A payment you can make comfortably feels different than one that requires everything to go right every month.

Stable employment is the third leg of the stool. That doesn't mean you need to have been at the same employer for a decade. Lenders generally want to see two years of consistent income in the same field. But more than lender requirements, it's about your own confidence in your financial picture. If your income is steady and your foundation is solid, a mortgage becomes one of the best financial tools you have access to.

If those three things are in place: an emergency fund, a manageable payment relative to your income, and stable employment, the question shifts from whether buying is a good idea to when and where. 

What This Looks Like in Central Oregon Right Now

Our market is in an interesting moment. Inventory has grown across Bend and the surrounding area. About 42 percent of active listings have taken a price reduction from their original ask. Median days on market is sitting at 56 days, but the average is over 100, which tells you that well-priced homes are still moving, while sellers who overreach are waiting.

For someone who's in a healthy buying position, this is genuinely one of the better environments we've seen in a few years to make a move. You have more homes to look at, more room to negotiate, and sellers who are more realistic than they were in 2021 or 2022.

For people who already own in Central Oregon, the data continues to support what you probably already feel: you made a good call. Equity in this market has compounded meaningfully, and the long-term fundamentals (limited land, strong in-migration, lifestyle demand that holds up through economic cycles) remain intact.

The Bottom Line

The reason the saying persists is not because real estate is magic. It's because owning a home, for most people in most circumstances, is the most accessible and reliable path to building real wealth that this country has. Not because it's guaranteed to go up in any given year. Not because it's without risk. But because over time, it builds equity, it hedges against rising housing costs, and it functions as a savings vehicle that works even for people who struggle to save in other ways.

The folks who bought in the worst year in modern memory still came out ahead. The data on homeowner net worth versus renter net worth says it plainly. And in a market like Central Oregon, where demand is structural and not just speculative, the case is even stronger.

If you're thinking about whether the time is right for you, I'd genuinely enjoy talking through it. Not a pitch, just a conversation about where you are financially, what you're looking for, and whether the numbers make sense for your situation. That's what we do, and it's where we can add the most value.

Reach out anytime. There's no pressure and no obligation. Just someone who knows this market well, and who's happy to share what we're seeing on the ground.