In the nearly 30 years I’ve lived in Bend, I’ve slowly watched this area go into the crapper. Here is a good collection of the latest reasons things suck (a good summation) and five things that can be done now to help fix things from the two local economy blogs. Some I agree with, some I disagree with, but the moral of the story is that something really needs to be done.
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If my reading comprehension skills are still intact after all these years, it sounds like Bend is in trouble due to the burst of the housing bubble. And…. that’s pretty much it.
Here’s an idea:
Everyone who owns a home… don’t worry about the value. Work hard, continue to pay on your mortgage, and wait 10 years because – on a long enough timeline – housing prices *always* go up.
However, for those foolish enough to buy more home than they could afford, I can only hope that they learn from the lesson and put a little thought and planning into it next time. Seriously. Buying a house as an investment is a gamble. And, as is the case in gambling, sometimes you lose.
That is all.
It’s more than just the housing market. Unfortunately, we really don’t have any industry here other than tourism, and the city of Bend seems to be in no hurry to try to create any sort of other industry by making it easier to do business here or to push for a four-year university for the area. It certainly doesn’t help that we have all these destination resorts in the area that are getting built that are putting a strain on resources but are exempt from any taxes because of deals they struck with the county and city.
Yes, while housing sucks, there’s more to it than that.