Anyone comparing Central Oregon home values this summer sees a pattern that looks like a warning sign. Bend sits well above $700,000. Sisters holds firm in the mid-$600,000s. Redmond, the supposed affordable alternative, actually ticked down. The easy conclusion is that Redmond is losing ground, the discount option in a region where everything else keeps getting pricier.
That conclusion skips the number that actually predicts where a housing market is headed. It isn't the median. It's who's building nearby, how many people that construction will employ once the cranes leave, and whether those jobs existed before the project broke ground or arrived because of it. In Redmond's case, the answer points to a market that isn't slipping. It's absorbing new supply while its underlying employment base gets sturdier.
The Softness Everyone Points To
The headline numbers are real. Zillow's home value index put Redmond's average home value at $517,100 as of July 31, 2026, down 0.6 percent from a year earlier. Redfin's trailing three-month figures, covering the period through roughly May 2026, showed a median sale price near $470,000, down about 10 percent year over year, with homes selling in around 26 days.
Set those against the neighbors. Closed-sale data reported in mid-2026 put Bend's median price at roughly $704,000 and Sisters at roughly $647,000. Redmond's gap to both has been a fixture of Central Oregon real estate for years, not a new development.
| Market | Recent Median Sale Price | Time Window |
|---|---|---|
| Redmond | ~$470,000–$517,000 | Trailing 3 months through May–July 2026 |
| Bend | ~$704,000 | Closed-sale data, mid-2026 |
| Sisters | ~$647,000 | Closed-sale data, mid-2026 |
What changed isn't the gap. It's the inventory sitting behind it. Active listings in Redmond climbed by nearly 30 percent year over year, reaching roughly 570 homes on the market by June 2026. More listings chasing the same buyer pool is a textbook way to see a softer median without any actual drop in demand. The question worth asking isn't why Redmond got cheaper. It's why so many more sellers decided to list at the same time.
What's Rising a Few Miles From Every Listing Photo
Part of the answer sits at Roberts Field, Redmond's municipal airport, where a $180 million terminal expansion reached a construction milestone on July 7, 2026. Crews and project partners gathered to sign and place the final structural beam, a mass-timber glulam piece manufactured by TimberLab in Portland and raised into place by general contractor Skanska. The project, designed by Hennebery Eddy in partnership with RS&H and Morrison-Maierle, is the airport's first major expansion since 2008 and is on track to open in November 2027.
The numbers behind that project matter more to a homebuyer than the ribbon-cutting date. The airport's own projections put the construction phase at 383 full-time jobs with an estimated $65 million in annual local economic impact. Once the terminal opens, the airport expects 207 new permanent positions across airline operations, TSA, concessions, rental car agencies, and airport staff, worth an estimated $39 million a year to the local economy. Those aren't seasonal tourism jobs. They're the kind of payroll that shows up in a mortgage pre-approval.
The airport is also building its identity into the terminal itself. In June 2026, the Redmond City Council approved Tailwind Hospitality as the food and beverage concessionaire for the new concourse, following a competitive proposal process. Airport director Zachary Bass framed the choice around keeping the experience regional rather than generic.
"RDM continues to prioritize partnerships that reflect the identity and quality of our region."
That detail is small on its own. Combined with the jobs numbers and the funding structure, which leans on $90 million in bonds and airport revenue, $45 million in federal funding, and airport cash reserves rather than local property taxes, it points to an airport that's growing its own economic base instead of just serving Bend's overflow travelers.
The Industrial Floor Nobody Screenshots
The airport isn't the only employment anchor holding up Redmond's housing demand. The city's industrial park, home to manufacturing, fabrication, and warehouse tenants, currently runs a vacancy rate under 5 percent across 1.79 million square feet of surveyed space, with triple-net lease rates in the $0.90 to $1.25 per square foot range. That's a tight industrial market by any regional standard, and tight industrial vacancy tends to precede rising residential demand, not follow it.
Redmond's employment base has been diversifying for decades. What started as telemarketing and customer service operations in the 1990s gave way to a broader mix of manufacturing, distribution, and healthcare, anchored by St. Charles Redmond. Les Schwab, founded in nearby Prineville, still maintains a significant presence across the region. Smith Rock State Park, just north of town, supports its own slice of employment in guide services and outdoor gear, separate from anything tied to Bend's tourism economy.
None of this makes Redmond immune to a housing slowdown. It does explain why the slowdown looks like more listings and steady days on market rather than the kind of demand collapse that shows up when a local economy depends on a single employer or a single seasonal industry.
Why the Gap Probably Isn't Closing the Way Buyers Expect
Buyers comparing Redmond to Bend often assume the price gap is temporary, that Redmond will eventually catch up as it grows. The airport project and the industrial numbers suggest something closer to the opposite. Redmond's affordability relative to Bend isn't a market inefficiency waiting to correct. It's tied to a genuinely different employment mix, one built on aviation, logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare rather than the recreation and second-home demand that keeps pushing Bend's prices higher.
That distinction matters for timing. In the most recent migration data available, covering the final quarter of 2025, Portland-based buyers showed more search interest in moving into Redmond than buyers from any other metro area. If that interest converts into actual moves as new airport and industrial jobs come online closer to the 2027 opening, Redmond's current softness could firm up well before the next spring selling season. Waiting for the gap to widen further assumes the current inventory bump is the new normal rather than a temporary supply catch-up.
What This Means If You're Weighing Redmond Against Bend or Sisters
A median price comparison answers one question and hides several others. Before treating Redmond's lower number as a discount, it's worth checking a few things a listing sheet won't show:
- Whether the specific neighborhood or subdivision sits near the airport's employment corridor or the industrial park, where job growth is concentrated
- How long the current inventory has actually been sitting, since a rising listing count can mean either more competition among sellers or simply more choice for buyers
- Whether the timeline for a permanent job (airport, healthcare, manufacturing) lines up with a household's own moving timeline
- How the property compares on function and maintenance, not just square footage, since that's what tends to move faster in a market with more active listings
Redmond isn't a smaller, cheaper version of Bend waiting to catch up. It's a market with its own employment story, one that happens to be visible right now in a construction site off Highway 97 and a terminal that's still a year from opening.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Redmond's new airport terminal open? The expanded terminal at Roberts Field is expected to be operational in November 2027, following the July 2026 topping-out milestone.
Does the expansion change flight options today? Redmond is currently served by five commercial airlines connecting to 13 cities. Airport leadership has indicated the added gate capacity from the seven new jet bridges could support additional airlines or routes once the terminal opens.
Is Redmond still meaningfully cheaper than Bend? Yes. Recent median sale prices in Redmond have run well below both Bend and Sisters, though the size of that gap depends on which data source and time window you compare.
If you're trying to figure out what a specific Redmond neighborhood's price trend actually means for your timeline, or how it stacks up against Bend or Sisters for your particular situation, Bend Homes and Land can walk through the current inventory with you. Contact Us for a conversation grounded in what's actually happening on the ground in Central Oregon, not just what the median suggests.
