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The homebuilding industry may be on the rebound, at least in Central Oregon.

Only four building permits were issued for Awbrey Butte, one of Bend‘s ritziest neighborhoods, between January 2010 and July 2011. Twenty permits have been issued since.

Of 99 luxury homes sold in Awbrey Butte in 2010, 41 were because of bank foreclosures. Some 90 homes have been sold in the neighborhood this year; only half a dozen or so have been because of foreclosures.

Approximately 50 luxury homes have been sold at Broken Top, an exclusive country club neighborhood west of Bend, in 2012 鈥� nearly twice as many as last year. Half of the 41 home sales there in 2010 originated from foreclosures. There were only four foreclosures this year.

Joseph Kendall, a real estate broker who runs , said he’s not doing a happy dance just yet. There are signs of life, he said, but that doesn’t mean the recession itself is dead and buried.

鈥淚nventory is still very low here,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here’s a lot of building here right now, but it’s mostly low-end stuff between $250,000 and $450,000.鈥�

Foreclosures are also a big problem, he said, adding that many high-end houses are locked up in court battles.

鈥淪hort sales are still a pain,鈥� he said.

Deb Tebbs, who also sells luxury homes in the Bend area, said she wouldn’t know about that.

鈥淚 don’t do short sales or foreclosures,鈥� she said.

What Tebbs does know, she said, is that business is good and getting better. She knows of 29 homes that recently sold for more than a million dollars. Her company, , sold a lot of them.

鈥淲e really dominate the high-end market,鈥� she said.

Building permits are up for the simple reason that there aren’t enough luxury homes for all the people who want to buy them, Tebbs said.

鈥淲hat’s going on is that we’ve funneled through all the available and foreclosed properties,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or a long time, it was cheaper to buy than to build. People weren’t building here. The industry just stopped. Now we’re hitting that vortex where we don’t have enough homes to meet the demand.鈥�

The shortage of homes has definitely created a buyer’s market, she said. She recently sold an Awbrey Butte home reduced from $2.3 million to $1.6 million.

鈥淚f it’s priced right, it’s going to sell,鈥� she said.

Tebbs said she knows about building homes as well as selling them. Her husband, Jack Tebbs, is the owner and president of , which recently built a home in Awbrey Butte worth more than $3 million.

The number of building permits issued for single-family homes has more than quadrupled in Bend’s upscale neighborhoods since 2010.

What’s happening in Bend could reflect a national trend.

The Wall Street Journal reported that builders across the country started work on 26 percent more single-family homes in May 2012 than in May 2011, when the housing market was still seriously depressed. In addition, the paper reported, the number of unsold new homes is close to what it was around 2005 鈥� before the housing bubble burst.

The paper surveyed 47 economists, and 44 of them said they believe the market won’t fall any further.

Josh Lehner of the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis wrote in his blog last week that he shares such optimism.

鈥淪tarts in Oregon are up considerably from their recessionary lows, particularly multifamily,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淭he improvement in single-family homes has taken a two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back approach.

鈥淭hat being said, the current quarter is shaping up to be the strongest for single-family starts since the end of the recession and expectations are for these gains to continue moving forward,” he added.

Jon Chandler, CEO of the , backs those sentiments.

鈥淲e’re seeing guarded grounds for optimism statewide,鈥� he said.

It is particularly gratifying to see signs of recovery in Bend, he added.

鈥淐entral Oregon was really clobbered,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ny improvement there is going to be extremely welcome.鈥�

As the entire state struggles beyond the recession, getting money from banks for new homes seems to be the biggest hurdle, he said. A lot of people are rushing to their bankers.

鈥淲e could see a bottleneck there,鈥� he said.

Nonetheless, he added, he is upbeat.

鈥淲e are seeing things pick up,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople are getting tired of living in their parents’ basement.鈥�