Chuck Slothower//August 26, 2016//

A New Orleans-based investor has purchased the 168-unit Sienna Pointe apartments in Bend for $23.75 million.
Portland-based Oregon Pacific Investment & Development Co. was the seller, and was represented by HFO Investment Real Estate. The buyer used a limited liability company, Bend Housing LLC, for the transaction.
The sale represented a price per unit of $141,369, or more than $167 per square foot. HFO marketed the property nationally before selling to the New Orleans buyer, the brokerage said.
The Bend housing market has been scorching hot lately. A survey conducted earlier this year by the Central Oregon Rental Owners Association found an overall rental vacancy rate of 1.04 percent.
July’s 5.4 percent unemployment rate in the Bend-Redmond metropolitan statistical area was near pre-recession lows, according to the Oregon Employment Department.
“Bend is the largest city in Central Oregon and is also in Oregon’s fastest-growing county,” HFO partner Rob Marton stated in a news release. “Bend is expected to more than double its population in the next 50 years, but the city has not changed its urban growth boundary since 1981, leaving very little land for development. It’s not a market that would usually generate a lot of interest with institutional investors, but the extreme market conditions grabbed a lot of investor interest.“