There is a common S.F. scenario where an entire chunk of real estate is transported, overnight, to a past time or an alternate universe; the Civil War, for instance, or the Jurassic.

Sometimes, I wonder if my little neighborhood has been transplanted to an alternative universe.

Word is, and it's just hearsay so far, is that less than 50 homes have sold in Bend in the month of January. As opposed to 135 last year, when most real estate agents where saying the bottom had been reached. "Prices can't go any lower!"

Now this is Bend, mind you, not Redmond which has been bringing up the rear in sales and prices over the last few months.

And yet, I read this about Redmond (Bulletin, Jan. 27, 2008):

"Vukanovich....plans to build a 300-home development that would be a mix of single-family housing..."

and if that wasn't enough.

"The developer of Woodhill Crossing -- who is planning to build 170 single-family homes, 180 apartment units...."

I could swear I was living in old high desert Central Oregon. Yep, looked outside and saw 6 inches of snow.

Anyway, they aren't worried because...."By the time we get our streets built and build houses, it will be 14 to 16 months. I can't predict what the market's going to look like. I've got to hope that by then the market will turn around."

You know, go out and start up your car, start driving your car to the gorge, say a couple hundred yards from the existing bridges, right there at the steepest drop, and hope they build a bridge in time for you to cross. (Sorry, the existing bridge is for existing customers.)

To their credit, the Bulletin puts some stark details at the front of the article: "...a Redmond real estate market that saw home sales drop 44 percent in 2007 to 419 homes sold on urban lots, and a median price that fell 2.7 percent to 253,00, according to the Central Oregon Association of Realtors."

I'll bet if you roll the drops and prices from August (sub-prime debacle coming to light) it would be much, much worse.

It's also fairly easy to look at historical trends on housing slowdowns, and as far as I can find, most of these slumps last between 5 to 7 years. So that 14 to 16 month window quoted above ought to hit at just about the nadir.

But then, I'm sure in the alternate world of real estate, things are different.