Booming Bend, Oregon

Prosperity comes to the mountains

DURING the property frenzy of 2004 to early last year, cities such as Miami and San Francisco got most of the attention. But no housing market was more overheated than that of Bend, Oregon, a town of 67,000 built on a high plateau covered in sagebrush, juniper and pine trees. From September 2005 to September 2006, home prices in Bend leaped 30.4%, the highest rate in the country, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which regulates the government-sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Full Story: http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8600041