Sisters Voted to Grow This Month. The Single-Family Shortage Stays Put for Now

Eight single-family homes sold in the Sisters area in August 2026, according to the Beacon Report from Beacon Appraisal Group. Their median price was $682,000, and they took a median of 35 days to sell. In August 2025 the same report counted six sales, a $715,000 median, and 47 days on market. On paper that looks like falling prices and faster sales. With six or eight sales in a month, though, a single listing at either end of the price range can move the median by tens of thousands of dollars. The number that holds steadier is supply. Beacon put Sisters at 5.5 months of inventory in August 2026, which it calculates as current listings divided by the prior 12 months of sales.

That supply comes from a boundary that city and county officials just voted to widen. On October 14, 2026, the Sisters City Council approved the city's Urban Growth Boundary amendment. On October 22, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners approved it as well. The city's planning documents show that the land Sisters lacks most is land for the kind of home most buyers are shopping for, and that land is still several steps from existing.

The shortage is in one kind of land

The city's case for expanding rests on its Final Land Need Report, dated December 5, 2025. It forecasts 1,973 additional housing units needed citywide between 2023 and 2043, with the population growing from 3,649 to 7,108. About two-thirds of that need is single-family housing. About one-third is multifamily or attached housing, such as townhomes and plexes.

The shortfall is not spread evenly across housing types. The report's housing table shows the deficit sitting mostly in low-density land, while high-density land shows a surplus. The city's UGB amendment application plans for 8.5 units per net acre in low-density areas and 25 units per net acre in high-density areas. It splits the projected need into 1,351 low-density units and 622 high-density units. The application treats these as planning assumptions. It does not lay out a subdivision or promise a buildout.

For a buyer, that means the homes in shortest supply within today's boundary are detached houses on their own lots. The city's own analysis says so, and it is the main reason the city went looking for more land. The inventory also has an age caveat. It counts development through July 2023, so it describes the land supply as the city measured it during the application, not as of this fall.

What the October votes did, and what is still ahead

The added area lies northeast of town, north of Highway 126 and south of Sisters Eagle Airport. Central Oregon Daily reported it as 318.6 acres, and the county approved it after a public hearing that ran nearly five and a half hours. The city's legal description puts it slightly lower, at 316.42 acres. Only part of that land is for housing. The application allocates roughly 106 to 135 acres to residential use, out of about 250 developable acres needed for housing, jobs, parks and other uses.

Mayor Jennifer Letz described the mood after the vote to Central Oregon Daily:

"We're excited. Exhausted. It's been years of hard work."

The same report noted that the approval does not bring the acreage into city limits or allow construction. The city's project page, last updated October 23, lists the remaining steps:

1. County ordinance. The Board of County Commissioners still has to formalize its approval by ordinance at an upcoming meeting.
2. State review. The State of Oregon then reviews and acknowledges the amendment. The application notes that legislative UGB decisions can be appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
3. Area Plan. This sets the detailed framework for zoning, transportation, housing types, employment land and parks in the new area. The Nugget reported that it could take six to eight months, including public engagement.
4. Annexation. After state acknowledgment, owners whose land touches the current city limits can petition to annex. Their requests will have to comply with the adopted Area Plan.
5. Services and approvals. Under the application, rezoning and development depend on urban infrastructure and services, which have to be planned and built through annexation, rezoning and development approvals.

The city is also revising its annexation policy. After a City Council workshop on October 28, the next session is with the Planning Commission on November 5, 2026 at 4 p.m. No official source gives a date for the first construction in the expansion area. With an ordinance vote, state review and a six-to-eight-month Area Plan still to come, plus annexations and infrastructure after that, new lots in the northeast area are not part of the market for anyone buying this winter or next spring.

Some land is also off the table. McKenzie Meadow Village, a proposed development of about 58 acres west of Sisters, was not included in the city's expansion. In August, The Nugget reported that the Land Use Board of Appeals sent the county's approval of that property's rezone back to the county after an appeal by Central Oregon LandWatch, leaving the land zoned for forest use.

The first new homes are income-restricted

The new housing that will open soonest in Sisters is already under construction inside the current city, and it is built for specific income levels. Sisters Habitat for Humanity broke ground on Larch Commons on September 18, 2026. The project plans 25 permanently affordable homes: 19 for buyers at or below 80 percent of area median income and six workforce homes for buyers at or below 120 percent, according to The Nugget. The homes are planned at 900 to 1,300 square feet near Adams Avenue and North Larch Street, with first dedications expected as early as spring 2027. On the same day, Habitat dedicated the last home in its 10-cottage Woodlands development.

Trinity Place is a 40-unit, three-story apartment project by Northwest Housing Alternatives. It is aimed at working households earning 60 to 80 percent of area median income, and The Nugget reported occupancy projected for spring 2027.

These projects fill a real local need. They also sit outside the open market, so a buyer looking at a detached home at market price will not be competing for them or choosing among them. For that buyer, the choices through 2027 are the resale homes and the remaining infill lots inside today's boundary.

Building new now costs more

The cost of new construction inside the current limits also went up this year. Under the city's fee schedule effective July 1, 2026, a new single-family home pays one-time system development charges of:

• $3,869 for parks
• $6,785 for transportation
• $13,367 combined for water and sewer on a ¾-inch meter, with higher amounts for larger meters

The transportation charge is the one that moved most. The city's June 2026 methodology report set it at $6,785, up $4,233 from the previous $2,552. These charges apply to new development, so a resale buyer does not pay them directly. They do raise the cost of adding a house, and that sets a higher floor under the homes that will eventually compete with existing resale stock.

Reading Sisters numbers while the boundary holds

The 5.5 months of inventory is the stock buyers can choose from right now. Expected new single-family supply is not going to grow it soon, because the land meant for that supply still needs an ordinance, state acknowledgment, an Area Plan and annexation. A single month's median with eight sales behind it can shift a lot between reports, while the boundary those sales happen inside will not change before the steps above are finished.

Beacon's Sisters figures also leave out condos, townhomes, manufactured homes and acreage. A buyer weighing a rural parcel outside town or an attached home inside it is looking at a different pool than the headline median describes. For anyone choosing between Sisters and a larger market, a more useful question than the month's median is how many comparable homes sold in the past quarter, and how close each one is to the property you are considering.

Mayor Letz told Central Oregon Daily that some landowners in the expansion area are already interested in building housing local workers can afford. The Area Plan is where housing types and zoning for that land get set, and its public engagement sessions are the place to watch for what the northeast area will hold.

This post is general information about local planning and fees. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, so please confirm your own situation with the right professional.

If you own a home in Sisters and want to know how it compares with the small set of recent sales around it, Brandon Cook Bostick can walk you through the comparable sales and what the boundary timeline means for your pricing. Get a Free Home Valuation to start with your own numbers.