A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021
q
DOW
34,269.16 -473.66
BRIEFING
U.S. job openings
at record high
U.S. job openings
surged in March to a re-
cord high, underscoring
the rapid increase in labor
demand as vaccinations
accelerate and states re-
open their economies.
The number of avail-
able positions increased
to 8.12 million during the
month, the highest since
2000, from an upwardly
revised 7.53 million in
February, the Labor De-
partment’s Job Openings
and Labor Turnover Sur-
vey, showed Tuesday.
The number of va-
cancies exceeded hires
by more than 2 million,
the largest gap on record
and evidence of current
hiring challenges. Many
employers say they are
unable to fill positions be-
cause of ongoing fears of
catching the coronavirus,
child care responsibilities
and generous unemploy-
ment benefits.
The increase in open-
ings was fairly broad, in-
cluding more available
positions in accommo-
dation and food services,
manufacturing and con-
struction.
1 million sign up
for ‘Obamacare’
President Joe Biden
said Tuesday 1 million
Americans had signed up
for health insurance un-
der “Obamacare” during a
special enrollment period
for those needing cover-
age during the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
Biden reopened the
HealthCare.gov insurance
markets in February for a
special six-month sign-up
opportunity that will
go through Aug. 15. His
coronavirus relief pack-
age also boosted tax-
payer subsidies .
However, the 1 million
figure announced Tues-
day by the White House
also includes people who
would have otherwise
qualified for a sign-up op-
portunity, even without
Biden’s special enrollment
period.
A life change such as
losing workplace cover-
age or getting married is
considered a “qualifying
life event.” Last year about
390,000 people signed up
because of life changes
from Feb. 15-April 30, the
government said, and in
2019 it was over 260,000.
The number of unin-
sured Americans has risen
because of job losses due
to the pandemic .
Hemp group’s suit
against DEA tossed
A federal district judge
in Washington, D.C., has
dismissed the hemp in-
dustry’s lawsuit alleging
DEA restrictions overstep
the agency’s authority.
The Hemp Industries
Association filed a com-
plaint last year saying the
U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration’s rules
would “effectively destroy
the burgeoning hemp
industry” by criminalizing
crop extracts that exceed
0.3% THC, the psychoac-
tive compound in mar-
ijuana.
The hemp industry
argues this threatens ev-
ery stage of production
because hemp’s extracts
temporarily become
more concentrated in THC
during processing.
U.S. District Judge
James Boasberg ruled the
case should be heard in
the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit, not in
his U.S. District Court.
The Hemp Industries
Association has filed a
parallel legal action in the
federal appeals court .
— Bulletin wire reports
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BEND
Single-family home prices climbing again
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
The median price of a single-family
home in Bend jumped $61,000 in April
compared to the month before, accord-
ing to a monthly data report.
The Beacon Report showed that the
median price of a single-family home
in April was $651,000, nearly $200,000
higher than the price was in April 2020.
The median price is the midpoint value
of all transactions in a month, which
was heavily influenced by a growing
number of sales in the million-dol-
lar-plus range, according to the Beacon
Appraisal Group LLC report for Cen-
tral Oregon.
Home sales of a $1 million or more
accounted for 17% of all sales in April
in Bend, compared to 7% of the sales
during the same time the year before.
The volume of high-end home sales is a
milestone for Bend, said Donnie Mon-
tagner, owner of the Beacon Appraisal
Group of Redmond.
Real estate prices in Central Oregon
have been on the rise for the better part
of a year, driven in part by out-of-town-
ers wanting to live in more rural areas.
Borrower-friendly interest rates also
have ignited home sales nationwide giv-
ing more buying power to buyers be-
cause their money goes further.
The growth in home values is hap-
pening across the country, despite the
instability caused by the pandemic.
In Redmond, the single-family home
median price stayed steady at $413,000,
but inventory levels remain low, accord-
ing to the report. In April 2020, the me-
dian sales price shot up to $358,000 in
Redmond.
The April sales data for Sunriver put
the median sales price for a single-fam-
ily home at $906,000, according to the
report. Homes in Sunriver were on the
market for an average of five days.
Prices in Sunriver have been on
the upswing since the third quarter of
2016 when the median sales price was
$385,000, according to the report.
Reporter: 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com
Extension of
grace period
for past-due
rent goes to
Gov. Brown
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Astronaut Alan Shepard sits
in his capsule aboard a Mercu-
ry-Redstone rocket at Cape Ca-
naveral, Florida, on May 5, 1961.
Freedom 7 was the first American
manned suborbital space flight,
making Shepard the first Amer-
ican in space. Later that day,
Shepard was retrieved by a U.S.
Marine helicopter after splash-
down in the Atlantic Ocean at the
end of his suborbital flight.
Photos: AP file (above), NASA (right)
TOURISM’S
FINAL FRONTIER
60 years after the first
American went to space,
adventurers are lining up
BY MARCIA DUNN • AP Aerospace Writer
C
APE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Sixty
years after Alan Shepard became the
Matt Hartman/AP file
first American in space, everyday
people are on the verge of following in his
cosmic footsteps.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin used this month’s
anniversary to kick off an auction for a seat on
the company’s first crew spaceflight — a short
Shepard-like hop launched by a rocket named
New Shepard. The Texas liftoff is targeted for
July 20, the date of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity departs Mojave Air & Space Port
in California in February 2020. Virgin Galactic’s spaceship,
tucked under the wing of its spe-
cial carrier aircraft, was on
a long-awaited ferry
flight to its new
home in New
Mexico, where
it would un-
dergo ret-
rofitting for
The sky-high price each traveler will pay
commercial
on a 1½-week SpaceX trip next year.
operations
Virgin Galactic has charged about
carrying
$250,000 in the past, though that’s
tourists on
expected to go up, and Blue Origin
hops into
won’t publicize ticket prices.
space.
$55
MILLION
See Space / A12
AAA expects huge Memorial Day travel spike
Associated Press
U.S. highways will be far
busier over Memorial Day
weekend than last year, but
traffic still won’t reach pre-pan-
demic levels, according to a
forecast by the AAA auto club.
AAA officials say travel will
rise because more Americans
have been vaccinated against
COVID-19 — about one-third
of U.S. adults — and consumer
confidence is growing.
60%
Expected increase compared with
Memorial Day weekend 2020,
numbering more than 37 million
people on U.S. highways
The auto club and insur-
ance company said Tuesday
it expects more than 37 mil-
lion people to travel at least
50 miles from home during
the holiday weekend, up 60%
from last year, which was the
lowest since AAA began keep-
ing records in 2000.
If the AAA forecast is right, it
would still be 6 million people,
or 13%, fewer than left home
over Memorial Day 2019.
AAA said 34 million Amer-
icans plan driving trips be-
tween May 27 and May 31, a
52% increase over last year,
and nearly 2.5 million will
take plane trips, nearly six
times more than the same pe-
riod in 2020. A small number
will take buses or trains.
So far in May, nearly 1.5 mil-
lion people per day have gone
through U.S. airport check-
points, according to the Trans-
portation Security Adminis-
tration. AAA said its air-travel
forecast seems low because it
counts each traveler once, while
TSA counts somebody twice if
they take a round-trip flight.
Gov. Kate Brown’s signature
awaits a bill that gives tenants
more time to pay past-due rent
stemming from the corona-
virus pandemic and protects
their future ability to rent.
The Oregon House sent Sen-
ate Bill 282 to the governor on
a 39-17 vote on Tuesday. Rep.
Julie Fahey, a Democrat from
Eugene and chairwoman of the
House Committee on Housing,
said the bill banks on millions
coming in state and federal aid
to tenants and landlords.
“It is a reasonable compro-
mise bill that sets the stage for a
more equitable recovery,” said
Fahey, the bill’s floor manager
and chief sponsor in the House.
“By passing this bill, we can en-
sure that Oregon tenants and
landlords can get the full benefit
of rental assistance coming to
our state and help prevent the
fallout from the pandemic fol-
lowing the most vulnerable Or-
egonians for years to come.”
A Dec. 21 special session of
the Legislature extended the
evictions moratorium from Dec.
30 to June 30, and also set aside
a total of $200 million for assis-
tance — $150 million for land-
lords and $50 million for ten-
ants. The Oregon Department
of Housing and Community
Services reported to the House
committee on May 4 that $40
million was paid from the land-
lord compensation fund in the
first round in March.
See Rent / A12
Grass seed
dealer settles
for $300K in
labeling case
BY GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — A Willamette
Valley grass seed dealer ac-
cused of mislabeling more than
8 million pounds of seed has
reached a settlement with state
agriculture officials.
Dynamic Seed Source LLC
and owner Trevor Abbott have
agreed to pay $300,000 in fines
to the Oregon Department of
Agriculture as part of the deal.
The company will also have its
wholesale seed dealer’s license
suspended for one year, effec-
tive June 30.
The Agriculture Department
initially alleged Dynamic Seed
Source and Abbott in 2019
had mislabeled 124 seed lots as
Kentucky 31, or K-31, a pop-
ular variety of tall fescue used
for livestock forage, manicured
lawns, erosion control and turf.
See Seed / A12