Even hobbits have to keep up the payments on their bank loans.
I’m not sure the idea of a Tolkien-themed housing development would have flown even when the real estate market was at peak froth. I mean . . . thatched roofs in Oregon? Doesn’t sound all that practical to me.
“One home has sold for $650,000 since the project broke ground in fall 2006.”
One home? Gee, not too many well-heeled Tolkien fans in the area, I guess.
Bend? Now I see where they went astray. If they were looking for Tolkien country in Oregon, and the Shire in particular, they should’ve stayed west of the mountains where it’s cooler, wetter and greener. (Unless they wanted to recreate Mordor near one of the ancient lava flows in the high desert.)