The latest news from the Missoula Organization of Realtors

I just typed up a report for the Montana Association of REALTORS(R) yearly end of business meetings, it's all relevant stuff about what's been going on here and so I thought I'd share it here!  Message as follows:

Residential market, urban Missoula area:

YTD sales: 595, which is almost exactly on point to where it was last year at this time which was 597 sold homes.  The difference is that the current YTD median sales price for this year is $199,900 while at this same point last year it was $214,000.  This reduction in the median sales price, 6.6% is the largest decrease in a 12 month period that Missoula has seen since the begin in declining pricings stemming from the national housing market collapse.  A few encouraging signs of returned activity beyond the first time home buyer are two factors, the first is the median sales price of homes sold since July 1^st currently sits at $217,000 while the same range last year 7/1 -9/7 was $209,000 showing that the activity in the higher price range of our market is returning, albeit slowly.  Secondly in our MLS in the Missoula urban area we've seen a moderate uptick in multi-family sales, going from 25 at this point last year to 31 ytd this year.  Although both numbers are small 6 more sales ytd this year compared to last year represents a 24% increase in sales activity.

So far this year MOR has had some awesome political success, with many thanks to our GAD, Ruth Link, our Gov't affairs committee chaired by Kim Bennett Buchanan and the leadership of our board of directors.  First off with the combined efforts of MOR and the Missoula Builders Industry Association (MBIA) we were able to defeat some zoning language that carried over in Missoula zoning code re-write that essentially banned the new construction of any house with a garage that eclipsed the front plane of the house, referred to as "snout houses".  MOR additionally held a housing summit which was well attended by local organizations and government officials to discuss affordable and attainable housing in our area, stemming from this summit MOR has a seat at the table in the ongoing planning and discussions in conjunction with the Mayor's office and local government as they continue to address affordable and attainable housing.  Finally MOR completed and released a study that was partially funded with IMF money to provide research-based information about our areas agricultural needs.  Recently a local group concerned about agriculture lands has been successful in having land in new subdivisions set aside for agricultural purpose, in one such case a subdivision has nearly 1/3 of its land set aside by city council for ag use in a decision that wasn't based on any studies and was put together on the spot.  MOR released this study, and has been able to use this information to argue the appropriate and inappropriate times to set aside land for ag use, and to counter-act hearsay with actual facts of what the area can provide to its residents.

Additionally as the board president of MOR I've been quite busy this spring and summer with two large-scale issues, the first is the research and successful contractual negotiations to enter into an agreement with the RPR which will soon be going live with our MLS.  Since that tackling of that issue in the spring we've been busy with finding our next AE, as Mae Hassman announced to us in June that she will be retiring this year after nearly 24 years with our association.  As this industry is emerging in a climate of major shift we've been actively working to find the next AE that will be a part of our organization as we sail through these choppy waters.  We began with a series of membership forums, obtaining feedback from our membership on what they felt their leaders should know and consider when making this hire and when considering future leadership plans of action.  With a search committee formed we revised our job description, wrote and placed an ad, and received nearly 45 applications over a 3 week span.  We've currently filtered out a top choice of applicants and are just beginning our 1^st round of interviews.  Our goal will be to make the hire in early October.

So as you can see, we've been busy in Missoula!