I always try to keep my clients and blog readers as informed as possible, and with a full year on the books I thought I'd go back and take a look at the Western Montana market in some general terms so we can see how things have been. All of this data I retrieved from the Missoula Organization of Realtors. So, off we go!
First off, the meat and potatoes, residential sales, which is single family detached, townhomes, condos, and modular homes.
City of Missoula:
- 928 Sales (down from 1284 in 2007, a 28% decrease)
- Median Sales Price, $215,000 (down from $218,000 in 2007, a 1.4% decrease)
- Average Sales Price, $246,628 (up from 246,538 in 2007, less than 1% increase)
- Average Days on Market, 117 (up from 116 days in 2007, less than 1% increase)
General thoughts: Volume is down, but that is expected, with less loan programs, and fears of national trends a slow-down was practically unavoidable. The good news is that values have essentially not dropped, people are still paying similar prices for homes, and homeowners are retaining value.
Greater Western Montana region:
- 1760 Sales (down from 2554 in 2007, a 31% decrease)
- Median Sales Price, $215,000 (down from $222,000 in 2007, a 3.5% decrease)
- Average Sales Price, $260,499 (down from $275,074 in 2007, a 5.3% decrease)
- Average Days on Market, 148 (up from 138 in 2007, a 7.3% increase)
General Thoughts: The out-lying areas in Western Montana have been hit much harder by this slow down. The high gas prices through the year were a major factor, suddenly the thought of driving 20-40 miles to Missoula 5 to 6 times a week isn't as popular when it's costing over $60 to fill your gas tank each time.
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Now lets take a look at all bare land which can include lots in subdivisions too.
City of Missoula
- 106 Sales (down from 198 in 2007, a 46.5% decrease)
- Median Sales Price, $100,000 (up from $74,950 in 2007, a 34.2% increase)
- Average Sales Price, $156,076 (up from $127,015 in 2007, a 22.8% increase)
- Average Days on Market, 252 (up from 212 in 2007, a 19% increase)
General Thoughts: A big hit in volume, however values increased. The large volume slowdown is most likely due to the larger slow-down in new construction, and banks tightening their rules and regulations on how many "spec" homes builders can have at one time.
Greater Western Montana Region:
- 452 Sales (down from 829 in 2007, a 45.5% decrease)
- Median Sales Price, $109,900 (up from $100,000 in 2007, a 9.9% increase)
- Average Sales Price, $203,047 (up from $161,954 in 2007, a 25.4% increase)
- Average Days on Market, 246 (up from 224 in 2007, a 9.8% increase)
General Thoughts: We see the similar hit in the volume slow down here, sales prices go up as well. The reason we see higher sales prices is that once outside of Missoula a lot of the land parcels are going to be much larger in size, or may have recreational features such as live water.
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Next up, Multi-Family, which is Duplex/Tri-plex/4-plex/and beyond
Due to the lack of data, I did not break this apart from Missoula and Greater Western Montana
- 50 sales (down from 89 in 2007, a 44% decrease)
- Median Sales Price, $237,750 (down from $249,900 in 2007, a 4.7% decrease)
- Average Sales Price, $316,639 (up from 302,537 in 2007, a 4.7% increase)
- Average Days on Market, 171 (up from 136 in 2007, a 25.7% increase)
General Thoughts: A little twist is thrown at us here, a slight decrease in Median, a slight increase in average. Looking through the data in 2008 there were a few more large ticket sales, which boosted the average, add in the fewer amounts of sales and the Median is prone to slip a bit. Again we see a big drop-off, probably because of the much tougher loan qualification rules for multi-family units.
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Overall: We're down in volume, which makes things tougher for everyone. Missoula is weathering the storm much better than the rest of the western side of the state, probably due to a stronger economy, and that many people over the last few years have been moving back into town instead of moving out into the countryside. The best news that I see in this is that generally speaking, people are not losing money in their homes, which probably explains the lack of foreclosures and short-sales we see in our market.
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