As we enter into spring, let’s breakdown the housing market to see what is selling and what’s not selling. This week I’ve broken it down by price to sell, what price ranges are selling and how fast.
The overall median price of sold residential properties in Flathead County over the last 12 months was $242,500. This means that half the sales are lower and half are higher than that median price.
This week’s graph shows the distribution of current listings and the last 12 months of sales by price range. Of the 1,755 sales in the last 12 months, 31 percent sold in the price range of between $100,000 and $200,000. At this time there are 1,184 residential listings and only 12 percent are priced in that $100,000 to $200,000 range. With 540 sales in this price range and a current inventory of 139 listing, this means that there is currently around three months of inventory, making this price range a seller’s market.
As we move up into the $1 million to $2 million range, we find that this price range only accounts for 2 percent of the sales, but 10 percent of the current listings are in this price range. With only 27 sales in the last year and 117 current listings, this tells us that there is currently around 38 months of inventory of homes in the $1 million to $2 million range. This segment of the market is very much a buyer’s market.
As you can see in the graph, the existing housing inventory goes from four months for home priced under $100,000, up to 52 months for home priced over $2 million. Currently, there are 56-plus homes priced at $2 million on the market, but there were only 13 sales in the last year.
On a broader scale, there is currently around five months of inventory for homes priced under $400,000, making this price range a seller’s market. For homes priced over $400,000, there is currently 24 months of inventory, putting these higher priced homes in a buyer’s market.
The market is generally pretty smart and pricing is key to getting homes sold. This is especially true in the higher price ranges because there are a lot of sellers competing for a relatively few number of buyers.