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Kelley’s Market Trends: Residential Sales – First 4 Months

Home sales have continued at a record pace for the first four months of 2016

By Jim Kelley

Home sales have continued at a record pace for the first four months of 2016, with a 10.7 percent increase over the same period in 2015. After an 8.5 percent decrease in March, April came back with a 19 percent increase over April of 2015. If that overall pace of sales were to continue throughout the entire year, the number of sales would exceed the high of 1,804 from 2006.

Mortgage interest rates continue at near record lows with the average 15-year rate at around 3.1 percent and the average 30-year rate at around 3.7 percent.

There were 434 residential sales in Flathead County in the first four months of this year, compared to 392 in the same period in 2015. In the first four months, 53.5 percent of residential sales were on small urban or suburban lots, 20.5 percent were on half acre to three-acre lots and 15.9 percent were on three to 20-acre tracts. There were also 20 waterfront home sales, representing 4.6 percent of the market.

The median sales price for the first four months of this year was $244,250, compared to $230,000 for the same period in 2015.

The current overall inventory level is slightly lower than what it was a year ago, however only 159 properties (15 percent) of the overall inventory is priced below the median sold price of $244,250.

In the first four months there were 28 bank-owned or distressed sales, compared to 54 in 2015. Non-distressed sales represent 93.5 percent of the market, compared to 86.2 percent for the same period in 2015.

In 1981, Jim started Kelley Appraisal in Kalispell and has since built an extensive data base of economic and real estate-related data on northwestern Montana. Over the last several years, he has published annual reports on the Flathead Real Estate Market and been a guest speaker on numerous occasions for various groups in the Flathead.