This week I’ll look at how Flathead County’s median home price compare and have compared to other regions of the United States. This data is obtained from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the states included in each region are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming in the Western Region. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin in the Midwest. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont in the Northeast. Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia in the Southern Region.
Montana and Flathead County are in the Western Region, which has had the highest home prices over the last four years. Over the last 16 years, Flathead County’s median price has been between 8 and 40 percent lower than the median in the Western Region, but has consistently been much higher than homes in the Midwest and Southern Regions. Over the last 10 years the Western Region has had the largest swing in home prices, going from a median of $342,700 in 2006 down to $204,500 in 2006 and has now recovered to $335,000 this last April. Flathead County’s swing was not as dramatic, but was still a larger price swing than any of the regions outside the Western Region.
Flathead County’s are still much lower than home prices in the Western Region, but are much higher than those in the Midwest or Southern Regions.
In 1981, Jim started Kelley Appraisal in Kalispell and has since built an extensive database 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.