This graph shows how Flathead County’s median home price compares to and has 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 percent 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 2012 and has now recovered to $341,400 in 2016. Flathead County’s swing was not as dramatic, but was still a larger price swing than any of the regions outside the western region. In 2016 the median price in the Western Region increased 8 percent and in Flathead County it increased 5.2 percent. In the other regions the median price increased 5.2 percent in the Midwest Region, 1.2 percent in the Northeast Region, and 6.6 percent in the Souther Region.
Flathead County’s median price is lower than home prices in the Western Region, about the same as the Northeastern Region, but much higher than the median in the Midwest or Southern Regions.