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Kelley’s Market Trends: Lake County Residential Sales

In the first two months of 2016, the number of home sales in Lake County were up around 83 percent

By Jim Kelley

2015 was the best year for home sales in Lake County since 2006. There were 332 home sales reported, compared to 283 in 2014, representing a 17 percent increase. In the first three and a half months of 2016, the number of homes sales were up 14 percent over the same period in 2015, however the number of sales did start to slow in March. In the first two months of 2016, the number of sales were up around 83 percent over the first two months of 2015, then March had a year-over-year decrease by 18 percent. Sales were also down in the first half of April.

The median price in 2015 was $224,500, which was 2.3 percent above the 2014 median of $219,500. Although the 2015 median is up from 2014, it is still nearly 7 percent below the 2007 high of $240,000.

The residential sales price history in Lake County has been generally similar to Flathead County over the last 16 years in most respects, but has been a little more volatile with a 27 percent decline in the median price from 2007 through 2009, then a 20 percent increase in 2010 followed by a 13 percent decline in 2011.

In 2015, around 16 percent of Lake County’s market was made up of waterfront homes, which tend to increase the overall median home price. When lakefront homes are not considered, the median home price for 2015 was $206,750, which is a 3.4 percent increase over non-waterfront homes in 2014.

The greater Polson area had an 11 percent increase in the number of sales in 2015 and a 12.5 percent increase in the median price. The greater Ronan area had a slight decline in the number of sales as well as a 2.6 percent decline in the median price from 2014 through 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.