Page 38 - Flathead Beacon // 11.9.16

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NOVEMBER 9, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
KELLEY’S MARKET TRENDS
FLATHEAD REAL ESTATE IN PERSPECTIVE
BY JIM KELLEY
IT’S WEDNESDAY MORNING, THE day after the election, and if you are like me, you got up, turned on the news, looked at the election results, then promptly threw up. The only bright side is that the election is over. Now we can all look forward to watching the Grizzlies beat the Bobcats on Nov. 19.
OK, I got that out of my system so let’s look at the rst 10 months of residen- tial home sales in Flathead County. The number of sales in the rst four months of the year were up from the previous year, then the following three months were down followed by August and September, which were up, and now October had a 10 percent drop from October of 2015.
By the end of October there were 1,408 residential sales, compared to 1,445 sales in 2015. The total number of sales are down 2.6 percent from last year.
Mortgage interest rates continue at record lows with the average 15-year rate at around 2.8 percent and the average
Residential Sales - First (10) Months
The median sales price for the rst 10 months of this year was $255,000, com- pared to $235,000 for the same period in 2015. The 10-month median of $255,000 is 1.4 percent lower than the nine-month median, which was $258,750 at the end of September. The median home price of the 152 homes sold in October of this year was $240,000.
The current inventory level is substan- tially lower than what it was a year ago, as well as being lower than what it was a month ago. Currently there are 1,064 residential listings, compared to around 1,350 at this time last year. Of the 1,064 active residential listings in Flathead County, only 194 (18.2 percent) are priced below the median sold price of $255,000.
In the rst nine months there were 58 bank-owned or distressed sales, com- pared to 108 in 2015. Non-distressed sales represent 95.4 percent of the mar- ket, compared to 91.5 percent for the same period in 2015.
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MONTANA VETERANS HOME 400 Veterans Drive - Columbia Falls
PRICE
$400,000
$350,000
$300,000
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
Median Price
$0
Average Price
Number of Sales
VOLUME
2000
1500
1000
500
0
$310,130
$220,000
$323,142
$255,000
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
30-year rate at around 3.5 percent.
In the rst 10 months, 53.3 percent of residential sales were on small urban or suburban lots, 23.1 percent were on half
acre to three-acre lots and 14.3 percent were on three- to 20-acre tracts. There were also 56 waterfront home sales, rep- resenting 4 percent of the market.
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.
Majestic Valley Arena
15th Annual
HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA
November 11th - 13th 2016
For All the