Residential market still settling out
Residential home sales in Flathead County were down slightly through October this year, after two years of strong growth. Meanwhile, median sale prices gained slightly after last year’s big gain, and fewer foreclosed homes account for sales figures, indicating the Flathead real estate market continues to settle out following half a decade of severe economic recession.
According to data compiled by Kelley Appraisal, of Kalispell, residential home sales fell 2.4 percent for January through October to 1,282 sales. Home sales for the same period gained 29.8 percent in 2012 and gained 16.6 percent in 2013.
Median home prices gained 6 percent this year, averaging $227,000. Last year’s median price gained 15.7 percent, reaching $214,000.
About 8.3 percent of the sales were for bank-owned homes, compared to 12.7 percent last year, Kelley reports. The median price for bank-owned homes for this year was $151,250, a slight gain of 0.9 percent over last year.
Short sales, the other half of the foreclosed home sales market, accounted for about 2.1 percent of residential sales this year. The median price fell 3.8 percent from last year to $177,000.
A total of 1,360 homes in Flathead County were listed in November, Kelley reports, nearly the same number as in November 2013. Median asking prices were nearly the same, about $360,000 this November.
The low asking price this November was $55,900 and the high was $22 million. About 2.6 percent of the listed homes were bank-owned with a median asking price of $174,590, and 1.4 percent were short sales with a median asking price of $249,900.
Residential land sales in Flathead County fell slightly through October this year, Kelley reports, after two years of strong gains. A total of 443 vacant residential properties sold through October this year, down 3.3 percent from 2013.
Residential land sales for the same time period saw gains of 55.1 percent in 2012 and 76.8 percent in 2013. That followed five of six negative years since 2006. Residential land sales gained 53.1 percent in 2010.
While the number of residential land sales declined slightly this year, the median sales price saw 35.5 percent growth to $74,500 after two years of declining median prices.
A total of 1,330 residential land properties were listed in Flathead County in November this year, about 2 1/2 times the number of sales for the year. The median asking price in November was $119,000, with a low of $15,000 and a high of $2.4 million.