I tend to stick to the comparable sales of the last six months when determining a list price range, and sometimes, sellers wince a little when they hear the number I give. But most people really have got that prices are not shooting up the way they were a few years ago — it’s sunk into all of our conciousnesses that the market has adjusted.

Nonetheless, I am tremendously optimistic about our market and the coming selling season. We have what people want, here in Park County — comparatively affordable housing, a safe and beautiful place to live and great communities. When I read the weekly reports from the virtual tours on each of my listings, I see that people are looking at Park County from every corner of the country — Texas, Colorado and California seem to like us the most!

With careful pricing and seriously focused marketing, any property can be sold. If you’re thinking of selling, it’s often a good idea to get a couple of agents from different companies in to look at your property — the more informatuion you can gather the better. Remember that nine times out of then, the most important decision you’ll make when selling is who you will use as a Realtor. There are really marked differences between the local companies agents in this area — more than you might imagine!

Here’s a house at 806 Nebula, in the Northern Lights area, that’s a little ahead of the Spring rush — just came on the market this week. It’s a really spacious house with loads of bedrooms, great indoor/outdoor flow with a good sized yard and deck. I would have taken a photo, but there was a brief snow storm when I was up there today! If you’d like to take a look at this new listing, call me at 556 6829 for an appointment.

New Listing
806 Nebula
$244,000

One good indicator of what is actually going on is to compare some year-over-year foreclosure statistics. Although the national foreclosure rate increased by an incredible 79% between December 2006 and December 2007, the overall context for that seemingly astronomical number is that the foreclosure rate was still only 1.033%. Additionally, since almost 30% of all homes are owned free and clear, this translates to 0.07% of all homes in the country being in foreclosure – not as newsworthy as many would think.

Fortunately here in Livingston and in Montana as a whole, we have not seen a large number of homes in foreclosure. Local lenders simply did not fall into the habit of “over-lending” and our fairly steady price appreciation has helped to keep homeowners out of “upside-down” equity situations. Our market here is stable, something I believe will continue for some time.

The market is getting busier. I have several new listings coming up this week, and I sold three properties just in the last week: 405 S. 12th Street listed last week for $229,00 and sold in forty eight hours, as did 526 S. 12th. With so many properties coming on the market, it’s good for you if I know of your needs ahead of time, so if you are shopping for a home, do let me know– that way I can give alert you when something new is coming up. As always, the best place to contact me is 556 6829.

Thanks, by the way, to everyong for your positive feedback & comments about my blog & website — do let me know if there are other features you’d like to see!

2007-buyer-demographics.pdf

We also ask how a purchaser plans to use the property they are buying. 91% of our company’s sales in 2007 were owner occupied. Investment properties comprised 7% of the closed sales, and only 2% were purchased as a second home. Just looking at the buyers I have been working with since the beginning of the year — people from Colorado, Oregon, New York & New England — I think it’s likely this number is going to increase.

2007-property-use.pdf

Similar data from our Bozeman office shows that 63% of the buyers in 2007 were Local, 9.3% were from within Montana’s borders, 10.5% were from the Pacific time zone, 6.7% from the Mountain time zone, 6% from the Eastern time zone, 4.1% from the Cental time zone, and .5% were foreign buyers.

The Gallatin County market breaks down quite differently in terms of how the purchased property is to be used: 78% of the residential purchases in 2007 were owner occupied, with 11.6% used as investment property and 10.4% being purchased as second homes — I anticipate that Park County’s numbers in the second home market will begin to trend in this way.

It’s Friday in Livingston, and for those of you don’t live here, you may be surprised at what we get up to for fun in this quiet little town … I’m heading off now to the annual Chocolate Lover’s Party at the Depot, an event that gives all of us good reason to gorge on all kinds of chocolate desserts with a clear conscience as it’s a Rotary fund raiser.

Last night was an “adults only” Valentine’s Day bash at the Danforth Gallery on Main Street — another fundraiser — this time for Park County Friends of the Arts. The Gallery was slightly more packed than usual, perhaps because along with the fine art on the walls, there were three naked ladies being painted by three local artists. Check out one of my favourite sites artsmontana.com for a detailed description of the evening’s festivities. If these two events alone don’t make you want to move to Montana, I don’t know what will!

At the end of January 2007, there were 191 residential active listings in Park County. 12 homes sold during the month, and 33 houses went under contract – that means that 33 buyers came to an agreement with 33 sellers. For the same category at the end of January 2008, there was a small increase in active inventory to 202, the number of closed sales for the month was 12, and 15 homes went under contract.

Within the city limits, the residential inventory has remained stable with 70 single family homes currently on the market versus 71 at the end of January 2007. There has been movement among the price points with less inventory now available for sale under $250,000, and the most noticeable change occurring in the $250,000 – $300,000 range with 14 properties now in this price range versus only 5 a year ago.

The land data for Park County shows that at the end of January 2007, there were 252 building lots or vacant land parcels available, 8 properties sold during the month, and 34 listings were under contract. January 2008 shows an increased inventory to 309 active listings with 5 sales for the month and 45 pending transactions.

So, despite all the national gloom & doom about the housing market, Park County is in excellent shape, and I am anticipating that we will have a busy Spring, with a busier Summer. My phone is ringing, with enquiries coming from all over the country. People are asking me to look for different kinds of property in different price ranges, knowing that they will be out here shortly. Regardless of what is going on in the rest of the country, here in south west Montana, we have what most people want: space, safety & great beauty & natural resources.

At the 33rd Annual Montana Economic Outlook Seminar held recently in Bozeman, economist Paul Polzin assured the audience that Montana’s economy is likely to be resilient to a possible recession: he went on to say that Montana’s basic industries such as agriculture, energy & precious metals are seeing record-high prices in the world market
“That’s why we are so optimistic about Montana’s economy,” said Polzin.

Add to all of this good news the fact that interest rates for a 30 year fixed were at 5.625% at the beginning of this week, and that there are still many exciting financing options available to buyers in Park County, such as Rural Development and Montana Board of Housing loans.

Please call me with any financing questions, or to make a start on buying or selling….I’m here to help!

While there are plenty of buyers around, we do have a lot of inventory, especially in terms of buildable land. A recent inquiry from a client led me to research available subdivision lots in Livingston’s city limits. According to the Multiple Listing Service, there are currently 108 subdivision lots or building lots less than 1 acre listed for sale with a price range of $49,000 to $88,919. The bulk of the properties are located in the new Discovery Vista, Ridgeview Trails, and Northern Lights subdivisions. Time on the market for these lots ranges from 27 to 439 days. This is quite a change from a couple of years ago when an in-town lot was rare to come by. Contractors of spec homes and those wanting to build custom homes now have ample selection to meet their needs.

Please do call me if you’re thinking of selling or buying — now’s the time to begin to educate yourself about the market, regardless of which one you want to do. Here’s to a great ‘08!

So instead of just another opinion, here are the facts about the market in first five months of the year in Park County. I’ve compared these first months of ‘07 to January through May in ‘06. Information is taken from the Gallatin Association of Realtors MLS.

So far this year, we have had 37 closings for single family home sales on one acre or less, with an average list price of $203,000 and an average sales price of $195,000, while for the same period in 2006 there were 64 closings, with an average sales price of $175,000 — prices appear to have risen by about 10% in this category, but the number of sales has dropped over 60%.

As far as the out-of-town residential market goes, so far this year there have been 15 sales for properties with one or or more acres. The average list price of these properties is $503,000, with an average sales price of $472,000. In 2006, there were 17 closings by this time, and the average sales price was higer by 5% at $497,000.

One of the biggest changes is in the number of townhomes/condos that have sold this year: from January to May ‘06 4 sales were recorded, with an average price of $139,000 — this year, there has been a total of 16 closed sales, with an average price of $165,000 — a jump of almost 20% in price.

So what does this mean to buyers & sellers in Park County? It means that if you’re a seller, your property must be priced competitively to have a chance of selling. As of today, there are 105 homes on less than an acre on the market in Park County, with an average list price of $226,000. That’s a lot of competition.

If you’re a buyer, do these statistics mean that it’s a buyer’s market? Not entirely. This year, homes have been selling within about 4% of the listing price — a good indication that Park County’s market is strong.

Interested in a set of statistics that I haven’t presented here? Let me know.