Real estate market begins to recover

SANDERS COUNTY – Following sizeable alterations during the last recession, the real estate market within the county is showing positive signs as statistics begin to tick up.

In 2013, the state of Montana enjoyed a 13 percent increase in the number of houses sold over the previous year.  

In 2012, 8,614 homes were sold within the state, a number which surged to a grand total of 9,733 houses sold for 2013.

Dacy Holland of Century 21 in Plains explained how real estate prices have started to stabilize after the shock they experienced during the recession.

“Over the last few years prices have leveled out,” Holland said.

Holland noted the main activity on real estate within the area focused on houses listed at prices under $200,00 with a handful of properties in the $200,000 to the $300,000 range receiving some attention as well.

The recent activity is an improvement over what the markets were like in the years immediately following the recession of 2008.

“After the recession we sold very few homes, land did not move well, everything was selling before 2008,” Holland said.

Holland added in the pre-recession era, the majority of homes and land were sold to people moving into the area.

This changed following 2008 and the majority of sales became more locally focused.

Prices dropped to levels allowing individuals across the region to become first time homeowners and move onto property previously priced at a much different level.

“If there was a silver lining to the recession, it would be the rise in first time homeowners,” Holland said.

According to data from the Montana Association of Realtors, all eight housing regions of the state experienced an increase of some sort.

The Northwest housing market, which Sanders County is a part of, notched a 16.7 percent surge in houses sold, with 258 more houses sold in 2013 than were purchased in 2012.

The increase in the Northwestern portion of Montana was the second largest in the state, behind only the Gallatin Association of Realtors, which experienced an 18.1 percent uptick in 2013.

The average prices of houses in northwestern Montana also increased in 2013, with single family homes on the market going for an average price nearing $300, 000, up from 2012 totals whose average sale prices hovered around $275, 000.

Additionally, the number of days houses spent on the market in northwestern Montana was reduced according to MAR statistics.

In 2012 single-family homes averaged 214 days on the real estate market before being sold to new owners.

In 2013 this total had been cut to an average of 193 days on the open market.

The recent improvements in the state’s real estate industry were not limited to the housing market, but also seen in land sales and apartment rentals.

Almost 250 townhouses and condominiums were sold in 2013, compared to 222 units sold in the previous year.

As far as land sales go, 438 lots were sold in 2012.

This numbers received a substantial boost during 2013, when 723 separate lots were sold in northwestern Montana.