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Flathead Lake Real Estate Sales
January Sales
The Northwest has experienced several significant winter storms this year to the benefit of our local ski resorts. Blacktail Mountain Ski Area and Whitefish Mountain Resort have boasted some of the deepest snow and best ski conditions in the Western US this year as winter moisture seems to elude Colorado and Utah.
The busier than usual winter traffic along with an improving economy appear to be contributing to a good start to the Flathead Lake real estate market for 2018.
There were four reported sales on Flathead Lake for the month; all were residential properties. The four sales totaled just over $2M in total sales.
January Sales:
 Prices based on a per-waterfront-foot have continued to increase to over $4,000/ft for the entire lake after adjusting for improvements in the past few years. We expect to see this trend continue as we move through the year.
Given the reduction in inventory, we also expect to see continued upward price pressure.
Annual Sales Data:
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Active Waterfront Listings
Residential waterfront listings for this month are down from 84 at the same time last year to 79 active listings. This marks the lowest number of active residential listings on the lake in the past five years. The number of land listings is down as well from 36 to 30 over the same period. Total listings on the lake historically peak in August and bottom out between January and March.
As a result of the reduced inventory, median list prices for residential listings have risen dramatically for three consecutive months from an average of $1.0-$1.1M to $1.475M this month. With a higher percentage of properties under the $1M mark selling, the ratio of active listings above this price mark has been shifting.
Median waterfront land prices had held relatively steady in the $550-$600k range for the earlier part of last year, increasing steadily starting in August. The new normal seems to have settled in just under $800k. The increase in lower-priced land sales has depleted the inventory and the remaining, higher priced listings have resulted in an increased median price trend.
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DAVID FETVEIT