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Flathead Lake Real Estate Sales Post Eight Year High
Total sales of $48.3M highest since 2007 mark of $49.8M
As we race into 2016, the past year is fading quickly. It seems most market reports post their annual summaries in December, but this report includes sales posted through the end of the year.
Total dollar volume for waterfront sales (excluding condos) were the highest in nearly a decade, falling just short of the 2007 sales volume of $49.8M. Interestingly, that same year posted only 42 transactions. The cycle peak year of 2006 posted 56 transactions translating to over $67M in total sales.
 Another key trend to acknowledge in this graphic is the intersection of transaction count and $MM in sales volume in 2009. The average transaction size prior to the bottom of the cycle was over $1 million, while the past six years of recovery have shown average transactions on the lake of less than the $1 million mark.
Increase sales of higher priced listings have certainly had an influence on these sales numbers, with four sales posted to MLS over $2.5M for the year. Comparatively, the largest sale posted in 2014 was just under $2.4M.
Prices based on a per-waterfront-foot have stabilized just under $4,000/ft for the entire lake after adjusting for improvements. These prices are still less than half of the seasonally adjusted average of $8,600/ft seen in 2007.
Annual Sales Date:
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| Flathead Lake Waterfront Sales by Area When comparing 2015 Flathead Lake real estate sales to the previous year, a significant trend appeared in the geographical location of those sales. The northwest shore of the lake more than doubled in sales volume over 2014. The Polson area also showed significant growth with a 38% increase in transactions and a 72% increase in sales volume.
In contrast, the Bigfork and lower West Shore regions yielded a slight drop in sales and volume.
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Active Waterfront Listings
Residential waterfront listings for this month are up slightly compared to the number of listings for at this time last year at 101 listings up from 94. The number of land listings is down to 30. It appears that more sellers are maintaining their active listings through the winter months compared to past years, likely due to the recent increased sales activity. Median list prices for residential listings are holding just under $1M after posting a dip in March. Land pricing bumped up in June, and showed another tick up in January to $687k. With a limited market size, a handful of high priced residential or land listings can have a significant impact on median prices.
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