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Flathead Lake Real Estate Sales
August Sales
The beautiful, dry and warm summer in the Flathead ultimately led to a smoke-filled end of August and beginning of September due to fires in the region. A cooler, wetter weather pattern moved into the area the second week of September clearing the air and leaving the first traces of snow on the mountaintops.
August was a banner month for Flathead Lake real estate sales. There were nine reported sales in MLS for the month, continuing a strong sales trend for the summer. While 2017 started off a bit sluggish, the year-to-date numbers have now outpaced last year and every year since the recession except for 2013.
We have reported 40 closed transactions and over $30M in total sales through the end of August. Last year over the same period, we reported 30 transactions totalling $22M in sales. The average transaction size has held relatively steady.
I expect the stronger sales trend to continue and that this year will end significantly higher than 2016 in transactions and total sales.
Significant Sales
An estate property in the Lakeside/Rollins area sold last month for $2.495M, the largest posted sale on Flathead Lake for the year.
The historic Flathead Lake property sits on nearly 7 acres with 437 feet of frontage with remarkable lake and mountain views, just south of West Shore State Park. The property includes multiple structures: a restored 1890 Fish Cabin (once used by Charlie Russell), a remodeled and greatly updated 1920 log main house, a newer log guest home, an additional exercise/guest house facility and detached garages for 6-plus cars.
 August 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.
Given the reduction in inventory, we expect to see continued upward price pressure this year.
Annual Sales Data:
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Active Waterfront Listings
Residential waterfront listings for this month are down slightly from the number of listings for this time last year at 118 listings, down from 124. The number of land listings is down to 40 from 54.
Total listings on the lake historically peak in August and bottom out between January and March. While this year was a bit slower to get started with lake listings, the numbers have normalized over the past 4-6 weeks. Year-to-date waterfront land sales are up this year to 9 transactions averaging $478k.
Median list prices for residential listings have been bouncing between $1.0-1.1M. 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 this year, jumping to $743k for the current period. The increase in land sales has depleted land inventory and the remaining, higher priced listings yield a higher median price trend.
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