Flathead Valley Real Estate – 2014 Annual Report

Flathead Valley Real Estate Sales Report

Annual residential sales flat; land sales see activity

As 2015 is well underway, we have an opportunity to take a look back at the sales for Flathead Valley real estate sales for the past year.   Overall the real estate market was strong in the region on an annual basis.

Residential sales continued their stabilizing trend throughout the year as inventories tightened up over the past 12 months.  The number of residential transactions and total volume were down slightly, with median prices increasing nearly 10%.

The increasing trend for land sales we reported over the course of last year strengthened as the year drew to a close.  Sales volume is up 32% over 2013 sales.  Median prices have also continued their climb, marking a 25% annual increase.

Commercial sales have also shown significant strength on an annual basis over 2013.

Total Residential Sales from NMAR MLS

 

Sales by Segment

 

As you can see in the graph below, the growth trends of 2013-2014 have been relatively stable since the last quarter of 2013.

 

The Flathead Valley real estate luxury market showed a bit of a pull back from the consistent increases out of the recession.  For this report, luxury sales represent those residential transactions reported in NMAR MLS with a sale price at or above one million dollars ($1M US).  Total sales in this segment were down 11% from the strong sales numbers posted the previous year.

The land market built on gains from the two previous years and jumped to just over $130M in sales.  However this number is still a relatively muted recovery compared with peak years of $198M in 2007 and $305M in 2006.  The primary difference is the buyers in today’s market tend to be end users versus the speculative market during the last cycle.

Prices have begun to stabilize slightly at a significantly reduced level. The market still holds a deep inventory of lots and land.  As prices of homes continue to recover along with a decreasing supply, I expect to see land sales and prices to increase.