The Home
Front Western
Montana housing market not following national
trend
Posted:
Updated:
For those who've been keeping track of the
national housing crisis, the dropping home
values, and record foreclosures, then you might
never want to buy a house again.
The housing crisis is one reason that we're
getting rebates from the federal government, and
it's also becoming a campaign issue for the
Presidential candidates.
Our special series, the Home Front, takes a
look at what's going on in the real estate
market in Missoula.
For Sale: A four bedroom two bath home with a
view in Lolo. A good price, a good
neighborhood...it's one of many homes for sale
around Western Montana, that hasn't.
Andrea Stone's already dropped her asking
price by $5,000 in hopes of a sale, but she's
not alone as for sale signs litter the
landscape.
The homeowners we talked with say they are
frustrated and frightened and confused. Last
year's housing slump took on historic
proportions as in December the nation saw a 13%
drop in the sale of existing homes, and a 2%
drop in the value of the typical home. That's
something that happened for the first time
that's happened in 40 years. In addition, at the
end of 2007, over 2,000,000 people were in
foreclosure.
By comparison, last year Missoula saw an 8%
percent drop in sales of existing homes, which
is not surprising since homes sales in 45 states
fell in the fourth quarter, with only South
Dakota seeing an increase. Missoula also saw a
6% rise in the median value of a typical home
and ranks near the bottom in its foreclosure
rate.
"Our markets in Montana, our housing markets
are pretty solid and safe right now" says Larry
Swanson with the Center for the Rocky Mountain
West. He tells us that Missoula's housing market
is slowing down a little, but properties are
still changing hands.
"It may take longer to sell your home than it
did a couple of years ago, maybe twice as long.
But you can still sell you home. It may be you
can't get that price quite as high as you would
have earlier."
During the last few years, lenders offered
higher interest home loans to people with lower
credit scores, and made billions in the process.
In a short period of time subprime mortgages
grew from a small niche market to a major
component of home financing. But, many home
buyers could not keep up with the payments
and fees and lost their homes in record
numbers.
"Most if not all of the sub prime market
disappeared, stated income, some credible
lending institutions folded" says -Jeremy
Williams with Windermere Realty. "It cut about
half of the buyers our of the picture who wanted
to buy."
Economists say Missoula never saw the epic
housing boom other markets in the nation saw, so
it doesn't have far to fall. So patience may be
the best advice for those trying to sell.
The good news is that home values are still
rising, interest rates are falling and the
spring selling season is on the way.
'We're in a stable market right now" adds
Swanson. "It's shifted away from almost entirely
a seller's market and it not shifted to a buyers
market yet and that's a pretty healthy place to
be."
In the next part of our special series we'll
tell you why now might be the best time for you
to buy a home, especially if it's your
first.
