Is the Missoula real estate market starting to turn around?
Can you believe that the first quarter of 2022 has come and gone? It is hard to believe that we are looking toward another spring uptick in the Missoula real estate market. A lot of people have been asking me, since we are heading into another real estate season, on how the market is looking. If you have been wondering the same thing, let’s look at the numbers.
Absorption Rate
A normal even absorption rate is 6 months, which means that if no homes entered the real estate market we would have about 6 months worth of inventory. Currently we are sitting at .75 months of inventory. As you can guess, we are still in an extrem sellers market. Now, don’t get too discourage on that number! We are starting to see a few more homes hitting the market and there is a lot of new construction getting ready to add more inventory to the Missoula housing market.
List to sales price
Average list to sales price is the average a home sells for below of above it’s asking price. So, if a home is listed for $100,000 and actually sells for $110,000 then the list of sales price is 10%. If it sells for $95,000, the list to sales price is 95%. As we sit now, the first quarter of 2022 brought a list to sales price of 105%. Last year the list to sales price was around 107%, which sounds sounds good, but actually we are sitting about the same as last year.
Average sales price
We all know that the price for homes has gone up dramatically over the last couple years. With that said, the prices are still going up. This first quarter saw the average sales price go up 15% to $556,000. Remember that this is an average! You can still find homes below that price that might check some of your boxes. If you are in that category and have been having a hard time getting offers accepted, give us a call. We have some great ways of using terms to make your offer work the best for the seller.
One final thought
If you have been in the market to buy a home for the last few months and are pre qualified by a mortgage company or bank, you might want to talk with them again. Interest rates have jumped up from the upper 3% to pushing 5% in the last few months. What that means to most who have been looking in a certain price range is that their buying power has gone down. If you were qualified for $500,000 in January you might only be qualified for $450,000 in April. Things happen fast in the Missoula real estate world!
If you have any questions, please give me a call and we can discuss what is on your mind, (406)926-6767
