Here we are once again, the beginning of a new month. With that said, let’s look at how October faired for the Missoula real estate market. When I got the numbers for October, I have to admit, I was a little perplexed. In almost 20 years of working in the real estate industry, I don’t remember ever seeing a market like this. I will explain later, but first, let’s look at the numbers.
Absorption Rate
At the beginning of 2022, we were sitting at an absorption rate of less than one month of inventory, which means that there was a very low inventory of homes on the market. If you have watched any of our videos or read any of our blogs, you know that we need about six months’ worth of inventory to consider it a normal Missoula real estate market. As we sit now, we have a little over two months of inventory. What that is saying is that more homes are on the market and buyers have more choices when it comes to buying a home. It is still sitting on the side of a seller’s market, but it is trending to normalization.
List To Sales Price
List to sales price is the number we track to see if sellers are getting offers above the listed price of the home or below the listed price. Early this year, it hit an all-time high with 108% list to sales price. Sellers were getting on average, 8% more than what they were asking for. At the current time, we are seeing that the list to sales price has come down to around 98%. That is another indication that the market is starting to normalize. We are not seeing the bidding wars that we had to deal with this time last year.
Homes On Market
At the end of October, we had a little over 200 homes on the market. That number is a little lower than September and August, but we come to expect that since we are heading into the winter months. It is still much higher than this time last year when we were about half that.
Now, back to why I felt so perplexed. On paper, the numbers look like we are heading back to a normal market and the Missoula real estate market is rebounding, but it does not feel that way out on the streets. It feels like right when we are seeing the trend start to go up, the rising mortgage rates are making most people hit the breaks on purchasing a home. I hope that the rates come down in the near future and we can right the ship when it comes to the Missoula real estate market.
If you have any questions on the market, or how you can get into a home, please give me a call, and let’s talk about all the available options that are out there to purchase a home. You can reach me at (406) 926-6767.
Jeremy Williams
