Real Estate Market Trends

By Richard Dews // April 24, 2019 // Flathead Beacon

Flathead active home market comparison, last four quarters

A third of the way through spring, how do the quantities of actively listed homes compare to prior quarters (see chart)? I’ve charted the quantities (bars) of homes active last spring (gold), last fall (grey), this January (orange) and now (blue) — by original list price ranges in $50,000 blocks. Findings: 1) availability of lower-priced homes keeps falling, 2) $250,000 to $349,999 home availability recovering from winter pull-back, 3) $350,000 to $749,999 about as thin as winter.

I also charted the median Days on Market (DOM), which are the number of days since listing. These are represented by dashed lines of the same color as their counterpart quantity bars. Findings: 1) substantial shrinkage in time-on-market since January, 2) $200,000 to $499,999 fairly parallel to the DOM of last fall, 3) higher-end homes on market longer that those last spring.

Richard Dews is CEO of Glacier Flathead Real Estate, a Flathead-based real estate software and services company.

Senators push Amtrak for answers on future of Empire Builder in Montana

BY JUSTIN FRANZ // APR 19, 2019

Daines calls any proposal to alter long-distance service “troubling,” Tester writes letter to Amtrak president seeking answers

Montana’s two U.S. senators are pushing Amtrak officials for answers about the future of long-distance passenger trains, including the Empire Builder, which stops twice daily in Whitefish.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration proposed drastically slashing Amtrak’s budget and having states pay more for passenger rail service. Amtrak officials have also been “reassessing” its long-distance routes to see if it can reduce the amount of federal money it needs to subsidize the services. Few details have been provided about what, if any, changes might be made or when those changes would be implemented.

“Amtrak is trying to reassess how best to address the needs of rural communities and maintain mobility but also think of ways to reduce (federal) subsidies,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao during a hearing last month.

Click here to read the whole story in the Flathead Beacon.