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.

THE FLATHEAD HOME SHOW – ‘looking forward to 2019’

Bee Broadcasting brings you an all new show in the real estate market in the Flathead, it’s the Flathead Home Show.

Our hosts, Leah Lindsay and Justin Meccia, discuss the real estate market in 2019.

Special guests include Brian Murphy and Nikki Marengo of RE/MAX Rocky Mountain Real Estate.

Comparing real estate costs around the Flathead Valley

Reprinted from the Flathead Beacon, March 2019, by Richard Dews

Let’s nix the bar charts and look at a map of the past 12 months of single-family residence sales across the Flathead (see graphic). Almost 1,500 units sold during this timeframe, with the lion’s share costing between $125 and $200 per square foot. The legend, at the top left of the map, shows the ranges of dollars per square foot by color of map dot. The count of homes sold (by range) appears within the brackets, per range.

The map shows the locations of the properties. Takeaways? Lots of greens near Kalispell and Columbia Falls. Whitefish spendy nearer the resorts. Somers, Kila and Marion show bargains. Broad pricing ranges in Lakeside and Bigfork. You CAN live near a lake affordably.

Read the Flathead Beacon…click here.

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

Snowpack Overview 2019

By USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service MT

Snowpack conditions generally improved across Montana during the month of January, but some regions still remain below, to well below normal for snowpack on February 1st. The first two weeks of the month were dominated by high pressure in many basins east of the Divide, while western basins saw snow trickle in during the first week, then transitioned to high pressure during the second week. The bulk of the improvements in snow pack totals were from the storm system that began during the third week of January, where significant snow totals fell in central basins along the east of the Divide, and in southwestern and south-central Montana. Snow pack in some of these regions was well below normal and this storm helped to improve conditions from January 1st.