RE/MAX Rocky Mountain

Brian Nicodemus Real Estate in Whitefish, August 2020

July 21, 2020 by Brian Nicodemus

The National Association of REALTORS® just released the Market Recovery Survey of a random sampling to close to 100,000 members conducted June 24-26, 2020. The following statements are the members’ opinion on various aspects of the recovery to the Covid-19 pandemic as it relates to real estate.

In response to the safety of buyers, sellers and agents, REALTORS® are expecting within the next year to have increased demand for the following technologies used to market properties:

67% – Zoom or other video technology to communicate with clients
66% – virtual tours
63% – live virtual tours conducted by agent using video
60% – virtual open houses

Nine out of ten respondents indicated that some of the buyers have returned to the market or never left the market. Agents currently working with buyers report that slightly more than half of buyer’s timeline has remained the same with about the same level of urgency. 27% believe the buyers have more urgency.

The most popular reason cited by buyers with an increased timeline is that the delay during the pandemic has amplified their demand for a new home. Others realize that new home features would make their home life more comfortable. Some buyers are wanting to buy before a potential second peak of Covid-19 occurs. During the week the survey was taken, three out of four buyers saw the home in person physically while 26% did not.

Roughly 2/3 of the buyers are looking for the same features as they were prior to Covid-19 while new feature considerations include home office, space to accommodate family, larger home for more space, place to exercise and bigger kitchen. Most buyers are looking for the same type home, however, respondents reported that 13% are moving away from multi-family properties to a single-family home and only 1% are going from SFH to multi-family.

89% of respondents stated that some of the sellers have returned to or never left the market. Only 23% reported more urgency to sell a home due to the pandemic.

On the commercial side, 2/3 of REALTOR® respondents felt like the demand for office space would decrease and 72% felt that retail space demand would decrease.

The stats mentioned in this article pertain nationwide. To find out specifics in your market, call me at (406) 862-9000.

Building a Public Lands Legacy at Lost Trail

Fish and Wildlife Service proposes conservation easement on 100,000 acres of prime hunting and timberland owned largely by Southern Pine Plantations

BY TRISTAN SCOTT // JUL 13, 2020

If the sale of a prized swath of Northwest Montana forestland to an out-of-state investment firm was cause for consternation earlier this year, then a new proposal to conserve much of that land for public access, wildlife habitat and sustainable timber management ought to be cause for celebration.

That’s the consensus of federal and state land and wildlife resource managers leading the effort to place 100,000 acres of prime hunting and timberland into conservation easements, protecting parcels in Flathead and Lincoln counties from private development in perpetuity while also ensuring continued access for hunters, anglers, hikers, skiers, berry-pickers, and other recreational users, as well as allowing the property to be sustainably managed for timber production.

The proposed project lands form a sprawling checkerboard of ownership flanking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge near Marion. The lion’s share of the project area was recently purchased by Georgia-based Southern Pine Plantations (SPP), a real estate and timberland investment firm that paid $145 million in cash to the previous owner, Weyerhaeuser Co., in exchange for 630,000 acres, touching off rampant speculation among public land users in the region about whether the new guard might chop up the parcels and sell them for private development, supplanting trophy bucks and bulls with gated trophy homes.

The newly proposed Lost Trail Conservation Area would authorize the federal FWS to work with willing sellers like SPP, as well as smaller private owners, to acquire conservation easements on up to 100,000 acres within the defined 116,000-acre conservation area boundary… read more

By Whitefish Pilot
| July 10, 2020 9:30 AM

Sun Road opens Monday to Rising Sun

The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park will open to motorized vehicles from the west entrance to Logan Pass and as far as Rising Sun on Monday, July 13, pending any last-minute changes due to weather, the park said late Thursday in a press release.

The east entrance at St. Mary remains closed, due to the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council’s resolution restricting non-essential travel on the reservation because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors will need to enter and exit Going-to-the-Sun Road via the west entrance. Traffic will be allowed as far as Rising Sun on the east side.

This week, the park resumed collecting fees at the gate, and park officials encourage visitors to allow for extra time in case of long lines.

Park road crews have finished snow removal, assessed current snow conditions, removed rocks and other road debris, installed guard rails, prepared Logan Pass facilities and started the water system for visitor use.

There will be sporadic work zones on Going-to-the-Sun Road with traffic control and flaggers, the press release noted, including on-going spillway work along Lake McDonald, guard wall repair near Triple Arches, and seepage repair at Siyeh Bend.

Services at Logan Pass will include restroom facilities and potable water. Visitor information services will be provided outside of the Logan Pass Visitor Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily… read more