Northwest Montana News

The median sales price of homes in Missoula has increased $10,000 to $325,000 since the beginning of the year.

Real estate professionals report, though, that they are not seeing an influx of out-of-state clients moving to Montana because of the state's low coronavirus infection rate. 

“What’s been happening for the last couple yearstis people are moving into western Montana and other parts of Montana, and they’re coming from other markets with substantially higher home values," Brint Wahlberg of Windemere Real Estate told the Missoulian. "This isn’t a new phenomenon in Missoula. We’ve seen this before. Data shows it’s Washington, California, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada and some other spots.”

A dramatic increase in cash buyers hasn't occurred either, though 7.2% of the residential sales in Missoula this year were all cash, lower than the 10.6% of sales at the same time last year. Cash sales have dropped in the greater western Montana area.

Wahlberg said low interest rates may be contributing to the low number of cash sales. The climbing median sales price is attributable to lack of inventory.

“What happened was supply levels started to finally fix themselves at the beginning of the year, then COVID hit and supply dropped again because a lot of people opted not to list," Wahlberg said. "But a lot of people, as our numbers show, want to buy homes and interest rates are low. So if the  recession doesn’t impact them they still are trying to get out and get  something, and that led to another supply crunch and bidding up.”

Matt Mellott, a commercial real estate adviser with Sterling CRE, said building permits for residential structures have not kept pace with population growth and job creation in Missoula. Housing prices in Missoula have increased nearly 60% since 2010.