Calgary Vacation Home Show

I am heading out tomorrow to exhibit at the Calgary Herald Recreation and Investment Property Show that is part of the HomeExp at the BMO Centre in Calgary. We will be profiling all of our Montana listings and raffling off a Stay & Ski package in Whitefish, and a 2-night Stay package at Marina Cay in Bigfork.

If you are going to be in Calgary this weekend, give me a call and I will get you free tickets!

Happy New Year!

The new year is here and I wish everyone the very best!

We finally got our first real snowstorm this week after a week of balmy 40's. Time to get out there and do some turns!

Glacier National Park Centennial

Glacier National Park is ramping up for its centennial celebration in 2010. There are a ton of legacy projects, programs and events that have already begun. Be sure to check out http://www.glaciercentennial.org/ for more info and to plan your trip!

Baldy Fire

We had a very eventful weekend with the Baldy Fire in Lakeside. The cause is still being investigated, but it started on the night of the 26th and exploded from 30 acres to 200 acres by the following evening with gusty winds overnight. The local, county, state, and federal agencies all worked together seamlessly to achieve 100% containment by 6p on the 28th! Several homes were evacuated, but no structures were lost and nobody was injured. While we are blessed to have some of the most committed and talented firefighters in the nation, it is also a good reminder to make your Montana home firewise and create plenty of defensible space. To see more details on this fire, go to http://inciweb.org/incident/1905/.

First Half of 2009 Sales Data for Flathead Valley

Below is a table of all sales comparing sales from the first half of 2009 by segment with sales from the first half of 2008.

The Tipping Point of Supply and Demand

The National Association of Realtors reported today that existing home sales for April increased 2.9 percent, but were still down 3.5 percent from April of 2008. From a trending standpoint, many experts get the feeling that we are bouncing along the bottom...which is certainly better than still free-falling!

If you look at the major factors that create positive or negative buying conditions in the market, all signs point to favorable conditions.

• Interest Rates at Historic Lows
• Inventory at Very High Levels
• Median Prices Low
• Home Prices at or Below Replacement Cost
• Government Incentives at All-time Highs ($8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit)

The only two factors in my opinion that continues to keep buyers out of the market are a) decrease in capital/equity and b) fear of further price reductions in the market.

The continued rebound of the stock prices for undervalued companies continues, and April consumer confidence was at its highest since September of 2008 - this should begin to ease the first negative factor. Further price reductions in the market will continue to be resisted by the replacement cost factor. Homes that can be purchased well below the cost to build will not stay in inventory for long. This is particularly true for areas like rural Montana where an land and hungry contractors abound!

Overall, I truly believe these positive factors will begin to lure buyers back to the market as there are opportunities that just cannot be passed up!

Affordable Housing Segment Holds Up

While the overall market is significantly down, when the residential sector is analyzed by price segments, it is easy to see where the biggest declines have taken place. The entire residential market showed a drop of 46% from Q1 2008 to the first quarter of this year. However, the segment at $200,000 or less only dropped 10% over the same period. The higher-priced segments decreased significantly more.