Missoula Real Estate hit some surprising heights during 2018. Real Estate Agent Brint Wahlberg has helped create the Missoula Organization of Realtor’s yearly housing report for the past decade or so and says this year has had two notable trends.

“We have started to see two trends that have kind of mirrored what is going on nationally,” Wahlberg said. “The first is that our sales volume is down a little bit compared to where it has been. It would appear most likely that the sales volume is going to finish roughly about 5% lower than where it did last year. This would mark the first time since 2011 where the amount of sales this year did not exceed the year before.”

The second trend will prove to be a big boon to sellers: the median sales price has skyrocketed by nearly $20,000 in just one year. Wahlberg says the Missoula median sales price in 2017 was about $270,000 and this year is going to break records as it ends close to $290,000.

“It is absolutely the highest median we will have attained,” Wahlberg said. “In terms of dollar median gain, if it is about 20 to 22 thousand, I believe that is the biggest we have seen. Percentage wise, of course you play the numbers a little funny, but if you go all the way back to 2003 2004, there was a stretch where the median sales price went up at about an 8% pace. Again, 8% back at that point was like a $10,000 or $12,000 gain. It is definitely a record median and definitely the biggest dollar gain.”

Property prices seem to be settling down now and Wahlberg says he expects to see them flat line for a while. It appears that the peak occurred during the summer when the median sales price in Missoula was close to $300,000.

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