Uncategorized January 5, 2012

Missoula’s Neighborhood Trends, Lewis & Clark

The south-central area of Missoula in the valley is widely referred to as the “Lewis and Clark” neighborhood as the elementary school servicing most all of that area is Lewis and Clark Elementary.  This area features mostly 60’s through 80’s built homes, many are ranchers of varying sizes, but many of which are larger than those you’d find in the South Hills area.  Additionally there is some over-lap just to the west of Russell Street but to the east of Brooks that is included in this area as well.

 

Starting with 2010 I’m getting a return of 48 total sales with a median sales price of $220,000.  These 48 sales took on average 92 days to sell.  The median list price for these homes was $229,450 which returns that homes were selling for 96% of their original listing price.  There was just 1 foreclosure sales in the area.

 

Hopping forward to 2011, sales slid down just a bit to 45 total units with a median sales price of $206,000.  These sales took on average 102 days to sell.  The median listing price for these homes was at $220,000 so homes were selling at 94% of their original listing price.  The amount of foreclosure sales doubled!  From 1… to 2.

 

So volume is about the same but the median sales price really came down in this area.  It would appear to me that the activity followed in line with similar style homes in the South Hills area and this neighborhood was forced to make a bit of a larger adjustment to keep pace.  Foreclosures didn’t really impact this area at all.  The overall volume represents a fairly small amount of Missoula’s total market, and this neighborhood traditionally doesn’t have a lot of homes for sale throughout the year.

 

Looking forward to 2012 the interesting thing to keep an eye on will be the values.  If surrounding areas (mostly the South Hills) have their median dip under $200,000 then this area might have to follow similar suit to keep pace.  Right now inventory/absorption in this area is really low at 2.67 months!  I’d say that if someone has a house to sell right now in the Lewis and Clark area you might want to test the waters as activity might be quick, however watch your pricing that will be key