We are in the beginning of July. The Missoula housing market is strong but sluggish. Interest rates for 30 year fixed rate mortgages are bouncing between 5.3% and 6%. Meanwhile qualifying for loans is a more difficult prospect than it was 3 years ago. In between my other projects, I spend my time entering figures into mortgage calculators and looking up current interest rates. A boring task, but oddly helps me re-align my energy and look at what’s realistically possible. There are a lot of homes on the market in Missoula, and I bike by a number of them on my commute to work through the University district. It seems a lot of people are moved, like us, either by economic circumstance or a seize the moment mentality, to look at offloading debt with the prospect of trading down some interest rates and maybe even finding a larger home. The Missoula Organization of Realtors released these figures recently in their 2009 Missoula Housing Report: The The median home price in Missoula in 2007 stood at $219,550, followed by a slight decline in 2008 to $215,000. Missoula unemployment stands at a reported 7.6% (I would say from first hand experience and anecdotal information that though unemployment is comparably lower than the median in the U.S., under-employment is relatively high, as is the number of people who gave up on looking for conventional work). Foreclosures in Missoula reached a high in 2008. 18% of Missoula County households are at or below federally established poverty thresholds.
What does all this mean for us, trying to sell our house? Is this a foolhardy moment to sell? Who knows. We are in no hurry. If the right offer happens, we will look at it, and then perhaps take a deep breath and say holy heck! Do we really want to build?
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