July 2nd, 2009
The Missoula Real Estate Market
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?