Montana’s real estate market shows no signs of cooling heading into winter

Buyers from more dense parts of the country continue to flock to the state

Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman, Montana

Montana’s winters are brutally cold, but its real estate market is as hot as it gets.

Buyers from more dense parts of the country continue to flock to the state, with cash in hand and ready to pounce on properties after just a single showing — or sometimes without a showing at all, the Washington Post reported.

The median sales price for a single-family home around the southwest city of Bozeman, an area popular with transplants even before the pandemic, is now $710,000, an increase of $94,000 from July to August.

One mortgage broker in Bozeman said that a buyer already had another lender 20 minutes after she missed the buyer’s phone call.

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But it’s not just Bozeman: Cities like Butte and Helena, the state’s capital, have experienced 22 to 25 percent increases in pricing from pre-pandemic levels.

The price hikes aren’t discouraging buyers. One buyer from Orange County, California called broker Charlotte Durham asking for “the 30-second pitch” on a property he said “seems too good to be true.”

“I get three calls like that a day,” Durham said. “Everyone is just looking for what’s next, I guess.” [Washington Post]Dennis Lynch