Chivalry still obvious in Billings Montana. Just driving up on top of the Rimrocks (high bench above the Yellowstone Valley) when low and behold I see a stranded motorist.  The strandies were two women and right behind them was parked a white dodge pickup, and I'm assuming that the nice looking bald headed fella with the tire iron in his hand stopped to help these ladies with a mechanical ailment! I guess it just did my heart a little good to drive by and see this kind of helpful thing going on.  We have our a####le drivers around here too, and they usually get the most negative attention, at least from me, but I'm always struck with a smile when I see someone helping another. Random acts of kindness beget random acts of kindness. 07/20/2011

Under $200,000!  That just goes along with affordability and availability in our region. Billings Montana is an attractive place to live, and one of the most affordable home markets in the country. About 93 homes per month are selling under the $200,000 compared to about 44 homes per month over $200,000. It's a Price War and A Beauty Contest out there right now.  Buyers have a keen eye for value, they have more information and pictures than they ever had to help them make their decisions.  We still have trouble selling homes that are overpriced, in fact, less than 35% of all the homes listed actually sell right now, compared to a more normal market of about 50%. Well Priced Home + Attractive Features = SOLD! Have a look at the price ranges to see what activity there is. 06/09/2011

Yellowstone County, Number 7 of Yahoo's America's Best Affordable Places, 2011!  I didn't realize we had it this good around here!  Maybe that's why I never want to leave! I'm not sure how this information is analyzed, but I do think that spreading the word about our town, you know, bragging a bit, is a really good thing.  We've had a bit of a hard winter and spring, more rain that we're used to, but all an all, we have it pretty good around here. Our unemployment rate is all the way up to 6.3%, which is pretty high for us, we're usually under 5%.  We have seen more growth in business than many places.  Our construction for residential is chugging along, but at a much slower pace than the last 10 years. Our average home price is less than $200,000. Our neighborhoods are pretty stable an... 06/07/2011

We are now 1/3 of the way through 2011 and at least the question of the tax credit effects are answered in spades. Last year the tax credit to buy a home expired  on April 30th and as you can see by both the pending sales (down 30% ) and closed (down 20%) can leave no doubt in any one's mind to question of "if you give people $8,000 to buy a house will they?" Of course any time you take an action the law of physics demands that a complete an opposite reaction will occur. So now the market gets to experience the withdrawal of the tax credit support. When you consider both price decline and the increase in size of home purchased through April of both 2010 and 2011 you see an approximate 6% decline in the sales price of homes. I would suspect that as we move away from the market effects of... 05/05/2011

The Billings Police Department will host a "Drug Disposal" at Rimrock Mall for anyone who wants to clean out that medicine cabinet of unused and old prescription drugs.  It's not good to put them down the toilet or into the trash.  Once collected, the Police in cooperation with the DEA incinerate them.  The time is from 10am to 2pm, on Saturday April 30, 2011 as well as 30 other sites all over the State. Last year they collected almost 1,000 pounds of the stuff.  There are at least 30 other sites around the State of Montana hosting the same collection, you can find out about your town at the DEA website, just plug in your city or town and see if you're a collection site. Don't forget to check with your other family members, let them know that if they miss this time, there'll be 2 maybe ... 04/29/2011

In order to enjoy a day of skiing in the winter you need a slope so gravity can work its magic and pull you down the slope. I thought skiing was an appropriate analogy for how we are performing so far this year. The information is current as 4/12/2011 First looking at the percentage of the market by price range the two thing of  note are #1 the high end by number of sales, except for the year 2009, are remaining constant as a share of the market. This should not be a surprise since historically low interest rate and more advantageous pricing would be a call to action for the smart money. # 2 the 400k to 500k shows a 66% percent drop in percentage of the market, this indicates how hard the changes in financing have affected what I call the "debt rich" those individuals who thought since ... 04/18/2011

Well it has been an interesting start to the year, with the most interesting dealing with the blue screen of death on my main computer this week. No matter how I measure the results at the end of the first quarter  the market declined in value between 5 to 6%. Closed Sales are down 14% and single family permits issued by the city of billings are off 49% for the 1st quarter. The positives are inventory is down about 6%, foreclosure notices are holding steady in the mid to high teens per week, after a brief rise right at the first of year, most probably due to the halt to review procedures at the end of 2010. The bright spot in the real estate market is the ownership of rentals, availability is declining so rents are firming and will be rising toward late summer early fall.   Market updat... 04/05/2011

It is good to understand that the government has the ability to fix problems. As I have mentioned various times new single family housing is tied to two things #1 employment and #2 the elimination of foreclosure inventory overhang. Thanks to all the programs that did not work in solving the foreclosure problem, just delayed and extended, we will be dealing a weak housing segment of probably another two years minimum nationally. If the stock market had dropped 82% from the peak and was 63% off from the 48 year average what actions would our friends in government take and how much bonus would the ceo's lose? Thoughts to ponder ............................   housing sales     one unit structure   new single family sales 250           peak year   1389   sales % drop from peak   82% five yea... 03/23/2011

 Census bureau data on vacancy of housing units, meaningful or not meaningful. My take is  if you look at 2000 census bureau data that will give you a good base line for comparisons how Montana should look in "normal" times. Montana had pulled out of dull drums of the late 80's early 90's at that time yet not experienced the boom of the mid 2000's, then look at the 2010 figures. In the past 20 years Montana increased the housing stock by 33% while increasing the population by just 23.8%. that "extra" boost in housing stock comes all the "out of state" interest in Montana.    So now the question will become based on financing availability will those areas of Montana that depended on their growth from the non-resident construction see a  longer more protracted slump in construction and th... 03/20/2011

I was watching one of the morning shows this weekend and Suze Orman was talking about her newest book on personal finance.  She had 3 major points, and the one I listened to the most was about home buying. She said that a home buyer should only buy in this market if they have 20% down and 8 months of expenses in the bank.  This is actually nearly the case for how my family has purchased our last 3 homes, but it wasn't the case for my first home.  I also think it's a bit of a stretch for many first time home buyers to reach this saving goal.  Right now, rent is very similar to a house payment, and in some cases even more.  Our home prices in the Billings Montana market has decreased since this recession, anywhere from 3 to 10% (some neighborhoods even more).  We count ourselves fairly lu... 03/14/2011

The College Subdivision in Billings Montana is located between Poly and Rimrock Roads.  The streets are appropriately named Yale, Harvard and Princeton. Most of the homes in this neighborhood were built in the 1940's and 1950's featuring traditional ranch and cottage styles.  You're likely to find period features such as galley kitchens and wood floors in most of the homes.  Attached garages were just starting to catch on during this construction period, but few had access right into the home. The average home price range for sales for the year of 2010 in the College Sub was $164,830 with the average number of days on the market at 53 (that's pretty darn good around here). Most of these homes have 3 bedrooms (basement level may not be egress) and 1 bath.  The 2 bath homes seem to sell f... 03/10/2011

THE FIRST TWO MONTHS OF THE NEW YEAR ARE GONE. TIME TO GIVE OUR LOCAL MARKET JUST A TAD MORE THOUGHT. GONE ARE THE TAX CREDITS FOR EVERYONE, GONE IS THE 4% 30 YEAR MORTGAGE OF LAST SUMMER. MY COMMENT ON MORTGAGE RATES 4.75% TO 5.25% FOR A 30 YEAR MORTGAGE, MAKE IT INCOMPREHENSIBLE THAT ANYONE WOULD HESITATE TO BUY BECAUSE OF RATE, YET THAT CONVERSATION HAS TAKEN PLACE MANY TIMES.         SO NOW THE QUESTION BECOMES STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS, WHICH TYPE OF MARKET DO WE HAVE. DEPENDS ON WHICH QUESTIONS YOU ASK YOURSELF. ON THE FACE OF INVENTORY BEING DOWN YOU MIGHT SAY STRENGTH, YET CLOSED AND PENDING SALES ARE DOWN YOU SAY. SO LETS LOOK AT SALES PRICE BOTH AVERAGE AND MEDIAN SHOW THEY ARE UP YOU SAY , YET WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE COST BY SIZE OF HOME YOU BUY WITH MONEY YOUR COST IS DOWN. BOTTOM L... 03/04/2011

One of the major landmarks of the Billings Montana landscape is the prominent rock formations called the Rims.  Years of natural erosion from the mighty Yellowstone River has carved a lovely valley for us to enjoy. Living in the shadow of "The Rims" many homeowners enjoy views of the Yellowstone Valley, the Beartooth Mountains and the Pryor Mountains.  Unfortunately, on a very rare occasion, one of those Rimrocks will dislodge from it heights above these homes and travel dangerously down, sometimes right into someone's home.  There is an argument about responsibility for this tragedy, some say the city of Billings has responsibility, others say that homeowners take the risk in order to enjoy the location.  But what do you do if you have a home in this shadow now, or want to purchase one... 03/03/2011

 Released yesterday from the federal reserve data on the strength / weakness of home construction in Montana. The peaks correspond generally to summer the valleys correspond generally to winter the trend is lower peaks and lower valleys . does not portend a strengthen construction market in homes. permits   starts 03/01/2011

 When you are friends with Alice and go through the looking glass you may be able to, like politicians,  take a pill and be larger than you really are. Unfortunately for the single family new construction they do not have the same ability to delude themselves into thinking they are selling more than they are and their bankers prefer loans to be repaid with real money and not imaginary images of such. Broken record is what is occurring in the housing market we are now approaching six years of down cycle from the peak in July of 2005 at 1,389,000 units sold, and a good solid two years bouncing along at what is a "bottom" with no indication of an movement upward. So what has the economy brought #1 jobs --- housing is dead until the country creates jobs #2 foreclosures--- no matter the rosy... 02/24/2011

    open house 1520 Lewis Sunday February 19Th from 1:00pm to 3 pm 02/19/2011

You may or may not have noticed that I usually  present a "five" year view of the numbers. We humans tend to behave in the way we have been behaving so the trend line will show the most probable continuation of that behavior. The issues with government intervention, is it can change behavior temporally yet harder to do in the long run. The other issue with intervention is we as humans change our response to that invention faster than the government can change what it is doing. What happens then is the law of unintended consequences and markets become distorted. The housing industry and the industry that finances housing has and is still going through major changes driven by events of the past. Solutions based on those events, biggest problem, is those were yesterday's problems and it is... 02/17/2011

 Cnn headline Home construction rises in January 8:40am: Building permits fall 10.4%, while new home construction rises 14.6% in January And now for the rest of the story...........................   First single family permits and starts Broken record!!!!!!!!!! There is no upward trend the construction line moved somewhat during the tax give away, yet never even came close to moving towards a recovery. Unfortunately new home construction will continue to flat line until the existing home sale market starts its recovery which is total dependent on when the economy begins to create jobs and the distressed sale properties are gone soooooooooo it looks like a minimum of another year flat lined with most probably a trend starting up in 2012 yet with the changes in requirements in loans most... 02/16/2011

 Although I have said it many times it is just as true today as it has been during the entire economic event, the housing problems don't solve until employment is solved. The employment solution is not dependent on housing but housing is definitely dependent on employment. Here is a sampling for December 2010 comparing December 2009 as you go through the information you may want to ask yourself about the price of swamp land being sold by the powers that be #1 Denver unemployment December 2010 8.7%  unemployment December 2009 7.5% Denver-Aurora Number of sales Dec-09 Dec-10 % Chng Resale houses 2,529 2,200 -13.00% Resale condos 657 554 -15.70% New homes 448 437 -2.50% All homes 3,634 3,191 -12.20%         Median sale price Dec-09 Dec-10 % Chng Resale houses $213,000 $216,250 1.50% Resale... 02/14/2011

Just looked back in my notebook that I have sitting right beside my computer and noticed I've been pretty good at writing down everything I eat, for a full week!  Actually for almost 2 weeks!  No, I'm not writing down what the calories are for every item, just the items.  On the recommendation of a fellow Realtor on the other side of the Mountains, in Missoula Montana, I ordered a book by Darren Hardy called "The Compound Effect, Multiplying Your Success, One Simple Step At A Time". The particular step I'm working on is just keeping stats, just like a baseball/softball player gets for hits/runs/errors and the other 20 things we try to keep track of to account for what we do. It made sense to me that to develop a habit, you need to try to do the thing it is you want to work on, little bi... 02/04/2011