Autumn is a brilliant time to be in the Flathead Valley. The summer hustle and bustle of visitors and locals alike has slowed to a healthy stream of activity. It provides all of us time to reflect on the bountiful opportunities we have in the valley.

The number of sales continued to edge higher in 2012 over last year's data. Across the entire Flathead Valley we saw a 21% increase in the number of homes sold and a 34% increase in the number of raw land transactions over 2011. The average and median sale prices remained relatively the same year to year, indicating that this increase in volume remains very price sensitive. Total dollar volume of residential and land sales were up 24% in 2012 over 2011.

One thing to keep in mind is that our market continues to be very diverse depending on location in the Flathead Valley. In this reporting period Bigfork has seen the most significant increase - tallying 108 residential sales through October 15 compared to 62 in the same time frame in 2011. After being relatively quiet recently, this represents an increase of 74%.

Sales over $500,000 increased 17% while sales over $1 million increased 32% with 34 sales. This is tempered with a supply of over 250 residential listings at $1 million or above. More statistical information is available at the link to Kelley Appraisal below.