BOZEMAN — The housing market has exploded in Gallatin County in recent years. There has been a high demand with not much supply. There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the recent price drops for a lot of houses for sale in Gallatin County. MTN News spoke to the president of the Gallatin Association of Realtors, Joanna Harper, about these listing prices decreasing.
Harper says, “List prices are coming down as a reaction to higher interest rates."
She believes that the market within Gallatin County is correcting itself and that the decrease in pricing and increase in interest rates is not something to worry about.
“Whether or not prices change up or down, it matters less to the industry than if the marketplace can be healthy.”
MSU Professor of Economics Carly Urban offers a perspective from the economic side of this issue within the county.
“What the Federal Reserve tries to do when that happens is, they increase interest rates so they make everything more expensive to kind of cool off demand. Make people purchase less with houses being for sale," Urban said.
She says the housing costs will not be cheaper even though prices decreased: “Your monthly payment this year versus last year would be about 25 percent higher just because interest rates went up.”
Although this seems to be disappointing news, Urban believes there is still a positive future for the housing market and economy in the Bozeman area.
"My expectation is that its gonna go from like, a straight line of house price increases year over year where we’ve had this crazy growth, to a slightly flatter increase,” she said.
Urban also believes the Bozeman area will maintain a steady market without any big price drops or over value of properties around town.
“We could definitely sustain what I would think of as more of like a long-term steady state, some type of equilibrium,” she said.
Joanna Harper believes there is nothing to fret when it comes to home buying in Gallatin County. If you know who to talk to and know your real estate resources, it isn't as overwhelming as it seems.
“Sellers would benefit greatly if they’re considering selling their home. Working with a Realtor who can look at closed sales and the market trends to price their houses accordingly,” said Harper.
