Realtors report good year

By Roger Morris Western News Publisher

Libby-Troy area real estate agents are enjoying the best market in several years, members of the Lincoln County Board of Realtors reported in a presentation at the Oct. 13 Libby Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon meeting.

³Our local market has been very busy this season,² said broker Debbie Cernick of Montana Country Real Estate. ³It¹s the best it has been in several years.²

How good has it been?

Local Realtors have closed 144 residential sales this year in the Libby and Troy area with 108 in Libby. In addition, there were 111 sales of undeveloped land compared to 85 a year ago. Troy had 49 land sales. Ninety-one of residential properties sold were under $100,000 and 53 were over that mark.

There are 77 pending sales.

Cernick said there are several reasons for the good market. Those reasons are:

• Interest rates are presently low, running 5.7 to 6 percent compared to 21 percent 20 years ago;

• The stock market is up and down making real estate investment more attractive;

• The cost of surrounding properties - in the Flathead and Sandpoint areas — is significantly higher than in Lincoln County.

Also helping local realties sell property at higher rates than the past several years is that they now have answers to questions regarding the EPA¹s cleanup of vermiculite insulation.

³It¹s taken the fear away,² Cernick said.

The final reason the market is doing so well is that in the wake of 9-11 ³People want to see the sights, it has become more important to them,² she said.

Patty Evans of DeShazer-Ryan Realty said the buyers are mostly 55-60 years old, people who can afford to buy and are healthy enough to enjoy the outdoors.

³They are not buying to retire but looking at buying now, building something they can enjoy later when they do retire,² Evans said.

³I think it¹s been a wonderful year,² she continued. ³We¹re working with people with great attitudes who want to be here and are qualified buyers.²

Dave Cox of Northwest Montana Real Estate in Troy said the market has benefited Troy and been good enough for him to expand to 10 agents working out of his office.

³People want to be where there¹s no people,² he said. ³It¹s also a question of supply and demand. There¹s no supply and big demand which raises the price.²

He said his website survey confirms that many people are buying land so they can build when they retire. Also, they are securing permits for septic systems and drilling wells now to counter rising fees and costs.

All the real estate agents agreed it was a sellers¹ market with prices tending to be high.

Since April there were 108 listings in the Libby area with 68 selling for less than $100,000 and 41 properties selling above $200,000, Evans noted.

³The houses that sell very quickly are getting about 95 percent of asking prices,² she said. ³They are on the market for a couple of months. Some competitively priced properties will sell within a month.²

But those properties include three key ingredients: location, condition and price, she said.

And the market continues to look good. All the Libby-Troy realties have websites and they are averaging 25-30 serious inquiries a week.