Kalispell Market Report: Land – April 2022

Kalispell Market Report: Land – April 2022

This report covers the residential land market in Kalispell Montana as of the end of April 2022. Land sales increased slightly, properties under contract decreased and available inventory remained relatively unchanged. The total value of land sold increased.

INVENTORY

As of early May, there were 49 residential land parcels for sale in Kalispell which is relatively flat with April’s inventory of 46. It is the first time inventory has increased in the last nine months. That being said, inventory remains low.

Five or more acres

Of the land currently for sale slightly more than half of the listings include five or more acres. I define rural as those properties in the 5+ acre category. Those are most likely to be parcels located on a gravel mountain road, agricultural farming land, or acreage adjacent to National Forest or lumber parcels. They are often not located in a development, but by themselves, and provide privacy and multiple building and usage options.

The currently active properties over five acres range in price from $225K to $7.8M with an average price of $1.6M.

The lowest and highest priced parcels are the same as last month. The five+ acre listing at the lowest end of the price spectrum is ~8 acres of forested land along a county road. The highest priced parcel is 115 acres adjacent to Route 93, with potential for commercial, industrial or residential building.

Below five acres

In terms of the listings below five acres, many are located in developments. These parcels currently range in size from .34 of an acre to 4.57 acres and in price from $165K to $1.2M with an average price of ~$407K. Many of these come with monthly or annual HOA fees. They are also often covered by CCRs or Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions which define rules for building and living in that area.

PRICING

Price per acre can vary dramatically and often doesn’t seem to make sense when viewing prices. Why is one 20 acre parcel priced under $200K and another $500K or more? Great question. Following are some pricing rules that seem to be true for land.

The first is, every parcel is unique. With land, you can’t say the average price is $/acre, and this is a 20 acre parcel and therefore it should be $/acre times 20 acres. Instead, the specific topography, physical and legal access, utility availability, distance from town, potential usage, views, zoning, covenants and more need to be taken into account in order to come up with a legitimate price point. If you are thinking of selling your property and are told by an agent that the average price for land in Kalispell is a certain amount, and that you can just multiply that by the number of acres you have, call me. That’s simply not the way the process works.

The second general rule is that the more land you are selling or buying, in general, the less you should expect to pay per acre. For example, looking at the past four months of land sales in Kalispell, you can see that as you purchase more land, the average price per acre decreases. Prices remained relatively flat in all categories except in the <1 acre group which saw an 8% increase.

Bottom line

The bottom line with land in Kalispell, Montana is that every piece is unique, with different requirements, rules, views, utility options, amenities and of course prices.

SALES

In April, 22 land parcels sold which was 31% fewer than last year and just slightly higher than last month. In last month’s report I suggested April would be relatively flat with March. It was, with only 2 more sales this month. Next month should continue at about the same rate.

Length of Time to Sell

Land listings typically take longer to sell than home sales. The average days on market for land in 2021 was 5.1 months which was significantly less than the previous year. For the last four months, land has been taking about 5 months to sell on average. It will be interesting to see how this measurement changes over the next few months. Property that is priced well for its location, services and amenities can sell relatively quickly.

PRICES

Average or median sales prices are meaningless when discussing land sales. The qualities of one lot over another are so different as to make most comparisons moot. That being said, I am including a view of the total dollar value of all land sold per month to provide some kind of comparison to the previous year.

In April 2022, $9.7M of land was sold, 11% more than last March and 57% more than last month. Land parcels currently under contract have a list price value of close to $18M. Next month’s results may be similar to this month’s, depending on which of those under contract deals close.

In terms of the lowest and highest prices for a land parcel sold, the lowest price parcel in March sold for less than $190K. It was approximately a third of an acre in the Aspen Creek subdivision. At the other end of the price range were 147 acres of land with views and no covenants or zoning. This sold for around $1.8M.

The bottom line about prices for land – no matter your budget, you can find options in your price range!

SUMMARY

Every piece of land is unique, even those in a development. Views can be dramatically different just moving from one acre to another. I love walking land with clients! If you are interested in selling or buying land, and you want to work with a boot-wearing broker who is ready to find the borders, call me at 406-270-3667. I’d be happy to help!

To see previous land-related market reports, click here.

Thank you for reading Kalispell Market Report: Land – April 2022!