Local News

The good, the bad, the direction: Billings Real Estate 2011

Posted: Jan 10, 2012 11:04 PM by Jay Kohn - KTVQ
Updated: Jan 11, 2012 8:15 AM

BILLINGS - With 2011 in the rear-view mirror, it's time to take a quick look back at the year in Billings real estate.

Realtor Howard Sumner, who's been tracking the trends in the Billings real estate market for 30 years, says 2011 will go down as the low point in real estate unit sales and probably pricing.

The biggest negative was financing where consumers found it difficult to obtain loans, leading to discouragement and an extremely high rate of failed transactions - the most Sumner has ever experienced.

"2011 is the low point for this real estate cycle." Sumner said.

"The thing that I saw in 2011 is we had more fall throughs in the business than I've seen in 30 years. The financing is more difficult, yes, less people qualified, but even if you are qualified. - with all the hoops that you had to jump through, people got frustrated and would then give up on trying to complete the process," explained Sumner.

Sumner points to several positive factors that he believes will result in a stable real estate market for Billings in 2012.

Closed residential sales were down only 3 percent, compared to 2010. Pending sales, meanwhile, are up 17 percent when compared with 2010.

The average price for a single family home in Billings dropped 2 percentsince 2010, from $212,730 to $208,121. In fact, Sumner says housing prices in the Billings market have pretty much stayed flat since 2007.

Tomorrow Q2 will show you some startling numbers in the area of new home construction for the Billings area.

Topics: Billings, KTVQ, real estate, Howard Sumner, financing, housing, residential sales