About Cascade County, MT

Happy Holidays!!!!

The weather outside was frightful - 31 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit. Today it was 18 below at 5 am at my stable and by 7 am it was 9 below. By noon it was 35 degrees above and delightful. Welcome to Montana!!!

We love it here!! The people are nice, no traffic to speak of and super schools for our children. We even have a Starbucks - and they finally got savory foods in too!!

We have hundreds of parks in town. The city is very well lay-ed out. Paris Gibson the founder of Great Falls was certainly talented. We have trees and great historic homes too.

I bought the founder's mansion in June and am still in the process of bringing it back. It was built in 1890 on millionaire's row by William Roberts - a prolific builder in the era. Paris Gibson's wardrobe trunk was returned to the home by his great great grandson Bill Dakin this fall. It is very cool to have a piece of the family's history returned after almost 90 years of being absent. You can follow my progress at www.parisgibson.com I have set up the website to encourage others to tackle historic homes and to be a place where we can all share information about renovating and restoring.

I hope that if you are considering a move to Great Falls you will check out my website www.greatfallsrealty.com and learn about our community and homes on the market here. An educated buyer is the best buyer. Please feel free to email if you have any questions about this great place Great Falls.

There is also a newly released film about Great Falls 125 years. It is available at the History Museum on DVD and is about an hour of great and humorous entertainment. The film really shows our community spirit, which is so important for others moving here to know.

Cheers,

KP

Well I have to tell you that I didn't really think it would happen. Spring is here. Yes we got snow again this morning but it warmed up to about 60 degrees F today and most trees are budding out. The three feet of snow we got a week and a half ago made me think that winter was never going to leave.

For those of you who are not familiar with Great Falls, Montana or might consider moving here you should know that for over the past 10 years we have experienced a severe drought. We have had record moisture this "spring" beating records from the turn of the century. We had a hard winter this year too with more snow than any of us can remember.

I do love Great Falls though. Yes it is also windy, but it is a nice dry climate and the townfolk are really very nice. We have a huge number of parks in town and a river walk and a waterpark to enjoy in the spring and summer. The sky is wide and blue most of the time and I really do think this is the last best place.

Don't forget about the Sip n Dip lounge which was featured in GQ Magazine. An indoor tiki hut of sorts with the oldest piano/organ player probably in existence. There is a mermaid who shows up for everyone to watch through the glass sided pool. Just plain good fun for those of us who go out once every 5 years. LOL.

Oh and yes we have good schools, relatively low taxes and crime and a great historic district.

Cheers,

Kelly

Here is a little tidbit about Great Falls Montana that I read yesterday. Forbes has ranked the top 200 "Best Small Places for Business and Careers" for 2009. Believe it or not our city Great Falls was ranked 85th in the nation. Forbes bases the criteria on the cost of doing business, projected job growth and education. Wow!!!

We know we have one of the best real estate markets because we have not suffered any price reductions like other areas in the U.S. I sort of think of it like we are always in the toilet and when the national economy bottoms out it doesn't really affect us here. Our average priced home is about $150,000 I am not sure it can bottom out below that. The other side is that you cannot make huge fortunes here like in other areas either by flipping houses. That excitement has always eluded our market and perhaps now after seeing what is happening to those high appreciation markets it is okay to be a boring market.

Interest rates are so low that I personally think it is a great time to buy real estate to hold. I also think it is a great time to buy a car and a laptop too. Prices nationally are down on those consumer items and perhaps we should take advantage of it. What do you think?

Thanks

Kelly - Broker/Owner Great Falls Realty, Montana

How cool is this? Interest is so low. Wow. I guess we are bucking all the trends with new low rates. Here in Montana we don't have very many foreclosures (like one per 7500 homes) so our prices haven't taken the proverbial dip like in other areas. We are lucky, but this is also not the place to shop for blue light specials on houses either.

Homes that are dated are taking the biggest hit here, but that is the norm when they start out overpriced. If houses are priced right they sell in almost all price ranges. Of course our average home price is $140,000.

Happy house hunting.

Kelly