About Ravalli County, MT

Our final stop in the Bitterroot Valley is 9 miles south of Hamilton where we hit Darby, a small town of less than 1000 people Darby features a unique western-themed downtown that’s main attraction is a large candy store. Darby provides access to great fishing spots all over and isn’t much further from the pass leading to the Montana/Idaho border and the Lost Trail Ski Area.

Numbers for Darby showed me that in 2010 there were 35 total sales with a median sales price of $325,000. There were 6 foreclosures and the median time on market was 326 days. In 2011 the amount of sales dropped by 1 down to 34 sales and the median price went all the way down to $161,700. There were 4 foreclosures sold in the MLS and the time on market was 290 days. I had to check and then double-check the median because of such a sharp drop. What I found was that in 2010 it appeared that Darby was the place to buy homes over $500,000 as that was a large amount of their sales. Come 2011 those sales disappeared and the lower-end dominated the market. The overall market hasn’t lost that much in value… but the activity shifted very sharply, as you can see in the median change.

Calculating the running 12-month absorption rates we see that Darby right now has 36 months’ worth of inventory listed. Being one of the smallest markets Darby currently has over 103 active listings and that amount of supply is making sales times really long right now.

Our next stop is the hub of the Bitterroot and Ravalli County, Hamilton. Hamilton is a town of about 4400 people overall and was originally founded and mapped out by Marcus Daly himself as it was right next to his estate. Hamilton has a very strong community identity and hosts many local events throughout the year. It provides access to the further southern Bitterroot as well as to many trails and national forests that surround it. Hamilton also features labs for GSK and has an exclusive golf-course called The Stock Farm Club which is a private course where you have to prove you’re worth millions to come play at.

The 2010 numbers for Hamilton show 126 total residential sales with a median sales price of $178,750. There were 22 total foreclosures sold and the median time on market was 150 days overall. Moving ahead to 2011 the amount of residential sales went up to 142 and the median price went up as well to $185,950. The amount of foreclosures sold actually went down to 19 and the median time on market extended out to 191 days.

Looking at the running 12-month absorption rates for Hamilton we get 20.5 months’ worth of supply listed for sale right now. It’s one of the lowest in the Bitterroot, but it’s still a sign of vast over-supply, a trend that plagues the whole valley.

As we continue further south down the Bitterroot Valley our next community encountered is Corvallis. Another small town core with surrounding neighborhoods on larger parcels of land similar to Victor Corvallis features the Daly Mansion found just south of town, a popular attraction to visit and a place where you’ll find many weddings over the summer and fall. Corvallis unlike Stevensville and Victor does blend with it’s neighboring town, Hamilton.

For 2010 in Corvallis I found that there were 59 residential sales with a median sales price of $239,000. There was just 1 foreclosure sale and the median time on market was 168 days overall. Moving forward to 2011 the amount of sales dipped slightly to 57 overall and the median price dropped a bit as well to $225,000. The amount of foreclosures climbed to 12 and the median time on market also extended to 201.

The running 12-month absorption rates for Corvallis show that there’s 25.5 months of inventory currently listed for sale in this area. That’s pretty darn high, over 2 years of inventory for sale right now, market times are slow here, as in much of the Bitterroot.

Further south of Stevensville is the very small community known as Victor. Victor used to actually go by the name of Garfield but had its town name changed to reflect a former American Indian Chief who was once chief of the nearby Salish Tribe. Victor was an area that Lewis and Clark originally passed through as well on their way to the Pacific. The town of Victor today is about a block-long with some historical buildings that house local businesses and a bank. This area consists of overall of many larger homes and ranches.

Looking at the 2010 number in Victor there were 28 total sales with a median sales price of $289,000. In 2010 the local MLS shows that there were no foreclosures sold and the median time on market was 208 days. The next year in 2011 the amount of sales has gone up to 36 but the median sales price has dropped to $247,000. There were 6 foreclosure sales overall and the median time on market really extended out to 363 days.

The running 12-month absorption rate for Victor right now shows 25 months’ worth of inventory listed for sale in the market. With over 2 years of active supply and a median market time of practically 1 year to say the market is slow in Victor is an understatement.

Moving south from Florence we head to the oldest town in Montana, Stevensville. Originally founded in 1841 when missionaries set up camp and built a small mission where "Stevi" exists today. Shortly after that a trading post known as Fort Owen Inn set up shop in the area and Stevi began to grow. The greater area consists of the small town which is about 1500 people and the large surrounding area that includes many homes on large parcels of land as well.

Looking at the numbers in Stevi in 2010 there were 73 sales with a median sales price of $225,000, 15 of these sales were foreclosures. The median time on market for these homes was 153 days. Moving forward to to 2011 the amount of sales went up to 83 overall and the median price dipped to $189,500. Foreclosures went down to 14 overall and the median time on market went up to 168 days overall.

In calculating the running 12-month absorption rates in the Stevi area right now there is 23.6 months worth of inventory listed for sale in this area, showing a pretty high supply in a market that takes quite some time to get a home sold.