By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
It’s no secret that home and real estate values in Glendive have been dropping and vacancies are high. According to Montana East Realty’s data, there are 75 to 80 homes for sale through real estate companies in the Glendive area, eight of which have been on the market for over a year, and many of which have seen prices drop recently.
According to Zillow.com, an online real estate marketplace, there were 91 homes for sale in the 59330 area as of Wednesday.
An 1,800-square-foot home on Chestnut Avenue in Glendive dropped to $49,000 on Aug. 12. It was originally listed at $165,000 in October 2014, according to information on Zillow.
A 500-square-foot home can be found for less than $43,000 now, but $52,500 can get you twice as many square feet, prices that were unheard of three years ago.
Values of manufactured homes have fallen sharply as well. One on River Road Loop was last listed for $189,400 just a year ago. The price is now $130,000, a change of over 30 percent in just a year.
As far as values go, the last year has been hard on homeowners, especially with the amount property taxes increased as actual property values have dropped.
An 806-square-foot home on East Barry Street saw its property taxes increase 202 percent in 2015, and the price has dropped 10.3 percent since April 5. A 3,136-square-foot home on East Thrush Lane in Glendive saw an increase in property taxes of 27 percent in 2015, yet the price dropped 7.7 percent just a month ago.
“They took a big drop the last six months of last year and the first six months of this year, but the market’s not bottoming out,” Montana East’s Tami Freas said. “It’s just stabilizing for supply and demand.”
Freas couldn’t definitively say how many houses were on the market this time last year because they “don’t track that,” but did say that it was probably a little more since “we were in full bust mode.”
“Our inventory has been low since 2010, and is now about back to normal. I’ve been a realtor for 20 years, and there were 65 to 70 houses up until 2010. Then we had between 20 and 30 for a few years there,” she explained.
According to Montana East’s data, 25 homes in Glendive have sold thus far in 2016, and nine are currently in escrow.
Doris Zinger of Realty One said the housing market is “picking up a little bit,” adding that she also feels the values are leveling off.
“We’ve rebounded some. We have a lot more on our pending board than we did three months ago,” she said. “The ones that are still high-priced were bought two years ago when prices were high, so they can’t afford to sell for less.”
Lisa Kjelstrup of United Country Real Estate sees a similar pattern, and is even more optimistic about the housing market rebound.
“We’ve definitely taken a dip since last year. You’re seeing a minimum of a 20-percent drop, and on larger homes it could be even more than that,” she explained. “But in the last month we’ve had more people looking for homes and more sales than we’ve had all year, and this isn’t usually our busy season.”
Kjelstrup added the housing market hasn’t gotten as bad as expected and that it’s not as bad as it could be, adding that real estate values were expected to drop 40 to 50 percent last year.
“I’m from a town that’s a third of this size that has 300 houses for sale,” she said. “You usually have three agencies showing a total of 30 houses to people, and now you’re showing people 20 or 30 houses because there are 75 to 80 homes for sale.”
Kjelstrup infers from her clientele that the local economy is picking up steam and people are going back to work.
“We’re seeing BNSF looking for engineers and conductors … so that’s a positive,” she said. “It’s still a buyers market and there’s still a lot of houses out there. I’ve just been encountering better attitudes and more positivity.”
Kjelstrup expects even more homes to be bought and sold after the presidential election in November.
Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.