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Median listing price for houses is down, but it's too early to tell if that's good news

House sold sign
Phototreat/Getty Images/iStockphoto
House sold sign

New data show the median listing price of a home in Montana dropped from its record high at the end of last year. But it’s too early to tell if this is a signal that the housing market is cooling.

According to the federal reserve bank of St. Louis, the median listing price of a home in Montana dropped to $519,000 in January, down from its high of $550,000 at the end of last year.

Robert Sonora with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research says listing price doesn’t always reflect the sales price after people bid on homes.

“You know, this is not the sales price," he said. "I suspect the sales price for some of these markets is actually going to be higher than the listing price."

The median listing price per square foot in Montana continued to rise during the same period, which Sonora says could be attributed to less inventory of bigger, high-end homes.

He says the Federal Reserve pushing interest rates up may have been another factor in the slight decrease in listing prices.

This may give potential homebuyers a glimmer of hope. However, Sonora says it’s too early to draw any conclusions from the data.

Copyright 2022 Montana Public Radio. To see more, visit Montana Public Radio.