More good news

For those of us in the local real estate business, the latest article from the Center for the Rocky Mountain West only confirms what we have been seeing all along: people are moving to Montana and the neighboring states in droves. Most of my buyers of the last year have moved here from another state. They chose Montana and specifically Helena because of all the wonderful features offered by this "Urban Mountain" lifestyle. You can walk to great restaurants and yet are only a couple of blocks away from over 60 trailheads leading into Public land. Real estate is still very affordable as compared to other areas in the country and being a government town, the economy here is very stable. We certainly don't feel connected to all the negative news being broadcast about the state of the economy. So it's no wonder that Montana was the country's 14th fastest growing state with an over 2% net increase last year. Our median home prices are up as compared to last year and sales have been brisk this spring already. My sense is that this will only increase over the next year as more and more people are making the concious choice of moving to areas with a "healthy" lifestyle and strong community roots.