MISSOULA — The housing market in Missoula over recent months has settled down a decent amount, slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels.

There are more homes on the market and they are staying on it for a longer period, giving buyers and sellers alike a more normal experience when navigating the intense Missoula housing market.

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“It felt less stressful,” said Kalie Schwartzenberger, a recent home buyer.

Schwartzenberger recently bought a home in Missoula — a process she says was much easier than what her family experienced just a couple of years ago.

“We bought our first house 2½ years ago. And when we bought, it was really hard. We put a lot of offers in and I don't want to say we settled, but we knew it wasn't big enough for us two years ago,” Schwartzenberger said.

“What we've seen this spring is a nice influx of inventory. We're seeing the most listings right now than we've seen in the past few years. And now properties going under contract and closings are starting to catch up with those numbers,” said Mandy Snook, chair of the data committee for the Missoula Organization of Realtors (MOR).

Snook said that the number of listings, as well as the number of properties that are being sold, appears to mirror the market before the pandemic.

“We're seeing more return to normal levels pre-pandemic,” Snook said.

But Snook also said that Missoula weathered the pandemic better than other markets.

“In different markets, we saw a slowdown this last year, whereas in Missoula, we had more sales than we had seen in the last couple of years. So, Missoula tends to be a very resilient market. So we're coming into something that's more balanced and it's a healthy market,” Snook said.

From the beginning of this year, a total of 280 homes have been sold so far, according to the MOR, with a median price of $550,000. Compare that to the same time last year, 359 last year by the end of May, but the median home price last year at this time was $568,000.

But the key difference this year is that buyers are better able to negotiate.

“People are just recognizing that it's a more balanced market and they're able to negotiate in the market. So there are opportunities for buyers to negotiate closing costs,” Snook said.

For home buyers, Schwartzenberger, buying a home this year, compared to several years ago, the market is better suited for negotiations.

And not only were there more options, but also a little more wiggle room to ask for what they wanted.

“We negotiated a few more things. We had an inspection and it was a different process. We definitely were able to go back and forth a little bit more,” said Schwartzenberger.

MTN asked the Missoula Organization of Realtors about why it thinks that the market has recently seen more healthy levels, especially with high interest rates still lingering, and members said that they think people are just ready to move and continue on with their housing journey, but they couldn’t pinpoint any specific reason.

But still, with a housing market returning to healthy levels, both buyers and sellers can have a little bit of relief when going through the ever-stressful experience of trying to find housing.