Flathead Valley Real Estate Blog: Is Whitefish Real Estate Insulated from National Trends?

I recently read Richard Hanners’ article in the Whitefish Pilot entitled “Resort market insulated from U.S. housing trend.” Mr. Hanners points out that Whitefish is showing signs of maturing into a bona fide resort real estate market. This fact, in Mr. Hanners opinion, will continue to insulate Whitefish from the real estate malaise that is being experienced in so many markets in America.

Mr. Hanners cites a report based upon an empirical analysis undertaken by John Woods. Mr. Woods is a local real estate appraiser who hypothesizes that resort markets, such as Whitefish, are driven by consumers that may be willing to ignore factors of supply and demand that are so drastically affecting other markets in the United States. Mr. Woods discusses that current patterns of growth and development in Whitefish are analogous with historical patterns in other high value markets that have served to insulate these communities and create rapid and apparently sustainable price increase for all forms of real estate.

I think we will all watch over the coming months and years to see if Mr. Woods’ theory is transferable to our community. I do believe that prudent investors should perform a truly sophisticated analysis of our market to determine if the determinants of value in Whitefish truly line up with the drivers of value in the markets utilized for Mr. Woods’ comparison. If Mr. Woods’ hypothesis holds it could be a very boisterous real estate market in Whitefish for some time to come.
Read the entire article at this link:

http://www.whitefishpilot.com/articles/2008/04/24/news/news03.prt

To speak to Tom directly regarding real estate please call him at: 406.250.7208 oe email him at