As one can see by looking at the included numbers, Bozeman’s market continues to remain hot. Many buyers have been frustrated lately to end up in multiple offer situations, some even losing out on multiple homes. In a multiple offer situation, cash is usually king. It has anecdotally seemed that there are more cash buyers in the market today, so I thought it was worth a look to see if that was true.

Comparing this year to last, overall sales numbers are actually fairly similar, with 369 homes sold in the first 5 months this year compared to 371 homes last year. The median sold price edged up from $354,500 for the first 5 months in 2015 to $369,000 for the same time period this year.  

Looking at cash only transactions, for sales of single family homes in all of Bozeman between January 1st and June 1st of last year, 85 of the 371 homes sold were purchased with cash. That is approximately 22.9% of the sales. Compare that to 90 cash purchases out of the 369 homes sold this year, or approximately 24.4%. Even though it edges slightly up and down over the years, the percentage of sales is actually fairly consistent. In 2014, 70 of the 318 sales during that time period were cash, or 22%. In 2013, 61 of the 276 sales, or 22.1% were cash, and in 2012, 45 of 237 were cash, or 18.9%.

Buyers that don’t have cash that end up in multiple offer situations can still try to be competitive. At the end of the day, most people still prefer more money in their pocket, so there’s a good chance that a higher offer with financing could beat out a lower offer with cash, but not always. Buyers can also do their best to make their offer as attractive as possible by closely analyzing their contingencies and all the terms of their offer.

As usual, I have included data for the number of single family homes sold during the first five months of 2016. In addition to the 369 single family homes sold during this time period, another 254 homes are currently pending, or under contract, as of the date of writing this article.

The included data reflects sales of homes in the greater Bozeman area, including Four Corners, Gallatin Gateway, Bridger Canyon, and Bozeman city limits. The data includes home sales reported through the local Southwest Montana MLS, and does not include private party sales, Condominiums, or Townhouses.