2021 Year End Real Estate Market Report

Tim Ford

2021 was certainly an interesting year. It seemed for a bit that the pandemic was behind us, and then it wasn’t. Disrupted supply chains and continued demand from shoppers saw pricing increases, employees left the workforce in droves, and for some reason, air fryers became a hot topic. The Real Estate market around the country continued to see increases in pricing and Bozeman was no different.

While pricing increased dramatically, the number of single-family home sales in and around Bozeman fell from 1133 last year to 979 sales this year. Some of this decrease was likely caused by the reduction in new listings to choose from, which has continued to fall over the past few years. 2021 saw 1083 single-family homes listed for sale on the MLS in the greater Bozeman area, a 9% decrease from the 1193 last year and down 13% from the 1244 new listings in 2019. 2018 saw similar numbers as 2019 with 1238 homes listed for sale in Bozeman.

Looking at homes both inside and out of city limits: In 2019, the 996 single-family homes sales had a median sold price of $495,250. At the time, it seemed that last year’s increase was substantial, rising 19.6% to $592,000 in 2020. However, this year the increase was even larger as the median sold price rose nearly 27% to $750,000.

Restricting the data to homes sold just inside Bozeman city limits; in 2019, 592 homes sold at a median sold price of $460,000. In 2020, the median sold price for the 612 single-family homes sold within city limits rose 17.4% to $540,000. This year, the median sold price for the 516 single-family homes that sold in Bozeman city limits rose nearly 30% to $700,000.

The months’ supply of homes continues to diminish. This is the number of months it would take to sell the current inventory of homes on the market. Some often consider a “healthy” or “normal” market to have somewhere between 4 and 5 months’ supply. A higher number represents a buyer’s market while a lower number represents a seller’s market. From 2018 through 2019, it hovered between 2.9 and 3 months. Last year, it dipped down to 2.1 months. Starting in June of 2021, it was reduced even lower to .9 months and has hovered there since.

Of particular interest is how the upper end market has been affected. The number of homes sold for more than $1 million has increased dramatically since the pandemic started. In 2019, 77 homes sold for more than $1 million. In 2020 that number nearly doubled to 149. This year, sales volume increased another 70% to 254 sales for more than $1 million in 2021. Looking at the even higher end market, home sales north of $2 million saw similar increases. In 2019, only 11 homes sold for more than $2 million. That number nearly tripled last year to 32 closed sales in 2020 and then nearly doubled again to 56 homes sold for more than $2 million in 2021.

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 Big Sky Country MLS and does not include private party sales.

This was made by