This is a brief video summary of the weekly Montana Land Report from Montana Land Source for the week of 12/9/2020. The Montana Land Report summarizes the week's activity in the Montana land market, as well as Montana land news and events, and goes out to over 5,000 recipients. The Montana Land Report is free and available at https://mtlandsource.com. Please like, share and subscribe.
"Hi everyone, Andy Rahn with Montana Land Source with this week's video summary of the Montana Land Report. We put out the Montana Land Report every Wednesday summarizing the past week in the Montana land market. The market activity in terms of sales and listings, and also news and events relative to the Montana land market. The Montana Land Report is free, go to https://mtlandsource.com to sign up for our free subscription.
In the past seven days we had 25 property updates. A little slower in the market compared to usual but not on typical after the holiday weekend, the Thanksgiving holiday. We usually see a little bit of a low after that weekend and going into December, with often a little bit of a bump towards the end of the year as people are trying to wrap up transactions before the end of the calendar year.
25 property updates in the past seven days:
• 3 properties back on the market
• 6 new listings
• 6 pending sales
• 1 price change, and
• 4 sales
In news, the newest edition of the Ranch Investors podcast is out. We interviewed Joel Silverman of Silverman Law. Joel is an estate and tax attorney here in Montana, and that podcast focuses on opportunity zones, which is an interesting topic and probably an underutilized opportunity and program for land investment in Montana. So check out that podcast for information. Joel was a great guest.
In other news, Montana State University put out some data on cash rents that we linked on our website and have added a little bit of an analysis to. Basically, the summary of that data is that cash leases for ag lands in Montana have been stable or static when adjusted for inflation for over 20 years. Hardly any change in rental rates, and we contrasted that with land values showing how agricultural income and land values in Montana have been decoupled for quite a while and that trend continues. So check that out at https://mtlandsource.com.
In upcoming events, there is a webinar coming up on 1031 Exchanges. Max Hansen with Accuit, his outfit is putting that on. It's a free webinar on 1031’s.
The other things to talk about this week, I have had some interesting conversations on a couple topics. One is that there has been an uptick it seems in Montana with properties transacting, but not on the open market. A lot more neighbor to neighbor, as well as is exclusive listings from brokers. So brokers listing properties, but not fully putting them on the market, or putting them on the market in a limited fashion towards an exclusive set of buyers. That all speaks to that we're in a seller's market, and that sellers feel like they can sell their properties and get top prices without necessarily going on the open market. Some of those listings we have in Montana Land Source, some we can't share unfortunately because of non-disclosure status, and brokers insisting on that exclusivity. But an interesting phenomenon to watch.
Another interesting topic, historically for years in Montana unimproved properties or properties that were minimally improved (or not over improved), tended to be the highest demand properties. Essentially, when people buy properties with a lot of improvements they don't necessarily want to buy the previous owner's vision, the previous owners development of improvements. Especially high dollar properties and especially properties with a recreational component. Buyers of those type of properties typically want to start with a blank slate, or at least not have a lot of improvements that they're not happy about and don’t want to pay for. 2020 perhaps marks a big change with COVID, and people looking to Montana land and looking to relocate or be able to stay on those properties immediately. We've seen a big change in the demand for properties with improvements, and it'll be interesting to study that when we close out the year. And looking into 2021 and years coming forward whether that changes or that trend continues. Another factor, we've seen that impacted at in certain times and places where construction costs were up, or it was difficult to to get property improvements built. That would drive demand for improved properties, but that's a substantial shift in the market. For years we've seen a trend where properties without improvements were in more demand, so we're seeing that turned on its head in 2020 like a lot of things.
That's it for this week. Thank you for watching the video. Please like and please share, that helps get this video out and about. Everybody stay safe and, have a great week. Thank you."