Powell homes generally cheaper than Cody’s

Local home sales held steady last year, according to data from the Park County Assessor’s Office.

Nearly as many houses were sold in 2015 as the year before and the median, middle-of-the-pack sale price rose by more than 6 percent, to $225,000.

“It’s been a pretty stable market,” said Assessor Pat Meyer.

Meyer said residential property values have been slowly but consistently rising in recent years.

“It’s been a steady flow, and when you’ve got lots of sales, that usually is a good indicator” of a real estate market that’s doing fairly well, he said.

A total of 374 homes with 10 acres of property or less were sold last year in Park County. That’s about a dozen fewer sales than were made in 2014.

Sellers found buyers for 95 homes in Powell and 163 in Cody last year. Those figures were in line with 2014’s totals.

While it depends on the neighborhood and the price range, Meyer said houses in both cities generally increased by 2-4 percent in value between the two years.

“The rural ones are climbing a bit more, it looks like,” he said.

Houses in the $180,000 to $200,000 price range also appeared to be more popular, Meyer said.

His data also shows a sizable difference between the Powell and Cody real estate markets.

In Cody, the median selling price was $221,000; in Powell, meanwhile, the median sale price was $173,000 — or 28 percent cheaper than Cody’s.

Powell’s median price rose by less than 1 percent between 2014 and 2015; Cody’s rose by more than 4 percent.

All of the locally assessed property values — which include homes, business equipment, agricultural land and commercial and industrial property — rose by an average of around 3.5 percent, Meyer said. State-assessed values of things such as oil and gas production will be calculated later.

Higher property values are good news if you’re preparing to re-sell a property, but they also generally mean having to pay higher property taxes.

Powell

2014 — $171,500

2015 — $173,000

Cody

2014 — $212,000

2015 — $221,000

All of Park County

2014 — $211,500

2015 — $225,000

*Of homes with 10 acres of property or less