It will be partly cloudy and mild tonight in central Montana with lows in the mid to upper 50s and low 60s.

A cold front will move through central Montana on Tuesday, which will clear out most of the smoke from the area. High temperatures will drop a good 10-15 degrees, with most areas only hitting the 70s and low to mid 80s on Tuesday.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will accompany the frontal passage. Gusty winds and brief downpours will be the primary threats from Tuesday’s thunderstorms.

Mainly sunny and dry after Tuesday. Temperatures will get back into the upper 80s and 90s later in the week. There is the possibility a few areas may reach triple-digit heat by Friday.

Mostly sunny and dry this weekend with highs in the mid to upper 90s. There is a slight chance of some isolated showers and thunderstorms on Sunday, generally in the evening.

Monday will be mostly sunny and hot with highs in the upper 80s and low to mid 90s for most locations.

A trip to the Nature’s Den at the Montana State Fair in Great Falls this week means an inside look into all Montana wildlife has to offer, from live snakes to taxidermied mountain lions.

Each year, the barn at the fairgrounds is transformed into Nature’s Den, where Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and partners have one week to fill the space with taxidermies of wildlife, fish tanks, and trees.

FWP works with several organizations including the US Forest Service, Montana Trappers Association, and Montana Reptile Rescue to provide all kinds of activities for children and families to learn more about Montana’s wildlife.

FWP Region 4 Administrative Assistant Laura Hajek explains, “We have hides that the kids can touch and feel and look at. We have a display of all the furbears of Montana. We have a table with stamps so they can make tracks, lots of freebies and giveaways for them. I just hope they can learn something about, you know, the resources they have available to them and how we can educate them, you know, on the different things or we can educate them on the different plants and animals and fish that we have throughout the state.”

Hajek works with the local forest service to determine local areas where trees need thinning, and takes her family out to cut the trees that give the space that wildlife feel.

Hajek says, “We kind of make it a family day. We go and cut about 175 trees. We work with the Forest Service and they point us where to go, so they take us to an area or point it to us on a map where an area needs thinning. We do that on a Sunday and then starting Monday we set up here. I think I brought over about five truckloads of stuff over here. We have lots of volunteers that help with this as well. They come to help lay sod, we get all the tables and everything’s set up and organized.”

Nature’s Den also features the Tip-Mont Trailer, an educational display that features cases of poaching that were reported by the public. On Thursday August 1st, Nature’s Den will host Enforcement Day where local game wardens will be presenting from 1pm to 4pm.

You can visit Nature’s Den during the Montana State Fair through August 3rd, located at Montana ExpoPark (400 Third Street NW).

Warmer summer weather has brought cooler housing market conditions to Montana.

“The market right now just feels like it’s a bit lukewarm,” said Brian Huskey, a Billings, Montana-based ERA American Real Estate agent. “There is still moderated demand from buyers, but there are a lot of people just sitting on the sidelines right now because housing affordability and rates are playing a big role in people’s decisions.”

In Billings, the 90-day average Altos Research Market Action Index score as of July 19, 2024, was 38.77, down slightly from the 44.48 a year prior and the 51.72 recorded in July 2022. At the height of the pandemic market in June 2021, however, the Billings metro area reported a Market Action Index score of 75.42. Altos considers anything above a Market Action Index score of 30 to be a seller’s market.

While the market has cooled since then, Billings’ drop in Market Action Index score is fairly moderate compared to other pandemic housing hotspots like Austin, Texas, whose score has dropped from a max of 100 in June 2021 to 33 as of mid-July 2024.

Huskey attributes the relative stability of Billings’ housing market to the fact that it is more of a working class community with a stable job market.

“We’ve got a lot of stable jobs at the big refineries and in the medical field, and with that comes stability for the housing market,” Huskey said. “We don’t see the same size of market swings as they do out in the more luxury second home markets like Bozeman.”

Charlotte Durham, the leader of the Bozeman-based, Sotheby’s International Realty-brokered Charlotte Durham Team, wouldn’t necessarily say that her local housing market has experienced a massive swing, but she said it’s certainly cooled down.

“This was the slowest June we’ve seen in many years in our market,” Durham, a luxury-focused agent, said. “We saw things pick up a little after the Fourth of July, but it is still slower than we’ve seen in our market since probably pre-COVID.”

Overall, the Bozeman housing market’s Market Action Index score has dropped from a 90-day average of 32.38 in mid-July 2024 from 66.88 in early June 2021. In the upper quarter of the market, which Altos defines as homes priced between $1.38 million and $2.835 million, it has dropped to 37.93 from a high of 72.75 in Dec. 2021. For properties priced around $2.835 million, the Market Action Index score has dropped to 29.74 from 44.75 in Dec. 2021

This slowdown has been a boon for buyers who are still in the market.

“Especially in the $2 million to $5 million range, there is quite a bit of inventory now sitting on the market and it is great property,” Durham said. “So, I think we are going to have to see prices come down a little, especially in that price range.”

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Compared to a year ago, the 90-day average median list price is down $300,000 to $1.2 million, according to Altos data. In the top segment of the market, which is anything above $2.835 million, list prices have fallen in recent weeks, dropping from $3.6 million in mid-April to $2.9 million in mid-July.

Agents say the lower list prices have been a hard bill for sellers to swallow.

“The market is definitely better than it was the summer of 2022, but it is still similar to the summer of 2022,” Austin Baumgartner, who leads the Keller Williams Northwest Montana-brokered team Hidden Homes Montana, said. “Prices had been going up and up and now they are starting to come back down. We are seeing more price reductions in the market, but some folks are freaking out a little and if a property is sitting for 90 days instead of 45 days like most were, they cut the price to get ahead of other properties.”

However, Baumgartner said the uptick in days on market doesn’t really bother him.

“It is a more normalized market,” he said. “Inventory is rising a little bit, it isn’t as high as in 2019, but it’s better than it has been and it’s still slightly a seller’s market, so we are just moving to a levelized market.”

Statewide, Altos data supports Baumgartner’s assertions. The 90-day Market Action Index score was at 33.66 in mid-July, a very slight seller’s market and 90-day average for active single-family listings has risen to 3,258 listings, its highest level since mid-March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But while the uptick in inventory is good news for buyers, there is no hiding the fact that home prices in the state have risen drastically over the past five years. In the late summer of 2019, Altos data shows that the 90-day average median list price in Montana hovered around $390,000. As of mid-July 2024 it had risen to $725,000.

Statewide, agents attribute this massive jump in home prices to the pandemic homebuying boom and the rapid influx of out-of-state buyers who flocked to Montana. While the influx of out-of-state buyers certainly helped increase property values in the state, agents say it has made thing challenging for locals looking to buy a house.

“It is a more than controversial issue,” Baumgartner said. “It is bad. Montanans have a lot of pride in the state and in owning property here, but most people can’t buy  houses right now. Inflation is too high and with the amount most people make for in state jobs, you’d have to have like three jobs to buy a house, unless you are in a higher paying industry.”

Robyn Erlenbush, an ERA Landmark Real Estate agent in Bozeman, has also witnessed the rapid home price appreciation take a toll on her local clients.

“When Bozeman was discovered again, if you will, there was a big influx of people with cash,” Erlenbush said. “So, you all of a sudden had more competition driving prices up and then you had interest rates go up and it was a perfect storm of ingredients that made it difficult for the local buyer. I know of people who ended up buying 90 miles away from their jobs here in Bozeman because they couldn’t afford to purchase anywhere closer.”

If interest rates were to fall in the next few months, local agents say some buyers may gain an advantage. But it might be short lived.

“It is an election year and people tend to get a little skittish because they don’t know what is going to happen. But if interest rates fall just a little bit, we are going to have a gangbusters fourth quarter, no matter what happens with the election,” Baumgartner said. “There are just going to be a ton of people who want to buy and sell. The stuff above $1 million might still be a bit slower, but the stuff below, I think we’ll see some multiple offer situations. It is going to be interesting to watch.”