One way to describe the current real estate market in the Flathead is to say conditions are continuing to smooth themselves out after a long, hard recession.

According to figures from Kelley Appraisal, of Kalispell, overall residential sales in Flathead County for the first half of the year are down 6 percent compared to last year, from 858 to 806, but the number of nondistressed home sales has increased from 681 to 704.

That’s because the number of home sales tied to foreclosure has dropped. Bank-owned sales from January through June this year declined 36 percent compared to last year, from 128 to 81, and short sales declined 53 percent, from 45 to 21.

The previous two years saw stronger residential sales numbers in the Flathead for the first half of the year — an increase of 32 percent in 2012 and an increase of 17 percent last year.

Median sale prices for the first six months have declined every year from 2008 through 2012 before climbing back 12 percent last year and 7 percent this year, reaching $218,000 in the first half of 2014. The median price for nondistressed homes was $225,000 this year.

Median residential sale prices have varied widely through the year, from a high of $237,000 in March to under $200,000 in May and then back up to $237,000 in July.

Residential listings for January through July is 4 percent higher than last year at 1,667. Of those, 1.7 percent were bank owned and 1.1 percent were offered short sales. The median list price was $369,000.

While the overall number of troubled homes significantly declined over the past two years, it’s increasing again. Bank-owned listings increased from seven to 11 from May through July while bank-owned sales declined from 14 to three.

In the big picture, the Flathead is doing better than the U.S. The rate of homes in the Flathead in preforeclosure, foreclosure or sheriff sale is 3.16 per 1,000 units, compared to 5.16 for the U.S. as a whole. But Montana is doing even better than that with a rate of 1.8 homes per 1,000.