Is Huntsville a Top 10 Housing Market in 2023?

Is Huntsville, Alabama, a Top 10 real estate market to watch in 2023? The National Association of Realtors (NAR) seems to think so as they've ranked Huntsville number seven on their list of top cities in the US to watch in 2023.

Huntsville Housing Affordability

The study was based on several factors. One of those factors was the Housing Affordability Index. How affordable is the city? Huntsville has been above 100 for several years, anything above 100 is more affordable and anything below 100 is less affordable. A score of 100 means the average income can purchase the average home in that area.

NAR is actually behind on Huntsville's data and gave us a score of 120 when we're actually a score…

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Huntsville, AL Housing Market Update | November 2022

Home sales are down 27% year over year, yet prices are still up 8.7% year over year. Housing affordability and the mortgage rate lockdown effect are continuing to push the number of homes sold down, we’ll look at what effects these and other factors had on the Huntsville housing market in November. If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Huntsville, AL, this information can help you make the best decision based on your situation.

New Listings, Pending Sales, & Days on Market

New listings are down 16% year over year, which is due to this mortgage rate locked down we’re experiencing. In fact, there are a lot of sellers that have rates starting in the 2’s or 3’s which are ultra-low interest…

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The Fed Strikes Back

Inflation is down, interest rates are down, the stock market's been going up, and enters the Fed; The Empire Strikes Back. The Fed's at it again, they've raised the overnight rates to a target range of between 4.25% to 4.5%, which is down from the previous increases. They've been raising them by .75% for the last four meetings, this is the seventh time the Fed has raised rates in 2022.

The Fed’s Goal

We are still in unprecedented times with the Fed's interest rate moves. On top of raising rates, the Fed also offered guidance that their new target rate is between the 5% to 5.25% rate, which is still another .75% from where we're at today. That's about half a point higher than the Fed had previously predicted and much…

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Real Estate Investor Slowdown

Real estate has been weird for the last couple of years, especially for real estate investors. We've had COVID, we've had this 5.5 million home deficit in the housing market, and then we've had this rise of institutional buyers in the marketplace. As a real estate investor, I've always been taught that you make a lot of your money at the purchase stage so you want to buy a home priced right.

All that's been thrown out the window over the last couple of years with this rise of institutional home buyers. They're buying homes at list price, often $20,000 to $30,000 above list price, and buying hundreds and even thousands of homes at a time. So why did they do this? It all came down to yield spreads and cap rates.

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Why Aren’t Housing Prices Dropping? | Buying a Home in Huntsville, AL

 

Mortgage rates are way up, and affordability is way down. You would expect prices to be coming down but they're not. So what is happening?

When it comes to housing prices not dropping, we've talked about a lot of the reasons like dollar devaluation and with a 5.5 million home deficit across this country there are also issues with of lack of supply. Another thing affecting housing prices is the mortgage rate lockdown effect.

Mortgage Rate Lockdown Effect

The mortgage rate lockdown effect is due to so many households having such low mortgage rates, that once rates rise, they have no interest in selling their home and getting locked into a much higher rate.

That's…

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Every Little Elf

Free Event Sponsored by House of Harvest and Matt Curtis Real Estate

(Monrovia, AL) Santa is getting a little extra help this year!  The House of Harvest and Matt Curtis Real Estate have teamed with Jolly Old St. Nick,  sponsoring the free community event, “Every Little Elf”.  Santa will be available for visits, and families can participate in Christmas crafts like cookie decorating and ornament painting.   Refreshments will be served, and there will be a holiday vendor market for all the good girls and boys on your shopping list.   

The event is open to the community and is free to every little elf, and their parents.  The festivities take place Saturday, December 10th, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Monrovia Church of…

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When is the Best Time to Buy a New Home in Alabama?

When is the best time to buy a new home? Everybody's situation is different, your situation may not allow you to time the market but if you are in that position to do so, the best times in Alabama are coming up!

Based on data that's come out from Attom Data Solutions, they’ve analyzed 39.7 million data points that suggest October is the best month of the year nationwide to buy a home as buyer demand starts to fade and sellers become more flexible. October is the best month of the year nationwide, but in Alabama the best month to buy historically is in December.

Best Days to Buy a Home

October is the best month of the year nationwide but what are the best days of the year? According to…

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October 2022 Housing Market Report

Housing affordability continues to be the main spotlight in real estate right now. The final October reports are in for the Huntsville, Alabama area housing market, we’ll look at all the key stats and how they might affect housing affordability moving forward. If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Huntsville, AL, this information can help you make the best decision based on your situation.

New Listings

 One of the biggest keys right off the bat is new listings. We are down 12.7% year over year for October. New listings are down almost 200 listings year over year in just a single month. If you extrapolate that out to a year, you're looking at over 2000 listings lost on an annualized basis.

People are…

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Matt Curtis Real Estate Website Recognized as 2022 Best Community Page by RealTrends

The Greater Huntsville area is growing rapidly. Matt Curtis Real Estate has been an industry leader in providing community information to new and current residents.

Matt Curtis Real Estate’s website has been ranked a top 10 community page in the nation by RealTrends, an organization providing  industry news for residential real estate.  “Websites that provide quick searches for towns and communities make it easier for visitors to find specific information.  Landing pages should provide emotional insight on each community, such as amenities, things to do, market data, unique imagery, what to expect, facts, maps and lifestyle information.”

This…

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Homebuilder Sentiment Drops Over 50% in 2022

Home builder sentiment has dropped over 50% this year from a high of over 83 down to 38. Rising interest rates are the reason cited for this negative outlook score of 38. The NAHB Housing Market Index measures sentiment among builders of US single-family homes and any score below 50 is considered a negative outlook by the builders.

This is the first year since 2011 that we've had a decline in single-family home starts. This is a big deal because if you look at the 2008 financial crash, builders built fewer homes during that time frame. During the ensuing demographic boom and with fewer homes being built, we saw a deficit of about 5.5 million homes during that period. We’re just now back to a normal…

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