Huntsville, AL Housing Survey Predicting 2023
There are a lot of predictions around 2023 and what's going to happen in the Huntsville, Alabama housing market. So we decided to poll you, the audience, to see what your plans are in 2023 to get the most accurate prediction of who is looking to buy or sell their home.
Are you planning on purchasing or buying a new home in 2023?
A surprising 41.1% of survey respondents said they are planning to buy a home in 2023. I think there are a couple of potential reasons for that.
First, 29% of current Huntsville renters can afford the median-priced home, which is one of the reasons why Huntsville made it on the list of ‘Top 10 Real Estate Markets to Watch in 2023’.
The second reason I think that we might have such a high percentage of potential movers is that in 2023, 70% of buyers that purchased during the pandemic either made a compromise or regretted buying the home that they bought. A lot of buyers are not happy with the home that they purchased and may be looking to buy a new home in 2023.
If you are not planning on purchasing a home in 2023, what interest rate would it take to get you off the sidelines?
For those not planning on buying a home in 2023, we asked a follow-up question about what interest rate would it take to get them off of the sidelines. As you can imagine, a certain percentage of buyers are cash. It was 14.9% of all buyers were cash and said it doesn't matter what the interest rates are. There's also a certain percentage, 21.3%, who are would-be sellers that just simply do not want to move because they’re in their forever home.
Respondents who weren't planning to buy in 2023, would buy if interest rates were lower. The largest percentage, 41.6%, said they would buy a home if the interest rate was at 4%. I think that's really, really interesting because we have the mortgage rate lockdown effect with a lot of would-be sellers or would-be buyers currently in the 2’s and 3’s. So they're saying if we get down to 4%, they would be interested in potentially moving up and getting a higher interest rate.
Now, the other thing I think what's interesting about that is the data showed that 5.5% was a key number. There were a lot of buyers and sellers still in the marketplace at 5.5% back in 2022 when we went from 3% to 4% up 5.5%, 5.5% seems to be that cut-off number.
It will be interesting to see if 5.5% is what really makes this market uptick. Or are we going to have to go down to 4%, which is probably not likely over the next couple of years?
How many of you are planning to sell your home in 2023?
About one in four, 27.7%, said they’re planning to sell their home in 2023. The question is if there's 41% that are looking to buy and 27% are looking to sell, where's the other 14%? Well, some of those are renters, so they're just not simply not going to sell homes because they don't own a home.
Another 7.4% said that they were planning on renting their home. That’s about 1 in 14 or so people that are planning on keeping that low interest rate, renting their home out, and just simply purchasing their home in 2023.
Matt’s Advice
Since 41% of you are looking to buy in 2023 and only 27% of you are looking to sell, there is a gap in supply and demand. Unfortunately, the supply is not going to get any better in 2023 for the Huntsville real estate housing market and it looks like prices cannot go down with that imbalance in this marketplace. So if you're part of the 41% and looking to buy or part of the 27% looking to sell. Shoot us an email today at moving@mattcurtisrealestate.com or contact us here because we look forward to helping you achieve all of your real estate goals in 2023.
Posted by Matt Curtis on
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