May 2022 Housing Market Report


The market is finally starting to cool down nationally as the interest rates start to rise but the question is, “What is happening here locally in the Huntsville real estate market?” 

I was reading an article by the National Association of Realtors where they were stating that the volume, not sales prices, but the sales volume has actually decreased 3.2% month over month. I was also looking at a Realtor.com article where they're actually now predicting that home sales nationally decrease, not the actual sales price, but the volume decreases 6.7% over the next year. Other articles and other economists are predicting as much as 20% decline in sales nationally. Again, this is not home sales prices, but the number of…

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Fed Approves Record Rate Hike

As I've been telling you all, the Federal Reserve is going to continue to increase rates this year and boy did they ever last week. They had the highest interest rate hike that they've had in over 28 years of 0.75%. They did this because of a consumer price index and inflation numbers that they saw just a couple of weeks ago. 

After the Fed made this announcement on Wednesday, interest rates actually started to decrease from the high. The high actually got on Monday and Tuesday as high as in the mid 6% ranges but after Wednesday and then by the end of the week, they started to come down into the high 5%. The reason for that is the market already priced in that rate increase and they also priced in a little bit of…

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What's Happening in Huntsville
June 17th - 19th, 2022

Juneteenth Festival

When: 12PM-10PM | Saturday, June 18th

Where: The Camp at MidCity, Huntsville

Cost: Free Admission

The 2nd Annual Juneteenth Festival will feature live music and performances, vendors, car show, food specials, drink specials, and more! You won’t want to miss this huge celebration!

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Brickmore

When: 10AM-5PM, June 18th | 12PM-5PM, June 19th

Where: Ardmore Community Center

Cost: $1 per person or $5 per family

Join the Tennessee Valley LEGO Club as they host their first-ever Brickmore show in Ardmore! Check out collaborative displays of town and train models as well as original creations. There will also be a free…

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Huntsville Largest City in Alabama

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Huntsville is the largest city in the state of Alabama. Huntsville recently surpassed Birmingham, which lost 1% of its population in the last 12 months. Montgomery also surpassed Birmingham to claim the number two spot on the rankings. However, the Huntsville metro is still only approximately half the size of Birmingham, with a little over 500,000 versus over 1.1 million for Birmingham.

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2022 Interest Rate Update

Interest rates are starting to not only level off but decline for the first time in 2022. How did this happen when the Federal Reserve just raised rates? For a little background, rates have increased 2% this year from 3.409% to as high as 5.593%. For the week ending May 20th, rates were down to 5.46% on an average 30 year mortgage, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Rates started increasing rapidly this year as the Fed backtracked on its previous federal funds rate hike plans. The federal funds rate  is the rate at which commercial banks borrow and lend to each other overnight. It’s not the same thing as a 30 year mortgage rate but it does impact mortgage rates.

The other thing that impacted rates was…

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What's Happening in Huntsville
June 10th - 12th, 2022

Arts & Entertainment District Launch Party

When: 6PM - 8PM | Friday, June 10th

Where: Bridge Street Town Centre, Huntsville

Cost: Free To Attend

Bridge Street is hosting an official launch party to celebrate becoming Huntsville’s fifth Arts & Entertainment district! Live music, yard games, giveaways, and more will be on hand for a night of fun!

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247th Army Birthday Celebration

When: 5PM - 9PM | Saturday, June 11th

Where: Redstone Gateway Gate 9, Huntsville

Cost: Free Admission

Celebrate the 247th Birthday of the U.S. Army at Redstone Gateway 9 this weekend with food vendors, kids play zone, craft markets, and entertainment!

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Housing Supply Rebounding?

Active inventory of homes grew for the first time since 2019, so what does this mean for the housing market? Realtor.com recently reported that the weekly inventory was up slightly year over year. The number is still rounded down to about 0%, but this is still a good sign with three straight years of declining inventory.

According to this chart, it shows approximately 409,000 active homes across the U.S. which is up from a low of 376,000 active homes that we had in February. We're still down approximately 70% over the past four years with still approximately two weeks worth of supply locally. This is much lower than a balanced market of four to six months worth of supply.

Average mortgage rates have risen…

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What's Happening in Huntsville
June 3rd - 5th, 2022

18th Cigar Box Guitar Festival

When: 11:30AM-9PM | Saturday, June 4th

Where: Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment

Cost: $5 Suggested Donation

Celebrate 18 years of making a joyful noise with recycled instruments while raising money for music education in our local schools. Enjoy a full day of free, family friendly activities and performances!

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Cosmic Christ Mosaic Celebration

When: 10:30AM-1:30PM | Saturday, June 4th

Where: 600 Governors Dr SW, Huntsville

Cost: FREE

Join First Baptist Church Huntsville for a FREE event celebrating the completion of the restoration of the Cosmic Christ Mosaic. The mini-festival will be held in front of…

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Q1 & April 2022 Huntsville Housing Market Report

The data is in for the Q1 and April 2022 Huntsville Housing Market Report. The market continues to be red hot overall but we are starting to see a more balanced market in some of the higher price ranges.

The median pending sales price for Q1 came in at $322,218, which is up 21.6% and the average days on market was only 11 days for Q1. There also continues to be an inventory challenge in this market due to an approximate 5.5 million home deficit nationwide.

To give you some perspective on 11 days, a balanced market is actually considered to be four to six months worth of supply, anything less than four months is considered a seller's market. So at 11 days, we are an extreme and unhealthy…

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First Time Homebuyer Struggles

Being a first time homebuyer just got tougher! Bidding wars, understanding the home inspection reports, and closing costs are only a few of the issues first time homebuyers face. The percentage of first time home buyers successfully winning homes is down over 20% from approximately 50% in the market in 2010 all the way down to 27% in 2022. The question is, "Why is this percentage down so much and what can we do to address it?"

Homeownership is the most proven way to build wealth in this country. Homeowners have an average net worth that is 40x that of renters; $255,000 versus only $5,800. Plus, homeowners tend to be more involved in their community than renters which benefits the whole community more. 

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