Posted by Matt Curtis on Tuesday, May 31st, 2022 11:12am.
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 seller’s market. However, every market does have different submarkets based on price ranges, school districts, and also areas. Increased prices and interest rates are starting to cool off affordability in this upper price range.
In the above video at 1:10, take a look at the chart with the April stats. You can use charts like that to calculate supply. So for example, the $300-$350,000 price range had 211 sales in April and 223 homes on the market. That means, if there are no new homes on the market. And based on the current rate of sales which is 211, it would take a little over one month to sell all of the inventory in this price range. That is 223 divided by 211.
Now take a look at the $650-$700,000 price range where there were 9 sales with 46 homes on the market. Assuming no new homes go on the market and the current rate of sales continues, it would take approximately five months to sell all the inventory. This is what confuses a lot of sellers, they hear the average home stays 13 days on market but it’s actually more dependent on their sub market.
So if you wanted to sell your $650,000 home and you need to be moved to Florida within a month, a single month, then I would tell you to make sure you have one of the top nine homes on the market in terms of price and condition because that's the number of homes that sold last month.
Affordability also continued to take a hit. In the above video at 2:25, take a look at inventory from Q1 based on the price band. Inventory under the median sales price continues to see a decline in inventory and sales. This is important because many millennial home buyers are having a hard time competing in these price bands due to both low inventory and increasing competition from investors.
Opendoor recently did a survey showing 99% of millennial home buyers lost out on at least one home they were interested in and 25% lost out on at least ten or more homes during their home purchasing process.
So in summary, prices continue to rise and affordable inventory below that $300,000 mark continues to shrink. The bright spot is that we're starting to see a more balanced market in the higher price points of $650,000 and above.