Alabama new home sales in July increase 52.7% compared to last year
Published 9/9/11 on AL.com from the Alabama Center for Real Estate
July new home sales in Alabama's five metro markets, representing approximately seventy percent of all statewide transactions, experienced a 52.7% increase from July 2010 and a 6.6 percent increase from the prior month.
Montgomery (up 56%) and Birmingham (up 41%) were the only two metro areas to experience an increase in new home sales from the prior month. All metro areas with the exception of Mobile saw sales rocket when compared to July 2010.
In July, Alabama new home sales were consistent with the US market which reflected an increase of 6.8 percent from the prior month, according to the US Census Bureau & HUD. The release also reported that the results from the South region were unchanged from the prior month.
Demand: July new home sales were 52.7 percent higher than in July 2010 when the market experienced a dramatic drop in sales after the June 30th expiration of the home buyer tax-credit. This market event does skew this traditional and much followed barometer of new construction activity. Long-term, percent changes of this magnitude are not sustainable.
In comparison, US new home sales reflected an increase of 6.8% percent increase from July 2010.
Year-to-date through July, Alabama metro market new home sales are 22 percent off last year's pace (down from 30% in June).
Montgomery again led metro areas in sales improvement from the prior month posting a 56.1 percent gain (64 sales vs 41 in June). This figure also handily trumps the 22 sales in July 2010.
Year-to-date, with the recent surge in new home sales, Montgomery now leads the state and represents the only market with positive sales gains (1.3%) when compared to 2010.
Supply: Statewide new construction inventory has declined by approximately 27 percent from last July. All metro markets have experienced double-digit percent reductions in inventory since July 2010 with Tuscaloosa leading the state with an 36 percent decline in supply.
One interesting note is that no "new construction" homes were destroyed in Tuscaloosa as a result of the April 27th tornado according to a recently released study on the impact of the disaster upon the Tuscaloosa real estate market.
Alabama's metro markets in July reflect 4.6 months of new home supply which is a significant move in the right direction and down from 5.0 months of supply in June. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the US inventory of new homes for sale slightly increased to 165,000 homes or 6.6 months' supply.
Pricing: Alabama's metro market's median price in July was $216,696, an increase of 8.9 percent from June 2011 and an increase of .3 percent from July 2010.
To read the full article and more on Alabama's real estate pipeline and construction contracts, visit the ACRE site here!