As reported this week by the Birmingham Association of Realtors, Birmingham's home sales are up 25% in September 2011 compared to the same month last year. Throughout the region sales in Jefferson, St Clair, Blount, and Shelby counties rose from 723 sales in September 2010 to 905 sales this past month. The report also mentioned that Birmingham's inventory of homes has dropped 13%, down to 9212, this September, further enforcing the market improvement.
Over the last few months the strengthening rental market in Alabama has attracted several new investors. This is good news to the real estate market as a whole since vacant homes that are converted into rental units help decrease available inventory… crucial to balancing supply and demand while improving the value of the remaining homes. In short, the booming rental market in the Birmingham area may help spur even stronger months for the rest of real estate over the coming year.