We have ran August's MLS statistics for both Mobile and Baldwin County. The sales numbers in our South Alabama area took a dip from July's sales numbers both in number of sales and median selling price. Historically August real estate sales has been slower than July because most families want to be settled before the new school year starts. Last year, we saw the numbers rise in August but it was anomaly when looking at historical data.

The market is definitely shifting. In Mobile, the inventory levels have risen each month since the first of the year. We have roughly a 6 month supply of homes for sale. A normal buyer's market would be classified as 7 or more. Baldwin County has a 16 month supply of homes and has been a buyer's market for quite a while.

There were 2 news items this month to report that should be good news for our real estate outlook:
1) The OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) released their 2nd quarter statistics. The Mobile market was ranked 9th nationally in terms of Highest Rates of House Price Appreciation. Please look at the median sales price of a home in Mobile. We believe there is substantial room for future growth.
2) ManPower released its latest survey of future job growth. Mobile was ranked 8th nationally in this survey. This trend for job growth is against the national trends as only 27% of the companies surveyed anticipating more hirings for rest of the year. Locally, there are a number of factors that is driving the job growth - Austal, Inc, a local ship builder is expected to announce an expansion shortly that will add 1000 workers to their workforce. There are 3 different ship yards that are also expanding or plan to expand. And then there is the steel mill of Thyssen Krupp that will employ almost 30000 people during the construction process.

We specialize in investment sales and truth be known properties are not cash flowing like they have in the past. We feel that there is a population boom around the corner and with it will create a demand on our local housing market. Demand will drive prices both on the sales side and the rent side.

We will continue to monitor the market and report our findings to you. We have access to a number of sources for data and will be happy to generate any type of report that you require including neighborhood specific. You can always find the latest MLS data on our website.

Here is August's data: