Alabama New Home Yr-End Report:

Sales up 5.8% in 2013; All metro markets experience positive sales growth

Well, after a rough start in 2014 due to the crazy weather, here is how 2013 ended up.

December home sales slipped 1.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, but for the second consecutive year, Alabama new home sales have experienced growth from the prior year. In 2013, sales were up 5.8 percent. In 2012, sales were up 7.2 percent, which is much better than declines of 13.0 percent in both 2010 and 2011. Alabama new home sales slipped 2% from December 2012 with the new home inventory up 10% from that same month.

Metro Markets:  The 5 Major Metro Markets here - Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa - account for 70% of the State Market.

Pricing: The metro market's median new home sales price in December was $229,406, up 2.8 percent from last December but a 1.2 percent slip from November.

Demand: All major metro areas has experienced a yearly increase in new home sales in 2013:Tuscaloosa(19%), Birmingham(9%), Montgomery(6%), Huntsville(2%), and Mobile(1%). December new home sales in these five metro markets increased 18.3 percent from the November 2013. 

Supply: New housing starts in 2013 rose 7.8 percent over 2012. Statewide new construction inventory is 9.9 percent higher than last December.

In December, the Big 5 metro markets reflected 5.4 months of new home supply, down 17% from the 6.5 months of supply in November, but up 8% from 5.0 months a year ago. Still a little too high!

New Home Pipeline: December statewide housing starts decreased by 7.7 percent from December 2012 and 15.3 percent from the prior month. December statewide building permits were down 10.0 percent from December 2012 and down 2.3 percent from last month. 

Local Results: Nine out of the 27 home builder associations reported gains in building permits from November and 7 associations reported gains in housing starts. Fifteen associations had an increase from their November 2012 housing starts.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, “The prospects for home building in 2014 are bright. NAHB is forecasting a nearly 25% gain in total housing starts, with a 32% pickup in single-family construction. And the coming year will come atop the gains of 2013." Alabama will improve, but more conservatively.

I'm almost scared to see what the figures will be for January after all of the bad weather we have experienced. Our Office still had around 40% of the Closings for our Board, which is GREAT! Even tho our TOTAL numbers were down some, we still improved our Market Share.

Infograph & figures provided compliments of ACRE