[CrazyMarket08]

Long story short - sold our house in Homewood, AL in 1 week! Now I've got to find a new place to live and was wondering if anyone has any insight as to what the Birmingham, AL housing market looks like in relationship to the national housing market. Is Birmingham in a bubble? Should we lowball offers all over town simply because we dont have a house to sell anymore? Would we be better off simply renting a place for 6 months and then make offers on a new home? We are just looking for overall thoughts on the Birmingham, AL market - we were not in trouble with our existing home, just wanted something bigger.

[oldmanbob]

Not sure about your market, but we did the same thing, and agreed to move within 2 weeks. We could not find what we wanted and rented, and ended up building. Our lease went for a whole year, by the time we got it finished. Good luck, and take your time, as you do not want to purchase without being satisifed. On the other hand, interest rates are now predicted to reach an all time low of possibly 5%.

[HsvMike]

I am in Huntsville and it is a buyers market right now. So lower offers would work here. If you are familiar with B'ham and know where you want to live, I'd say go for it. If you aren't familiar enough with it, then probably rent and do your homework. The 5% rates were very short lived. They dropped to 5% yesterday, and today are up to 5.62%. Still a good rate.

[Administrator]

I would recommend posting questions like this in local forums.

[cpg35223]

It's a buyer's market in Birmingham but not a desperate market.

To be honest with you, having bought a house in the past two years, I think Homewood is very overpriced per square foot. We were surprised that Mountain Brook is a better deal, especially in the Overton Road/Cahaba Heights area. Plus the school systems are just a notch better than the rest of the OTM cities.

[gustygulas]

Real Estate is Local. Birmingham is in a lot better shape than most cities. 2007 saw a decrease in the amount of real estate sold but this is compared to 2006 which broke all records in terms of sales and transactions.


You can get great deals out there but it depends on how motivated the seller is. I also tell people that the good deals are selling very quick. The houses that are in good condition, updated and are priced correctly are selling quick. There are plenty of homes out there that are overpriced and not updated and this is what brings are average days on market to around 110-120.

My suggestion is to make an offer and try to make it a win-win situation for both parties involved!

[Matiros]

Are home prices down in the birmingham market compared to the last couple of years. Here in Florida our area the prices of homes are down about 30%. And sales had almost stopped, it looks like we are on the upswing again. As soon as the market improves here, I plan to move to the Birmingham area. Looking at Pelham, Chelsea, Alabaster and possibly other areas.

[ashnicpra]

This message is to the person who sold they're home in a short time... Who was your realtor we are having a terrible time in Calera....

[gustygulas]

Originally Posted by lesliep11

Are home prices down in the birmingham market compared to the last couple of years. Here in Florida our area the prices of homes are down about 30%. And sales had almost stopped, it looks like we are on the upswing again. As soon as the market improves here, I plan to move to the Birmingham area. Looking at Pelham, Chelsea, Alabaster and possibly other areas.

Overall I would say the values of homes are stable to a slight increase in price depending what part of Birmingham. Of course a home is only worth what someone will pay for it. The Pelham, Chelsea, Alabaster areas will continue to grow for awhile. We will not see our values decline like Florida because the prices of homes in Birmingham gradually increased instead of dramatically increased. Birmingham's groth in value was around 5% where Florida was 20-30% a year.

[Matiros]

thanks for the answer gusty.....I really want to move to the Birmingham area but it would almost be impossible to sell a house here in Palm Coast now. Hope the market here improves soon. We have over 2000 homes for sale in this little community. I am starting to think if I can sell my home here for $250,000 I should just do it and get out of here.... Two years ago my house was worth around $325,000. Wonder if anyone would want to trade? I may just start looking at lesser expensive homes near Birmingham. Originally I was looking in Pelham, Alabaster, Chelsea homes around $375,000, guess now I need to look at something more like $300,000.