The one thing we do know for certain is that the local Huntsville Real Estate market lagged the nation during the last few years as we experienced one of the most significant housing down turns in our nation’s history.
Yes home sales have declined in Huntsville significantly over the last few years, however the local slow-down lagged what most of the nation experienced by a year or more in time. Moreover, average home prices in Huntsville have yet to even to come close to the national -20% average much less the -50% declines that have been measured in some of the hardest hit areas like portions of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. Nevertheless the question remains: Will Huntsville lead or lag in the eventual national recovery?
Thus after months and months of consistent bad news, there is finally some good news to report on the national level. One of the major nationally reported indicators that has been the bearer of bad news has been the ‘Case Shiler‘ index report. For several years now this index of home prices and sales in the top metro area markets in the country has been the regular and repeated presenter of nothing but bad news on the housing front.
However, the current ‘Case Shiller‘ index and report has some really great news for us all. Outside of Detroit and Las Vegas, every one of the other 20 metro regions the study follows was up for the month of June in 2009, the first month of positive results in over 3 years. More importantly this seems to reflect the consumer sentiments that are being reported across the country.
Metro Area | June09 | May09-Jun09 | Jun08-Jun09 |
Cleveland | 106.38 | 4.2% | -3.0% |
San Francisco | 124.70 | 3.8% | -22.0% |
Minneapolis | 113.48 | 3.1% | -19.8% |
Washington | 174.32 | 2.8% | -11.8% |
Dallas | 119.68 | 2.7% | -2.2% |
Boston | 152.71 | 2.6% | -5.9% |
Denver | 126.92 | 2.5% | -3.6% |
San Diego | 147.31 | 1.6% | -16.0% |
Atlanta | 107.52 | 1.5% | -13.7% |
Phoenix | 104.73 | 1.1% | -31.6% |
Los Angeles | 160.90 | 1.1% | -17.8% |
Chicago | 124.99 | 1.1% | -16.7% |
Portland | 148.47 | 1.0% | -15.2% |
Charlotte | 120.66 | 0.7% | -9.6% |
Miami | 145.37 | 0.5% | -23.4% |
Tampa | 140.90 | 0.4% | -19.5% |
Seattle | 149.53 | 0.4% | -16.1% |
New York | 171.49 | 0.4% | -11.9% |
Detroit | 69.49 | -0.8% | -25.0% |
Las Vegas | 107.31 | -2.0% | -32.4% |
For months we have speculated that the Huntsville Real Estate Market while lagging the country into the housing down-turn, may in fact lead the recover by being one of the first mid-sized markets to turn upward in housing sales and prices. Certainly recent months sales statistics would bare this out. However, looking at this past month where foreclosure prices dominated our local market and given that local banks ‘firmly held’ to an internal industry moratorium on foreclosure activities thus delaying taking action, we may actually continue to lag the nation, if and when the housing market takes root and begins to grow.
This is obviously a change in prognosis of our local markets that only regular readers will pick up on, nonetheless there still seems to be some portion of local foreclosure inventory that must be liquidated before we begin a steady growth path. Watch our monthly market updates closely because I assure you we won’t miss keeping you updated on the facts of what is happening locally.
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