August 2009
Huntsville Home Prices Flat
Our normal monthly market reports are a bit late this month due to a major statistic package upgrade within our local MLS. Of course the sales volume figures remained virtually unchanged but the method used to calculate the average prices, especially average square foot prices, appears to have been modified by removing an internal filter and now presenting the raw figures for member consuption. Thus we had to re-sync our local database and re-run the trend lines.
We think the change is a good one and more accurately reflects the fluctuations in the Huntsville Metro Market. While the raw data is now more dramatic month to month, the overall trend of the moving average we always display with the raw MLS data has also remained virtually unchanged despite the internal MLS algorithm change. For example, you will note in the 4 year chart below that the overall local market trend saw steady price appreciation from 2006 into the fall of 2008. Since that time we have experienced an ~3% decline in average prices and since April 2009 have experienced a flat and stable pricing model.
Average prices per-square-foot showed a 3% increase in August when compared to August 2008 levels, while August’s median selling price showed a -3% decrease from 2008 levels, a result that very much illustrates a flatly priced market neither appreciating or depreciating.
Average Price Per Square Foot
Taking a Closer Look at Price Ranges
When taking a closer look at differing price ranges the one trend continues to dominate is that upper end homes priced above $300k continue to be a much smaller market segment in our current market when comparing recent years. For example, in August of 2008 home sales in this price range accounted for 34% of the overall market while this past month they accounted for only 9.4% of the market. The larger market share in the Huntsville Real Estate market continues to be in the $150k – $300k range as indicated in the following table.
Average Price Per Square Foot
| Price 08/08 | Price 08/09 | % Price Change | 2008 % of Sales | 2009 % of Sales | |
| 0 – 150k | $66 | $67 | 1.5% | 39.8% | 31.8% |
| 150k-300k | $94 | $98 | 4.3% | 44.0% | 50.2% |
| 300k-450k | $106 | $106 | 0% | 34.5% | 9.4% |
| 450k-up | $152 | $129 | -15.1% | 6.8% | 4.2% |
| All | $83 | $86 | 3.5% | 100% | 100% |
