Home buyers and sellers, builders and lenders will find both encouraging and discouraging news in a report released last week by the Alabama Center for Real Estate, or ACRE.

For instance, the number of homes sold statewide in May fell 23 percent over a year ago. But May home sales increased 14 percent from April. The average selling price in May rose 4 percent over last year but a more robust 9 percent from April. And the average days on the market for a listed home climbed 14 percent over last year but just 2 percent from April.

Year to date through May, home sales in Alabama were down 21 percent from the same period in 2007, but the average selling price held relatively steady at $154,325. Average days on the market rose 8 percent, to 135 from 125, year to date.

To put those figures in perspective, total U.S. home sales in May fell 16 percent over a year ago but rose 11 percent from April, according to the National Association of Realtors. The average sales price nationally in May was $253,100, down 7 percent from last year but up 2 percent from April. Those figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Nationally, there was an 11-month supply of unsold homes in May, up 21 percent over last year but down 4 percent from April.

Grayson Glaze, executive director of ACRE at the University of Alabama, offered hope that the state’s housing market will soon see brighter days. And he noted that the 2008 numbers look bad only when compared with the “record-breaking sales trends of recent years.”

Despite the housing industry’s “bloody nose” that began last August with the subprime mortgage meltdown, Glaze said the state’s real estate industry “will not only live to tell the tale but will become stronger and more sustainable on the other side.”

When the market will reach the “other side” is unclear, but Glaze predicts that the year-over-year, double-digit sales declines may crest with the June report and begin narrowing in the second half of the year.

He said several factors will lead to greater momentum and long-term stability: an improved credit environment; realistic home value expectations by the buyer and seller; and continued improvement in housing affordability.

Categories: Real Estate
Tags: alabama home sales