Huntsville Homes sale down 24%

The latest review of Huntsville Homes sale from the Huntsville Times. Not encouraging but tolerable.

Building permitsalso have droppedby 43 percent
Existing home sales in the Huntsville area dropped more than 24 percent during the first three months of 2008.

During the first quarter, 999 homes sold in the Huntsville market, down from 1,321 for the same period last year, according to the North Alabama Multiple Listing Service for Madison, Limestone, Jackson, Marshall and Morgan counties.

March saw the largest drop, with home sales plunging 27.3 percent, from 542 in March 2007 to 394 this year. Tommy Adams, owner and broker at Rise Real Estate, blamed the drop on several factors, including tighter mortgage lending guidelines, higher gas prices and the deflated housing market elsewhere. "People coming here can't sell their houses back home," said Adams, who has been selling homes in the Huntsville market for more than 30 years, including the late 1970s, when mortgage interest rates were 18 percent.

Find out more on the Huntsville home sales story here