I recently performed an appraisal in the Lake Crest subdivision of Hoover, Alabama and I wanted to share with you what I found. Lake Crest is located just off of Highway 150 and east of Shades Crest Road. This is a very convenient area in Hoover with close access to interstate 459 and Regions Park, home of the Birmingham Barons. Let’s take a look at what’s been happening.
Over the past 5 years, since June of 2006, there have been approximately 107 sales listed through the Birmingham MLS service. Sales of homes by owner (FSBO’s) have not been included in this analysis. In the first period, from June of 2006 to June of 2007, prices did increase, however in all but one period after that the average price has decreased. Remember, the average statistic is influenced more by wide variations. If we look at the median, which is a better picture of whats happening, we see that in every period after the first we have a decrease. In addition, days on market has steadily increased and the number of sales dropped off, but then held relatively steady. A graphical representation of the sales price over this time period would look like this:
As you can see, in the earlier time periods, it looks as if there were more sales concentrated in the range between $350,000 and $450,000, whereas in the later time period they were dispersed all over the board with the lower price range having their fair share of sales. At the current time there are approximately 23 homes for sale ranging in price from $232,900 to $640,000.
These findings are not a surprise. This type of activity has been happening all over the country and also the Birmingham, Alabama area. Our area has not been as badly effected as many others however. I share this information with you so that if you are trying to sell a house you can go into the task with information to help you price your home accordingly. Many people are pricing their homes today with facts and figures that are several years old. By doing this their homes are overpriced, which takes them longer to sell. This is one of the statistics shown above, which is shown as increasing. Have you had problems in pricing a home for sale? What was your experience? If you have any questions I would love to talk with you.
If you have any real estate appraisal related questions you can call me at 205.243.9304, email me, or connect with me on facebook.
That’s not too bad of a decline considering how bad things are in California. 🙂 Nice graph, Tom.
I’m with you Ryan. It is not as bad as other areas in the country.