A Look At Home Sales In Birmingham’s Eastlake Neighborhood

Will Eastlake Be The Next Hot Market In Birmingham?

Over the last several years home sales within Birmingham have generally been on the upswing. While you always have certain segments of every market that tend to lag behind you also have those areas that follow the general trend of the area.

In the past, Birmingham’s Eastlake neighborhood has been one of those pocket areas that usually occupy the lower end of the price range. While Eastlake is still like this in many ways, it has also shown some signs of life as the trend in values is starting to move in an upward direction. Check out this graph of median sales prices over the last 5 years.

The last 5 years have seen a gradual increase compared to prior. The graph below shows average home prices since 1998. As you can see prices steadily declined with the exception of the last quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. After this
spike, prices steadily declined until the first quarter of 2012 where you can see it started its upward trend until the present.

As I mentioned previously the Eastlake neighborhood has historically been at the lower end of the price range. The following graphs illustrate where the majority of sales occur.

Most of the sales in Eastlake fall in the $10,000-$20,000 price range. This is primarily due to a large number of foreclosure sales, which make up approximately two-thirds of total sales. Because of this, Eastlake provides a great opportunity for investors.

Over the past 10 years, prices were on a slow decline with some periods of slight increases but for the most part, the trend was downward. The average and median sales price slowly started increasing around 2011 and is currently in an upward trend.

If you look at all of the sales over the past 10 years you will see that overall sales volume is down from 8-10 years ago but there are more sales in the upper price ranges. There is a pocket of new construction sales in the adjacent Woodlawn area in the $250,000 range and they are being sold, which gives us hope for Eastlake.

As more and more shopping and entertainment venues open up in downtown Birmingham and move eastward this will make the Eastlake area more attractive to buyers.

Several years ago Birmingham community leaders created the Eastlake Initiative to help businesses collaborate with one another to help aid in the transformation of the area. This includes the creation of a neighborhood garden that has helped educate students about the benefits of incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables into their diets and to provide free produce to local residents.

Key Takeaways For The Eastlake Area of Birmingham

So what does all of this mean for the future of the area and property values? Here’s what I came up with but if you would like to add your own thoughts please leave a comment below because I’d love to hear your thoughts.

1) Prices for non-distressed property sales are increasing.
2) The area is undergoing economic changes that are attracting both investors and buyers that is having a positive impact on the area.
3) There is an abundance of distressed properties for investors to purchase at cheap prices.
4) The ARV’s of Eastlake homes are high enough that it offers a good return on the investment which is attracting more investors.

Conclusion

Do you have a story about Eastlake? Please share by leaving a comment below.

If you want to start investing in Eastlake check out a recent post I wrote about how to get a more accurate ARV. To be a successful investor you have to make sure all of the pieces of the puzzle are put together in the right way, and this starts with an accurate ARV on the property you are rehabbing. If I can help you with anything feel free to contact me or leave a message below. As always, thanks for reading.

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