Alabama home sales fell in June, except Dothan

BIRMINGHAM (AP) _ Home sales across metro Birmingham and Alabama plummeted during June, as the month that typically kicks off the busy summer selling season instead continued the dismal slump that has plagued real estate markets nationwide.

Metro area home sales dropped 35 percent last month against June 2007, while average and median prices also slid from June 2007, the Birmingham Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

Statewide, there was a similar picture. Prices fell from a year ago while sales tumbled nearly 27 percent, according to the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama.

While local market indicators are performing better than those in other parts of the country — and the latest numbers are being compared to last year’s record statistics — June sales still made a sobering impression.

For the Birmingham area, June capped a six-month period in which home sales declined 28 percent from the same time frame in 2007. And for the state, the degree of decline warrants broader concern for the industry, Grayson Glaze, executive director of the Alabama Center for Real Estate, wrote in his June housing report.

“The concern goes beyond the fact that June represents the 10th consecutive month of declining monthly sales, as that was a foregone conclusion given the strength of last June’s pace, but rather to the size of the percent differential,“ he said. “June ends a second quarter that experienced a 24 percent decline from the same period last year — unprecedented and a period without a close second.“

The Birmingham Realtors group said 1,253 homes were sold last month, compared with 1,929 in June 2007. The average selling price was $196,504, a 5.5 percent decline from June 2007, while the average median price was $164,400, a 3.3 percent drop.

The slow market is hitting every part of the metro area. Home sales dropped 37.4 percent in the southern neighborhoods, followed by declines topping 36 percent in the North and East and a 24 percent fall in the West.

Jim Lawrence of LAH Real Estate, past president of the Realtors group, acknowledged that the declines appear to be drastic, but noted record highs in 2007 are being used as a yardstick for the latest numbers.

The Birmingham market is in a correction, he said, and a full inventory of homes, along with interest rates that continue to be attractive, means it is buyers’ turn to call the shots.

“Sellers have been on a 10- to 12-year high,“ Lawrence said. “This correction is necessary, otherwise we would have homes priced out of the average home buyer’s market.“

However, a host of unsettling economic factors are keeping such buyers on the sidelines, including high gas prices, the upcoming presidential election and issues tied to the subprime loan crisis.

Meanwhile, Lawrence found a silver lining in the first six months of the year home sales statistics for metro Birmingham. Despite overall sales that dropped 28 percent to 6,702, the average price dipped just 2 percent to $194,000 while the median price remained flat at $159,600.

“The median price has moved very little and to me, that’s the best news of all,“ he said. “Homeowners have not lost value, and homes continue to be a pretty good investment,“ he said.

Cities including San Diego, Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas, where prices appreciated at a much quicker clip than Birmingham during the real estate boom, have seen a major bust in those numbers, Lawrence said.

Across Alabama, June’s average home selling price was $158,522, a 6 percent drop from June 2007. The median selling price fell nearly 6 percent to $130,066.

Total sales for the month hit 4,290, nearly 27 percent less than the year-ago period, which was the third best June on record, the Alabama Real Estate Center said. Dothan was the only reporting area with positive sales growth compared to a year ago.

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Information from: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews