Click here to view or print the entire monthly report compliments of the ACRE Corporate Cabinet.

Sales: According to the Multiple Listing Service of the Shoals Area Association of Realtors, Shoals Area* residential sales totaled 87 units during January, a decrease of 9.4 percent or nine units below the same period last year. Two more resources to review: Quarterly Report and Annual Report.

For all Shoals area real estate data, click here. 

Home sales in Shoals during January totaled 87 units.

Forecast: January sales landed two units below our monthly forecast. Alabama Center for Real Estate’s (ACRE) year-to-date sales forecast through January projected 89 closed transactions while the actual sales were 87 units, a dip of 2.2 percent.

Supply: Shoals Area housing inventory totaled 980 units, a decrease of 8.9 percent from January 2015. Inventory also decreased 0.8 percent from the prior month. Historical data suggests housing inventory increases generally by 1.6 percent from December to January. Inventory has favorably declined 14.5 percent from the month of January peak of 1,146 units reached in 2010.

The inventory-to-sales ratio in January was 11.3 months of housing supply, an increase of 0.5 percent from last January. Restated, at the January sales pace, it would take 11.3 months to absorb the current inventory for sale. The market equilibrium (balance between supply and demand) is considered to be approximately 6 months (not seasonally adjusted) during January.

Demand: January sales decreased 37 percent from the prior month. Historical data from 2011-15 indicates typical sales decrease 13.1 percent from December to January.

Pricing: The Shoals Area median sales price in January was $120,000, an increase of 10 percent from January 2015. The median sales price also increased 3.4 percent from the prior month. This direction is consistent with historical data indicating that the January median sales price on average (2011-15) decreases by 7.2 percent from the month of December. Pricing can fluctuate from month-to-month as the sample size of data (closed transactions) is subject to seasonal buying patterns so a broader lens as to pricing trends is appropriate and we recommend contacting a local real estate professional for additional market pricing information.

Industry Perspective: “Housing affordability is being constrained because the pace of growth in real income has not kept up with gains in real home prices as demand has grown faster than supply,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae. “On the bright side, consumers have been increasingly positive about their ability to get a mortgage, suggesting that credit tightness is not the main issue limiting housing market activity today, a feeling that we also see conveyed by lenders in our Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey^®. We expect further progress in the HPSI to be limited until income growth picks up or supply, particularly in lower-priced homes, expands more rapidly.” For the full report, click here. 

The average home in Shoals during January sold for $149,091.

On average, homes sold in Shoals during January spent 99 days on the market.

Supply decreased to below 1,000 units in Shoals during January.

The median sales price in Shoals for January rose to $120,000.

There was 11.3 months of supply on the market in Shoals during January.

Home sales were 45 percent above the all-time 2011 low of 60 units in Shoals for January.

The Shoals Area Residential Monthly Report is work product developed in conjunction with the Shoals Area Association of Realtors to better serve its area consumers.