The Huntsville Area Association of Realtors (HAAR) has released their monthly report for the month of August 2023.

The report shows that the average sale price of a home in the Huntsville/Madison-County region has seen a very modest increase relative to August the previous year, bumping up to $370K from $367K. This still remains well below the national median list price of $435K.

The total number of homes sold in August dropped to 630, compared to 776 in 2022. Homes spent longer on the market compared to last year, with August’s average days on market doubling to 24 from 11 days. However, the 1015 pending sales registered for August are an indication of the pick up in the activity that we’re seeing in the weekly reports throughout September.

The inventory of homes in the area continued to build, with a total of 1678 homes on the market for August, up from 1326 from the previous year.

HAAR President HAAR President Chris Hulser-Hoover weighed in on the report.

“At HAAR, affordable and attainable housing is our top priority. With new construction housing planned for the rest of the year in North Alabama, inventory will continue increasing, allowing new home buyers to enter the market between the $250k-$300k price range,” said Husler-Hoover.

On the national stage, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has gathered to discuss interest rates and inflation. The high interest rates of the Federal Reserve have hit the brakes hard on the housing market, but they have also kept inflation from running out of control, cutting the rate of inflation by half since the previous year. The Federal Reserve has signaled that cutting the rate of inflation to a sustained two percent would be an optimal outcome for the economy at large.

These measures have appeared to be successful enough that the majority of economic experts expect to keep the current rates in place, to gauge the impact of these rates on the market before making a decision in the spring of next year. However, the Fed still maintains a willingness to hike interest rates if it looks like inflation could resume the upwards leap that the interest rates slowed.

“Although inflation has moved down from its peak — a welcome development — it remains too high. We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during an economic symposium in August.

The Huntsville Business Journal will continue to monitor these developments in the real estate market as they occur. To read more stories like this, please visit