Real Estate Update: Pending Sales Pick Up, Despite National Trend

The Huntsville Area Association of Realtors (HAAR) has released statistics for the Huntsville/Madison County market that shows that our local real estate market is defying national trends in terms of pending sales. 

Nationally, pending sales have been dropping. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), pending home sales have declined by an average of 7.1% month-over-month, reaching the lowest level since April of 2020. 

The NAR attributes this decline to rising borrowing costs and a scarcity of new homes on the market. 

However, the latest statistics out of HAAR, dated to the last week of September, show that pending sales in our region have actually picked up. 

Pending sales of single-family homes increased 8.6%, representing 241 total sales. Pending sales of townhouse/condo units increased by 44%, but as those units represent a much smaller portion of the units bought and sold in our region, that represents an increase of only 13 sales.

Still, these numbers do show continued high demand for housing in our area. New listings for single-family homes increased 1.3%, while townhouse/condo units saw a 50% increase in new listings. While the inventory of single-family units increased by 9.4%, the inventory of townhouse/condo units actually decreased by 22.9%. 

In interest rate news, an alliance of real estate industry groups, including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Homebuilders, issued a rare public letter to the Federal Reserve, urging it to stop rate hikes. The open letter cited “profound concern” about the “instability” caused in part by uncertainty about the Fed’s willingness to hike rates once more. 

This letter comes the same week that a report from Freddie Mac shows interest rates rising for five weeks in a row. 

“The speed and magnitude of these [mortgage] rate increases, and resulting dislocation in our industry, is painful and unprecedented,” the letter from the housing groups said. 

For further updates on the state of the real estate market, both locally and nationally, continue reading the Huntsville Business Journal.