The Huntsville Area Association of Realtors (HAAR) has released its monthly report for March 2024.

The total number of homes sold in Huntsville/Madison County declined from the previous year, down to 536 from 651 in March 2023.

Madison County saw 1107 pending sales in March, which is up from 1049 the previous year. At the same time, houses spent an average of 46 days on the market, up from 35.

The inventory of homes continued to build, with 1814 in 2024, compared to 1393 in 2023. The average sales price increased slightly year-over-year, up to $374k, up from $368k the previous year.

Across all nine counties covered by the Valley MLS network, listings increased by 21.8%.

“March’s impressive numbers reflect a market that is primed for a busy Spring selling season,” said Kurtis Krueger, CEO of Huntsville Area Association of Realtors and ValleyMLS. “Home sales continue to keep Realtors busy, despite mortgage rates continuing to fluctuate. This is good news for both buyers and sellers – there are still plenty of chances to find the right home or make a good sale. We feel positive about where the market is headed.”

On the national stage, the National Association of Realtors reports that the share of homebuyers who paid cash for their home reached a ten-year high. Cash buyers accounted for 32% of all home purchases in January.

Real estate investors and vacation-home buyers made up the majority of cash buyers during the past 6 months; among those consumers who paid cash for a home purchase last year, 26% were repeat buyers, while just 6% were first-time buyers.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gave indication that the Fed may not begin lowering interest rates in the timeframe expected.

“We’ll need greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably towards 2% before [it will be] appropriate to ease policy,” said Chairman Powell.

“The recent data has clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence,” said Chairman Jerome Powell during a recent panel talk.

With inflation remaining stubbornly high, the mortgage rates could well remain high as well, or even increasing itself. This could have a stunting effect on the spring real estate season.

As always, the Huntsville Business Journal will continue to monitor developments in the real estate market, both here and on the national scale.