Archive for the 'Alabama Articles' Category

Properties offered at HUD home auction and foreclosure sales are available at almost half their original prices, which effectively pushed new houses out of the property-selling market. In Alabama however, the homebuilding sector is starting to gain traction, with activities picking up during the early part of the year. Data for February 2011 showed that home construction activities have risen in the region.

Mobile home auctions and Birmingham foreclosure sales are still dominating the market, but homebuilders are gaining confidence as evident in the increased number of new home projects in these areas. A report from the Alabama Center for Real Estate revealed that Birmingham filed 120 homebuilding permits for single family houses during February, representing a jump of 9.1% compared with the previous month.

The report also showed that statewide home construction activities also improved even with cheap properties available by the thousands at foreclosure auctions in Alabama. For the second month of 2011, a total of 659 home construction permits were issued statewide, representing an increase of 20.5% compared with January 2011. It also marked the first home construction activity increase for the state after 10 months of non-stop declines. In addition, the supply of new homes in Alabama has gone down in February to 2,400 new dwellings.

The total represents a 21% decrease from February 2010 and could mean that more people are buying new houses instead of properties at bank and HUD home auction. Despite the month-over-month increase in home building activities in Birmingham and the whole state of Alabama, analysts claimed that the new home market still has a long way to go before it recovers. They cited the lack of year-over-year improvement as basis for this declaration.

Analysts asserted that properties in foreclosure auction are still ahead of new houses, although the gap seemed to be diminishing. February figures showed that home construction activities in Birmingham were still 27% lower than February 2010 activities, based on the number of construction permits issued during the period. For the whole state, house construction permits in February of this year remained lower than one year ago by 16%. Housing analysts expect the gap to continue to narrow, though.

According to them, residential sales at bank and HUD home auction will continue to account for a huge percentage of residential transactions in Alabama for the rest of 2011. However, they also expect homebuilding activities to improve further in the coming months as more homebuyers enter the market for the spring home buying season.

The residential property auction list of Huntsville, Alabama, is expected to gain more potential buyers in the coming years as the metro area continues its rapid growth. As of 2011, Huntsville has become the second metro area in Alabama with the highest number of residents, surpassing Mobile after years of continuous population growth.

With the number of Montgomery foreclosed home auctions and distressed property supplies in almost all parts of the state remaining at high levels, an increase in population will be beneficial since it will mean more people who can potentially purchase properties within the state, especially those who moved in from another state or region. In Huntsville, real estate analysts are considering the opportunities that the metro area's rapid growth can bring into the housing market.

Home sellers are hoping that the rise in the number of Huntsville residents will translate into more buyers at Alabama house auctions. The metro area is projected to become the most populous Alabama city in the coming years, particularly since it is the only region that is currently gaining in terms of population. Birmingham has reportedly lost a lot of residents who moved to other places, while Montgomery's population has remained almost flat. Mobile also recorded population declines in the past few years.

For those who are hoping for a wider buyer base for homes at property auction list and other residential properties for sale, they would probably need to target areas beyond city limits since census reports showed that in the past 10 years, more people have been moving to communities at the edge of the main city. The latest census data showed that Huntsville has added around 75,000 to its population during the 2000-2010 decade.

Meanwhile, census reports also showed that the biggest population jump outside of Huntsville is happening in Madison County. Foreclosure auction properties and non-foreclosed home markets in this part of the state have definitely benefitted from surging number of residents. Madison is being tapped as the next big urban place of Alabama, with experts expecting it to surpass Decatur as the ninth biggest city of Alabama.

A population growth in any place is always welcome news for that particular area's housing market. In Huntsville, sellers of houses under property auction list are hopeful that the growth will continue in the coming years. The population growth in the region has been largely attributed to the presence of high paying defense industry and military jobs.

Sales of housing units, including residential tax lien foreclosures, fell in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010 when compared with 2009 figures. Meanwhile, housing prices remained almost flat for both median and average rates. Foreclosed dwellings still accounted for a big percentage of total housing unit sales.

The total number of dwellings from Birmingham foreclosure auctions and from other sales channels that were sold last year represented a 9% decline when compared with the previous year, according to data presented by the Birmingham Association of Realtors. The data also showed that 9,500 residential structures were purchased by buyers during the period, down from the 2009 total of 10,568.

Sales from Alabama foreclosure auctions and state-based sellers also posted some declines last year, mirroring trends in most housing regions in the U.S. Despite the sales decline, Birmingham home prices did not suffer from considerable losses like other metro areas in the U.S. In 2010, average and median prices of dwellings declined by only 1% compared with the previous period. Average price was pegged at $171,000, while median price was at $144,500.

As with other U.S. housing markets, sales of homes, such as residential tax lien foreclosures, dropped considerably in Birmingham during the last month of the year. December 2010 figures showed that 684 houses were sold in the metro area for the month, representing an 11% decrease compared with December 2009. Average housing price for December was $162,343, representing a fall of 13%. Median price, on the other hand, was at $138,900 – 8% short than the median price recorded in December of 2009.

The city listed a total of 9,942 residential properties at foreclosure home auctions or as available for sale. The figure is 6% more than the total dwellings listed as for-sale in December 2009. Out of the total number of housing units sold during the month, 257 were foreclosed properties. This means that 38% of total houses sold during the month were accounted for by foreclosed dwellings.

According to the Realtors, foreclosed houses were purchased for an average of $90,677 during the last month of the year, including tax lien foreclosures. Most analysts are expecting prices and sales to continue to drop in the metro area in 2011 as foreclosure numbers surge.

Mortgage entities Citigroup, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have suspended single-family, multifamily and mobile foreclosure auctions in Alabama and three other Gulf Coast states – Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida – for three months until September 17 to help homeowners affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill.

Repossessed houses are being sold by banks in Georgia at a faster rate compared to the pace of sales over the past several months. Billy Mayhew, CEO of Douglas County Bank, said that over the past several months, his bank has been drowning in unsold properties repossessed from home builders. But now, he said the [...]

Lower-priced homes for sale in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina have been pulling down home prices, based on data from the area's Multiple Listing Service and real estate research firm Site Tech Systems. The median home sales price in the area has fallen to $176,000 in the third quarter, a 12-percent drop from the same quarter [...]

Contrary to the views of some potential homebuyers, repossessed homes are taken care of by mortgage banks and other national lenders. According to real estate participants, whenever banks or lenders foreclose on a house, they immediately assign the foreclosed property to a real estate company which will immediately see to it that the property is [...]

Andy Meisner, newly appointed treasurer of Oakland County, Michigan has proposed to set up a county land bank to buy, renovate and sell repossession homes. But his proposal was met with skepticism by the Oakland County executive. Meisner proposes that the county purchase and manage mortgage-foreclosed and tax-foreclosed homes to maintain them and placed them [...]

In May, home sales in the Florida counties of Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee comprised largely of repossessed houses for sale and other homes priced below $300,000, according to real estate records in Florida. In Sarasota, 78 percent of total houses sold in May, including repossessed houses for sale, were priced below $300,000. Around 12 percent [...]