Birmingham Alabama Real Estate Blog

In 2002, things changed for Cahaba Heights, as it was annexed by Vestavia Hills, Alabama.

Due to the convenience of the area to Highway 280, I-459, and pretty much anywhere in the Birmingham Area, people often look there for a home. The Cahaba Heights Real Estate Market Statistics are one of those places we often get asked about.

In 2007, Cahaba Heights Home Prices and Cahaba Heights Real Estate Market Stats were as follows:

In Cahaba Heights for the 2007 year, 65 homes sold with an average price of $279,718. The median price was $260,000 and the price range of sold properties was $145,000 to $817,475 with an average of 71 days on market. 

Cahaba Heights had a total of 132 properties come on the market with an average price of $332,742, a median price of $280,450 and a price range of $145,000 to $899,000

To see how much your Cahaba Heights Home may be worth or to get a Free Monthly Report of Cahaba Heights home prices, visit CahabaHeightsHomePrices.com 

To search homes for sale in Vestavia and all its communities visit VestaviaHomeSearch.com.

While the Birmingham market is having its second best year ever, the state is not doing so bad itself.

Alabama had its third best year ever.

Across the state sales dropped 5% from 2006. This number is very insignificant compared to a lot of markets across the US, and the 13% overall average for the nation.

2006 and 2005 were the only two years to have higher numbers of transactions than the 57,083 we had in 2007.

The median price dropped to $217,000 a total of 1.8% drop for the nation, while Alabama held steady at about $129,000

In an article, State Posts Its 3rd Best Total Amid Decline, Grayson Glaze, director of UA's Alabama Center for Real Estate, "noted another positive for Alabama - a decline in the number of homes on the market since a peak was reached in July. This so-called "inventory" figure is considered a key indicator because having a high number of homes for sale puts pressure on prices." and "The long-term key in 2008 to generating stability in the housing market is the continued correction of the inventory imbalance, the continued improvement in the levels of housing affordability and the restoration of consumer confidence in the market place..."

Over the previous 2 years, 2005 and 2006, Alabama was experiencing record growth. Obviously, while this trend is fun to have it is typically not something you would experience for a number of years consecutively.

According to Grayson Glaze, "Home sales in 2008 will represent a more sustainable pace when compared to recent years where record sales and sales growth were the norm..."

He also noted that Alabama has good indicators when the future talking about our economy and said,  "The state's underlying economy remains stable despite the slower projected growth, state unemployment remains below the national average and Alabama consumers' personal income continues to experience steady growth..."

Looks like Alabama and the Greater Birmingham Area are proving to be quite resilient.  

The speculation is over for sure! (I suppose)

The Birmingham Alabama Real Estate Market was the second best year ever for 2007! 

The Birmingham Alabama Real Estate Market trailed 2006, the best year ever for our market, by only 7% with 17,476 transactions.

But what about the prices? Was there a drop there as well?

The median price was $160,800 compared to $161,700 in 2006.

The average selling price was $198,240, compared to $198,340 in 2006

Even the values of new homes sold remained high being the third best ever at $1,300,000,000 just behind $1,500,000,000 of 2006 and $1,360,000,000 of 2005.

According to an article, Home Sales Down But Second Best Year Ever, Birmingham Realtors Say, "A positive trend cited by Brander is a continued decline in the number of area homes listed for sale. There were 12,379 active listings in December, down from 14,247 a month earlier. New home listings dropped from 485 in November to 324 in December."

The executive vice president of the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders, Bart Fletcher noted that "the drop in inventory is good for the housing market. Having too many homes on the market puts pressure on prices."

Here are some facts:

1. Every 76 seconds (thats more than 1,136 times a day) a home in the United States catches fire.

2. More than 3,600 children under the age of 14 are killed or injured in a fire every year. 

3. In 2006, there were over 3,200 fire fatalities and more than 16,000 injuries. That's one death every 162 minutes and one injury every 32 minutes.

4. Approximate loss of property resulted in $11,307,000,000 in 2006.

5. 80% of all fire deaths were in the home. 

Are you getting the point?

Your home is like a treasure chest. It holds your greatest blessings... your wife, your husband, your kids... What are you doing to protect your treasure?

I ran across a list today of Top 20 Fire Prevention Tips. You can go the link to see them all, but some of the tips were:

1. Don't use extension cords permanently; extension cords are responsible for more than 3,300 residential fires every year.
2. Keep your outside grill at least three feet away from the side of the house.
3. Clean the lint screen of your dryer every time you use it, and turn the dryer off when you leave the house.

You can also get some great advice on setting up a Fire Safety Plan on the site.

Some links you can also use are:

www.Fire Safety.gov for Kids

www.McGruff.org

As a current or future home owner, we urge you to take the time to not just educate yourself but also prepare yourself so that your truest treasure can be protected.

Every weeks, it seems, I learn about another site, another way to social bookmark, another way to social network, or maybe even another place to put my blog!

Does it not seem a bit overwhelming sometimes? What to do? What do I choose? Where do I go? Where will I be found?

Those kind of sound like the questions of the bloggers universe, do they not?

I was playing around a bit today and found this little video. I thought you might enjoy it.

So, what are your favorite words?

In 1997 Alabama joined placed itself on the map of automakers when their first Mercedes M-Class came off the line. Since then Alabama's Vance Mercedes-Benz plant has been manufacturing the R-Class, M-Class and GL-Class vehicles.

Merecedes made an announcement at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

"Mercedes-Benz plans to introduce its first hybrid vehicle in 2009 - a version of the M-Class sport utility that is assembled at the German automaker's Alabama factory in Vance."

According to Mercedes, they should begin hitting the market in 2009. This new hybrid model will have "a V-6 gasoline engine and two electric motors — that will generate 340 horsepower and get about 31 miles per gallon." This will also be Mercedes' first gas-electric vehicle.

To learn more about this announcement, you can read, Vance Plant To Produce Mercedes' First Hybrid, Alabama Plant to Produce Mercedes' First Hybrid Vehicle, or Alabama Plant To Make Hybrid Version of Mercedes M-Class.

The recession is coming! The recession is coming!

The chicken little's of the media are squaking at every opportunity that have. However, Alabama may be one of the states that make it appear as though they are crying wolf. (We do recogonize that other states will experience one, we just might be an exception!)

According to a couple of article published over the past week, Alabama looks like it may be standing firm. These articles are UA Report: No Recession for Alabama in 2008 and Experts: Alabama's Economy to Fare Better Than Many States.

In the articles we learn that the University of Alabama's Center for Business and Economic Research, has given the state an economic forecast of "moderate growth - but no recession."

Some of the stats they indicated were,  the creation of 21,000 new jobs in Alabama for 2008 and another 23,000 new jobs to be created for 2009.

The AP noted that, "Gov. Bob Riley sees positives in the forecast. He says while the economy is slowing down, it is still growing. And that means more new jobs."

As said before, Alabama is not only a good place to live, but a good place to do business as well. 

As mentioned before, in today's market, there are a lot of things that can cause problems when getting a home.  Since one of those things high on a lot of lists is the loan, we wanted to give a little information that might help increase the likelihood of a yes or at least strengthen the file. 

We are going to be looking at four things lenders look at when deciding on whether or not they should approve a loan. 

Four of these things are:

1. Your credit

2. Your income,

3. Your job and how long you have been there and its stability.

4. Your future income

After going over these four items, hopefully, we can help you prepare yourself to increase your chance of getting that coveted preapproval. 

Today, we want to look at your future income prospects. Lenders know that loans take 15-30 years to be paid off, so they do take an interest in those who can demonstrate that they will have a certain level of income or higher for a sustained period of time.

Now, let me note that from talking to mortgage professionals that this will probably not turn a no into a yes, but rather, it strengthens your loan scenario which can help with a quicker closing, for example.  

To summarize all that we will have said, you need to pay your bills on time, stay with an employer (unless you are moving for advancement), and have a career path that demonstrates a consistent or growing income potential, and your “YES” becomes a lot more likely.

As mentioned before, in today's market, there are a lot of things that can cause problems when getting a home.  Since one of those things high on a lot of lists is the loan, we wanted to give a little information that might help increase the likelihood of a yes or at least strengthen the file. 

We are going to be looking at four things lenders look at when deciding on whether or not they should approve a loan. 

Four of these things are:

1. Your credit

2. Your income,

3. Your job and how long you have been there and its stability.

4. Your future income

After going over these four items, hopefully, we can help you prepare yourself to increase your chance of getting that coveted preapproval. 

Today, we want to look at your job and how long you have been there and its stability. Something lenders love to see is that you have a job. Yes, it is true. Employment is a good thing to lenders.

Some things that lenders want to know about your employment are as follows:

· They want to know that your income stream is stable.

· You have been at your job for a year or more. (Unless you are new to the workforce.)

· Due to the fact they tie a correlation between your job and loan payment, a lot of lateral moves make them nervous. In other words, just moving for the sake of moving, not necessarily for benefits.

· If a move does occur and has occurred they would like to see that it was something to improve your financial standing.

As mentioned before, in today's market, there are a lot of things that can cause problems when getting a home.  Since one of those things high on a lot of lists is the loan, we wanted to give a little information that might help increase the likelihood of a yes or at least strengthen the file. 

We are going to be looking at four things lenders look at when deciding on whether or not they should approve a loan. 

Four of these things are:

1. Your credit

2. Your income,

3. Your job and how long you have been there and its stability.

4. Your future income

After going over these four items, hopefully, we can help you prepare yourself to increase your chance of getting that coveted preapproval. 

Today, we want to look at your income. When lenders look at your income they want to be able to see a history of income that it is consistently at an amount that could make payments on the home. (Pay increases are OK, it's the decreases they don't like to see.)

To address this with you lender, when you turn in your loan paperwork be sure to include a letter that verifies your employment showing how long you have worked there and stating your salary, a copy of your last couple of paychecks (they should let you know how far back they will need), and a copy of your W-2.

Doing this should give your lender a clear picture of your income so they can know how to figure what you can afford.