The Sky is Not Falling

Posted at 12:09 PM, Jun. 12, 2007

Finally, an article that's positive.  It's rather hard when you look across the broad spectrum and all you read and hear is "The Sky is Falling" when it comes to the Real Estate market.  This article explains the obvious - Real Estate fluctuates!  No really it does!  Not only does it constantly fluctuate from market to market but within a market.  For example while the news is constantly talking about the bubble bursting and sales being down, etc, when you look at my market - Huntsville AL and the surrounding areas - that is definately not the case.

In this area we have a few very positive things happening which affect the Real Estate market.

1. BRAC - Huntsville is a military town, we are based around Redstone arsenal and much of our business is military related.  The recent BRAC (Base Realignment and Closures Act) decision that not only decided once again to keep our base open but to bring thousands of new jobs to our base has had a booming affect on our market.  While the numbers are not exactly clear what we do know is that many jobs are coming and that there are more jobs being created than we have people to fill the jobs.   What this means...

2. And Influx of New People - unfortunately many people have a very distorted view of what Alabama is like.  When they come to Huntsville they usually find that their preconceptions were misconceptions and that Alabama (at least this part of it) is nothing like they imagined.  With so many new jobs being created not only through BRAC but through many other businesses moving here (many not related to the military), this means that many new people are moving here, add to that...

3. Low property values, and you've got a great market for housing.  Until recently it made no sense to rent unless you had to and even now if you have decent credit in this area you can buy more of a house than you can rent for the same payment (or less).  It's cheaper to buy than to rent.

4. Low Interest Rates - Despite the fact that they have been going up lately, they are still very low overall, allowing for many people to afford to buy who could not otherwise.

All in all, Huntsville is an awesome market to be in.  If you are considering investing in Real Estate, you may want to take a look at Huntsville Alabama where the property values are still low yet going up and we expect them to continue to rise steadily over the next 4 to 5 years (at least) as so many new jobs move into our area bringing new people with them.