Birmingham home sales take big March leap

Birmingham area home sales were up more than 55 percent in March over the previous month, according to TomBrander.com.

The local real estate blog reported that total dollar sales for area homes sold in March totaled $177.4 million, a 55.3 percent increase over February’s $114.2 million and a nearly 9 percent increase over March of last year.

Month-over-month unit sales increased, too, by 46 percent to 1,185 in March, compared to 810 in February. That’s a 12 percent increase over the same month in 2009. New home sales saw a monthly gain of 97 percent to 207 sold during the month.

However, a “larger than normal” inventory increase in new and used homes is ongoing. Despite a year-over-year decrease in inventory of 2 percent, Brander said the months of inventory has begun to creep up, particularly in some of Birmingham’s more affluent areas, like Homewood, which currently has a 14-month supply of used inventory.

And the 12-month moving average for average sales prices continues to head down, reflecting the majority of the sales in the lower price range and the near-absence of high-end home sales.

But the jump in March sales could signal a thaw in the market.

“We have not seen this sort of month-to-month gain since the boom years of 2004-2007,” said Brander. “We expect the outlook for sales next month to trend up. The twelve month moving average line of total dollar sales chart again seems to be fairly ‘flat’. This is a sign of the market beginning to find its footing.”