What Are The Most Affordable Residential Real Estate Markets In Alabama?

By Stuart NortonAlabama Center for Real Estate

Real estate markets across Alabama are red hot. Total residential sales are growing in spite of low inventory levels and rising interest rates. Demand for new and existing homes is strong, and this is reflected in the average number of days on the market trending downward in a majority of Alabama’s markets.

With the summer buying months still ahead of us, it is time to take a look at housing affordability to see how Alabama’s markets compare to one another. But first, let’s see how the state compares to the nation as a whole.

The Alabama Housing Affordability Index (AHAI) for the first quarter of 2018 was calculated at 214.4. This means that a family earning Alabama’s median family income of $60,200 has a little more than 2.14 times the required income to qualify for a loan to buy the statewide median-price home, which was $148,366 during the first quarter of 2018. The National Housing Affordability Index for the first quarter of 2018 was calculated at 155.7. A family earning the nationwide median family income of $71,900 had a little more than 1.55 times the necessary income to buy the nationwide median-priced home, which was $244,033. So even though median family income nationwide is 19.4 percent greater than median family income in Alabama, Alabama continues to be a more affordable market because our real estate prices are significantly lower than national averages.To read the Alabama Center for Real Estate’s entire Q1 2018 Alabama Housing Affordability Index, with a detailed explanation of the AHAI’s methodology, click here.

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