Subscribe and receive email notifications of new blog posts.
RSS Feed
- 2026 | 17 Posts
- 2025 | 49 Posts
- 2024 | 50 Posts
- 2023 | 36 Posts
- 2022 | 53 Posts
- 2021 | 63 Posts
- 2020 | 77 Posts
- 2019 | 1 Posts
- 2018 | 2 Posts
- 2016 | 3 Posts
- 2015 | 8 Posts
- 2014 | 1 Posts
- 2012 | 1 Posts
- 2011 | 2 Posts
25
Gulf Coast real estate market begins shifting back to pre-pandemic levels
The multiple offer situation became a representation of the pandemic real estate market in America these past few years. And while Alabama's Gulf Coast is normally buffered a bit from those national attention-grabbing headlines, the market here was also undoubtedly tighter than normal.
But good news is on the horizon. The tides of the real estate market both nationally and along Alabama's Gulf Coast are beginning to turn, according to recent market stats. The frenzied pace of the real estate market in the past few years has begun to return to pre-pandemic levels. It's an expected shift in the market that's been long-awaited by home buyers, who are looking for reduced competition and an increase in options, but the news isn't bad for sellers either.
The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) report for June 2022, the latest month available, details national existing-home sales declined for the fifth straight month, down 5.4% from May and 14.2% from one year ago, and the number of unsold homes rose to 3.0 months of inventory at the current sales pace. But in the same month, the median home price in the United States reached a new record high at $416,000, a 14.8% increase from a year ago.
Of course, while we expect home prices to remain slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels, they will likely adjust to reflect the slight increase in inventory, decrease in sales and increase in mortgage rates. In Baldwin County in June, 1,054 new listings hit the market, up 3.6% from a year ago, and 742 homes sold, down by 27.5% from last year, according to data from Baldwin REALTORS®. In the Mobile County in June, according to data from the Mobile Area Association of REALTORS®, 651 new listings hit the market, a 6.1% decrease from last year, and 517 homes sold, down 24.4% from June last year.
If you've been looking at Vital Signs for any length of time, you'll notice more blue and purple blocks appearing now, indicating buyer's or balanced markets respectively. While we are still technically in a seller's market overall at the moment – you can still see a majority of red blocks in Vital Signs – you have also seen the market shifting incrementally these past couple months in both counties, though Baldwin County's shift was a bit more prominent than Mobile's in June.
With those stats in mind comes the all-important question: What does this mean to you as a potential home buyer or seller? If the pandemic real estate market was a bit too overwhelming for you, you will likely have more options on the market and fewer competitors for those homes than in the previous couple years. Interest rates also remain relatively low. They were higher from 2000 to 2008 than the average 5.23% we saw in May 2022, according to Freddie Mac. Of note to potential sellers, sales prices are still exceeding pre-pandemic levels in both Baldwin and Mobile counties.
While both buyers and sellers have valuable opportunities in the market right now, the experience of a REALTOR® becomes even more necessary. A REALTOR® will have an up-to-date pulse on real estate in your area to help you know the fair value of your home in a shifting market.
