The greater Birmingham metro area has seen residential sales climb significantly over the last few months, with December 2013 showing an improvement in sales by 16.6 percent from December 2012. Throughout the year of 2013, it has been recorded that the market has grown 10.3 percent. The inventory-to-sales ratio in December was 8.2 months of housing supply, an improvement from last month (9.5). Restated, at the December sales pace, it would take 8.2 months to absorb the current inventory for sale. The market equilibrium (balance between supply and demand) is considered to be approximately 8 months during the month of December so this represents significant improvement from just three years ago when it was 14.6 months of supply in November 2010.

Birmingham real estate inventory decreased by 3.6 percent from the prior month, with December residential sales improved 12.0 percent from the prior month. The median selling price in December was $159,900, an increase of 3.2 percent from last December ($155,000). In contrast, the December median price slipped 3.7 percent when compared to the prior month. This trend is consistent with historical data (’08-’12) indicating that the December median selling price traditionally decreases from the month of November by 2.5 percent.