As I mentioned in last month’s update, we are now focusing the monthly Dothan real estate market update on numbers that are most relevant month-to-month, such as pendings and solds, inventory levels, and absorption rate. Other statistics, such as median price, days on market, and list-to-sale price ratio, can fluctuate significantly each month, so we will analyze those each quarter instead. Inventory and absorption rates will be updated next week. Here are the sales and pending sales numbers. Sales and Pending Sales Real estate sales are seasonal. Activity slows here in the Dothan market during the winter months, and early spring and mid-summer are usually the busiest. So when looking at numbers for pendings and solds, we need to compare current data with the same months in previous yea... 02/14/2008

At the corner of East Main Street and Museum Street in downtown Dothan, there is a small park. Today, it is a gathering place for different events throughout the year, or even a place to enjoy an outdoor lunch. Many years ago, this was the spot where a spring, called Poplar Head Spring, served as a meeting place for Indian traders. Later, this was where the first families settled in what was later to become the city of Dothan. Across the street is the location of an old mule stable, which for many years in the early 1900’s was one of the largest mule trading posts in the south. The stable was torn down in the 1970’s. I don’t know if you can read it in the picture, but the mule stable was owned by Marvin Holman. I believe, and somebody correct me if I am wrong, that Mr. Holman’s daughter... 02/13/2008

It didn't get much coverage in the media, but Houston County quietly set property tax millage rates for 2008 at last Monday's county commission meeting. Rates for this year will remain the same as last year at 21.5 mills for the county assessment (A mill is equal to one-tenth of a cent). In 2007, there was an increase of two mills passed along to Houston County property owners to meet a requirement by the state of at least 10 mills for all Alabama public schools. Before last year, Houston County collected eight mills for local schools. Who gets the highest property tax bill every year in Houston County? Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant gets a bill for over $9 million every year. That is over 40% of all property taxes collected in the county last year. So how do our property tax rates comp... 02/11/2008

Judy Spears posted this on our website today The number of new homes started in January was down from December, reflecting the continuing slowdown in housing starts here in Dothan. Here is the trend over the last twelve months. As of this morning, there were 243 new construction homes listed in the Dothan area MLS, up slightly from December. There are currently 43 in pending status and a total of 13 new homes sold in January. These numbers are from the Dothan Multiple Listing Service and are deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. The new home market in Dothan is just ripe for buyers right now. No two ways about it. If you have an interest in building or purchasing a new construction home, give me a call or email me at Judy(at)c21keyrealty.com. As a Certified New Homes Specialist (CNHS), I... 02/07/2008

With Fort Rucker, Alabama serving as the Home of Army Aviation, there are a constant stream of soldiers coming into and out of the base. Here in Dothan, which is about 20-30 minutes from the base, we see many soldiers choose to live here because of the greater access to restaurants, entertainment, and various other things that enhance their experience in southeast Alabama. Fort Rucker is easily accessed via US Hwy 84 West, or US Hwy 231 North. From the west side of Dothan, it is usually a 15-20 minute drive once you get on Hwy 84. Housing options on base Picerne Family Housing has this website for those looking to live on base. They have tons of information about the different housing options on Fort Rucker. Base housing is currently undergoing a $162 million dollar revitalization with ... 02/05/2008

Keshia Nix posted this article on our company blog, dothanhomesearch.com. One of the most popular elementary schools in the Dothan City School system right now is Hidden Lake Elementary. The school has grown to one of the largest elementary schools in Dothan in just a few short years, and has been expanded once a couple of years ago. Located in southeast Dothan, this area is one of the fast growing in the city. The map below is an approximate representation of the Hidden Lake Elementary school zone. Please consult the Dothan City Schools website, or give me a call, to confirm the school zone for your property. You can zoom in or out or pan the map by using the controls in the top left corner of the map. View Larger Map Here is a link to reports for Hidden Lake Elementary school from the... 02/05/2008

The construction of a limited-access highway to connect Dothan with I-10 in the Florida Panhandle has been a topic of discussion here for several years. It seems there may be a new development. From WSFA in Montgomery The route that was decided on last year does not make much sense to me, because it doesn’t connect to Hwy 431 North or the Dothan Regional Airport. The traffic on 431 North during the warmer months is significant, with folks from north Georgia traveling to the Florida beaches. This connector, bypass, or whatever you want to call it, will not help with this traffic.CONTINUE READING HERE  01/30/2008

Think again. We’ve yet to see a significant increase in foreclosures here in Dothan. I think we will. And even if you are current on your mortgage and are set to ride out the storm, the ripple effect foreclosures have on the market can have some impact on you and your home. Terry McDonald, fellow real estate blogger, had an excellent overview of this subject a few days back. There are basically two ways this can affect you, the average Dothan home owner. It will affect you if you are trying to sell Foreclosures typically sell for less than true market valueCONTINUED HERE  01/30/2008

Judy Spears posted this on our blog yesterday.After a lot of discussion and community input over the past several weeks, the Dothan City Commission voted yesterday to purchase about 87 acres near Campbellton Highway and Taylor Road for a new city recreation facility. The need for a new facility for this area of Dothan came about because the current facility, Doug Tew Recreation Center, has been outgrown and has no room to expand.Read the rest of the post by Clicking Here  01/17/2008

This will hopefully be our last post on the real estate market of 2007. I am a firm believer that once something is history, you learn what you can from it and move on to bigger and better things. We don’t lament about what might have been here at CENTURY 21 Key Realty, we embrace the challenge of this market and work hard for our clients every day. Here are the final numbers for homes sold and median price for 2007, compared to previous years. The number of homes sold in Dothan in 2007 (1292) was down 9.7% from 2006 (1431). However, 2007 had the third highest number of homes sold ever, behind 2006 and 2005. Median price dropped from a high of $134,500 in 2006 to $133,000 in 2007, a decrease of just over 1%. The typical Dothan home has increased in value a full 34% since 2003. If you mi... 01/16/2008

As promised, here is the last eight weeks data on foreclosure notices published in the local newspaper. I have only been tracking this information since November, even though before that I looked at the notices at least several times each week. I can say with a lot of certainty that I have never seen 12 notices in one day as we saw last Thursday. I can also say with relative confidence that the foreclosure numbers from this chart are not abnormally high for the Dothan area. We’ll see how it plays out. As I stated in my predictions for the real estate market here in Dothan for 2008, I don’t think we can avoid an increase in foreclosures this year. Tags: foreclosure, Dothan 01/16/2008

Continuing the theme from yesterday, here is the new and improved Dothan real estate market inventory report, covering the inventory numbers and absorption rate. Inventory You’ll notice a slight drop in December. Also notice the slight drop last January. This is a typical winter occurrence. Inventory is back up to 913 single-family residences this morning, and will likely continue to move upward in the coming weeks. Absorption rate Simply put, the absorption rate is the amount of time it would take to sell every home on the market today, if no more homes were listed. This figure is calculated by taking the number of homes on the market and dividing it by the average number of homes sold each month (Three month moving average). The absorption rate for January is 10.1 months, up slightly ... 01/11/2008

You’ll notice a couple of things with this month’s update. First, some of the numbers from previous months are different from the numbers in previous market updates. Why? I have been using some numbers from the Alabama Real Estate Research Center, but I have started to question their accuracy. Some months they are higher than the MLS numbers, and some months lower. So in order to be consistent, we’ll stick with the raw data from the Dothan MLS. 2007 numbers have been adjusted accordingly. The other change relates to what numbers we will be looking at. I have previously been presenting a lot of statistics to you in table format, which makes it more difficult to get a true picture of trends and the like. Starting with this update, we will focus the monthly Dothan real estate market update... 01/11/2008

CostvsValue.com recently released its annual Cost vs Value report, which is a detailed list of the value returned on several different remodeling projects, both midrange and upscale. The report shows an average of what home owners can expect to recoup out of the cost of a home improvement project. Keep in mind there are a lot of factors in play, and your results may vary. The numbers shown below come from the East South Central region of the U.S., including Alabama.Read more at our website by CLICKING HERE   01/10/2008

Judy Spears posted this on our company website, dothanhomesearch.com, today. The number of new homes started in December was up from November, but considering that November had the fewest number of new homes started in at least five years, that isn’t much to get excited about. Here is the trend over the last twelve months. Here is the trend over a longer period of time; the last three years As of this morning, there were 239 new construction homes listed in the Dothan area MLS, up slightly from November. Again, the increasing number of homes listed means more and more unsold inventory is being added to the market. If you have an interest in building or purchasing a new construction home, give me a call or use the contact form. As a Certified New Homes Specialist (CNHS), I have extensive... 01/07/2008

This is the time of year for resolutions and predictions. The resolutions will come tomorrow, so today we will discuss what 2008 holds for the real estate market in and around the Dothan, Alabama area. I am not really going out on a limb with any bold predictions, and I refuse to beat the 'everything is wonderful' drum, as the Noah Rosenblatt points out the National Association of REALTORS tends to do. What you see below is my best guess only. Keep in mind that all statistics come from the Dothan Multiple Listing Service, and are deemed reliable but not guaranteed. These numbers do not include sales not included in MLS statistics, such as homes sold by the owner and some new construction. Your results may vary. Home sales – down in 2008 The final numbers for 2007 are a week or so away, ... 12/27/2007

If you are having trouble making the mortgage payment on your Dothan area home, there may be some free help available to you. The Homeownership Preservation Foundation is a non-profit organization that offers free counseling to homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure. Call 1–888–995–HOPE, or visit their website at www.995hope.org. The sooner your call, the more options there will be for you. Thanks to Teresa Boardman, one of my favorite real estate bloggers, for posting this on her St. Paul real estate blog. 12/18/2007

There were 94 homes sold in Dothan in November, according to the Dothan Multiple Listing Service. Looking at the statistics, each spent an average of 128 days on the market. Out of those 94 homes however, 25 sold in less than 60 days. Why? The median price for these quick sellers was around $133,000. No significant difference from the overall market median for the month of just over $134,000. 16 of the 25, or 64%, were inside the city limits of Dothan. So far this year, 62% of all sales have been inside the Dothan city limits. Again, no significant difference. So why did these 25 homes sell in half the average market time? What makes them so special? What sets them apart from the rest if it isn’t location or price range? Read some of these remarks taken directly from the MLS listing: “R... 12/17/2007

I picked this up on Jay Thompson’s blog a couple of days ago. Shelly Banjo has an article posted on Wall Street Journal Online titled “Online Sleuthing for Home Buyers”. In the article, Banjo discusses the ever increasing amount of information available on various websites to Internet users searching for real estate. In particular, she talks about Zillow.com and Trulia.com, arguably the two hottest names in real estate portals on the web. While both Trulia and Zillow are building their following by providing supplemental information related to real estate (which the public is demanding more and more), they are not there in regards to having a full listing of homes for sale in a particular area. Banjo writes regarding these two sites; “For starters, users can enter a city, town or ZIP Co... 12/15/2007

The market numbers for the Dothan real estate market in November are pretty good, all things considered. While there was a year-to-year decrease in the number of homes sold, median price, and list-to-sell price ratio, the overall stats were better than the previous month. (Chart of figures below) (All statistics are taken from the Dothan Multiple Listing Service and are deemed reliable but not guaranteed) Here are the highlights and trends from this month’s report: The number of pending sales was up and the number of new listings was down this month compared to November, 2006. Again, positive signs. List-to-sell price ratio was down to the lowest level since February. This is the percentage of the list price that the home actually sold for, and it doesn’t take into consideration any pri... 12/14/2007