Photos by Ron Burkett.
A “For Sale”Real estate sign stands outside new construction in Trussville.
Realtors were met with a low supply of homes and high demand in Trussville to begin 2018, which resulted in one of the lowest January and February sales totals in the last five years. However, the dip was temporary, just as Realtors expected it would be.
“We were all armed and ready for it to be crazy in January and it wasn’t, but it’s coming,” Realtor Lee Marlow of RealtySouth said in late February. “There are a lot of people needing homes and wanting Trussville, there are a lot of people looking for houses.”
Marlow was right.
March turned out to be a booming month for home sales, as the Birmingham metro area finished the first quarter with 4,022 closing sales, including 144 in Trussville, according to Multiple Listing Service and Alabama Center for Real Estate data.
March alone brought a 121 percent increase in sales (2,206) in the Birmingham area compared to 1,816 closed during the first two months of the year.
Trussville is coming off its largest number of home sales total in more than a decade, more than double its 2008 mark. While the recovering economy is part of the reason for the climb, real estate agents believe the city itself is a large part of the increase.
“I think the community in itself has always had a draw, but I’ve seen a major shift in the last couple of years in what Trussville is trying to offer to its residents as far as entertainment, shopping,” said Realtor Josh Vernon of Brik Realty.
Marlow said she has also seen a rise in people relocating to the Birmingham area and choosing to move to Trussville.
“I do a lot of relocation, and for years we’d get relocation clients who wanted Hoover or Vestavia [Hills], but now Trussville has such great publicity with our school system and the new downtown revitalization going on, that our relocation folks are wanting Trussville. It’s so close to downtown Birmingham for people who have to commute,” Marlow said.
The city’s increase is also spread out, with interest not only in homes within walking distance of the new Downtown Trussville entertainment district, but also traditional neighborhoods such as Carrington, Pepper Tree and Stockton as well as new construction.
“I don’t see a part of Trussville that hasn’t seen an increase,” said Vernon, whose group at Brik Realty led the Trussville area in total sales in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Through the first quarter of 2018, Vernon’s group has accounted for 11 percent (16 of 144) of the total closings in Trussville, and the company began April with 47 of Trussville’s total 97 active contracts. Vernon said March ended up with the most listings his team has ever had.
In addition to an increase in the number of sales, Marlow and Vernon said they are seeing an increase in housing values as well as shorter time on the market.
Vernon said the average is 12 days on the market, but Trussville has seen homes go from list to contract in three days during the first quarter, similar to parts of 2017.
Data provided by RealtySouth show home values on average have increased to $270,000 in Trussville.
“Values are going up, prices are going up, and people are paying the asking price,” Marlow said. “There were three solid months in the spring last year where every house I put on the market was [listed] on a Thursday, and by Monday we’d have multiple offers and already be under contract.”
Trussville’s trend remains consistent with the national trend, which saw a 3 percent increase in sales by the end of February after two months of decline.
National sales are now above the mark of the 2017 first quarter, with 43 percent of those sales coming from the South region, according to the National Association of Realtors.
