The economic cycle is in full upswing. Builders are bringing new housing units on-line as fast as possible. I’ve spoken to many who are having trouble finding laborers to complete their projects. This is a much different environment than we’ve seen post financial crisis. I was curious to learn about new home builds so I dug into the MLS data on them.
I used data for all of Greater Alabama MLS covering the last 24 months (8/16 to 8/18). There were 1700 sold records. This does not included data on custom builds that were never listed on MLS. Here’s the data and statistics that I found most interesting.
Where are new homes being built?
Here are the top 10 zip codes for new homes being built.
| Calera | 35040 | 198 | 11.65% |
| Chelsea | 35043 | 155 | 9.12% |
| Helena | 35080 | 135 | 7.94% |
| Helena/Mccalla/Bessemer | 35022 | 97 | 5.71% |
| Trussville | 35173 | 89 | 5.24% |
| Mccalla | 35111 | 78 | 4.59% |
| 280/Greystone | 35242 | 77 | 4.53% |
| Odenville | 35120 | 67 | 3.94% |
| Alabaster | 35007 | 67 | 3.94% |
| Hoover – Bluff Park | 35226 | 58 | 3.41% |
How much do new homes cost?
Sale Price Data
| Average | $ 276,841 |
| Median | $ 229,389 |
| 25th percentile | $ 184,973 |
| 75th percentile | $ 316,226 |
| Lowest Price | $ 92,000 |
| Highest Price | $ 1,501,344 |
Price Per Square Foot Data
| Average | 122 |
| Median | 113 |
| 25th percentile | 98 |
| 75th percentile | 136 |
| Minimum | 66 |
| Maximum | 406 |
What do these homes look like?
Here are some interesting construction facts
- Only 3 of the 1700 new builds had less than 2 full baths
- The highest bedroom count was 6
- The highest full bath count was 6
Square footage data – What size are these homes?
| Average | 2,269 |
| Median | 2,197 |
| 25th percentile | 1,700 |
| 75th percentile | 2,713 |
| Smallest | 681 |
| Largest | 6,367 |
Seasonal Sales Trends
I was curious if these sales followed a similar pattern to existing home sales.
| Jan | 154 | 9.1% |
| Feb | 130 | 7.6% |
| March | 198 | 11.6% |
| April | 172 | 10.1% |
| May | 166 | 9.8% |
| June | 156 | 9.2% |
| July | 121 | 7.1% |
| August | 110 | 6.5% |
| September | 94 | 5.5% |
| October | 127 | 7.5% |
| November | 108 | 6.4% |
| December | 164 | 9.6% |
They seem to be front loaded towards the Spring. March and April saw the most sales.