Study: Montgomery gets high marks on real estate market
March 7, 2011Montgomery is one of the safest bets in real estate, according to a recent study.
The Capital City ranked third on a list of American cities with low-risk housing markets, Smartmoney.com reports. It was the only city in the South on the list.
The study was based on research from the PMI Group, which looked at factors such as economic conditions and family income to predict the direction of home prices.
More than a quarter of the country’s 381 metro areas have less than a 30 percent chance of seeing lower real estate prices two years from now, according to PMI. Montgomery’s risk of decline is 13.1 percent, the study states.
Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange saw the report Monday on the MSN website and said it confirmed what he already knew.
“I’m just excited that someone else says we’re a good place to make an investment,” Strange said. “When you get confirmation from the experts, that’s a pretty good endorsement.”
The other cities topping the list were Omaha, Neb., 3.1 percent; Pittsburgh, 12 percent; Madison, Wis., 20.7 percent; and San Antonio, 25.4 percent.
The results of the study, originally published in November, pointed to a few economic buoys that make Montgomery a safer bet. Maxwell Air Force Base as an economic “backbone” was first. Second was the about 7,000 jobs created with the opening of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama and its suppliers in 2005.
The MSN article quoted Keivan Deravi, an economics professor at Auburn Montgomery, as saying that Hyundai has boosted prevailing wages for skilled factory workers in Montgomery by about 20 percent.
Strange said it’s always good to have Montgomery in the national news for something positive.
“We’ll get on others’ radar screens,” he said. “You can’t buy that kind of advertisement.”
– Mary Sell, Montgomery Advertiser
As seen in Home Builders Association of Alabama
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