Analytics built by: Location, Inc.
Raw data sources: American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Methodology: NeighborhoodScout uses over 600 characteristics to build a neighborhood profile… Read more about Scout's Real Estate Data
With 196,910 people, 84,999 houses or apartments, and a median cost of homes of $168,509, house prices in Birmingham are solidly below the national average.
Single-family detached homes are the single most common housing type in Birmingham, accounting for 58.28% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Birmingham include large apartment complexes or high rise apartments ( 32.04%), duplexes, homes converted to apartments or other small apartment buildings ( 6.93%), and a few row houses and other attached homes ( 1.86%).
People in Birmingham primarily live in small (one, two or no bedroom) single-family detached homes. Birmingham has a mixture of owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing.
At the end of World War II, American soldiers returned home triumphant and, with the help of the GI Bill, built homes by the millions on the edges of America's cities. These homes were predominantly capes and ranches, modest in size, but built to house a growing middle-class as the 20th century became the American century. Birmingham's housing was primarily built during this period, from the '40s through the '60s. A full 41.15% of the city's housing hails from this era. Other housing ages represented in Birmingham include homes built between 1970-1999 ( 30.03%) and housing constructed before 1939 ( 16.73%). There's also some housing in Birmingham built between 2000 and later ( 12.09%).
Vacant housing appears to be an issue in Birmingham. Fully 20.57% of the housing stock is classified as vacant. Left unchecked, vacant Birmingham homes and apartments can be a drag on the real estate market, holding Birmingham real estate prices below levels they could achieve if vacant housing was absorbed into the market and became occupied. Housing vacancy rates are a useful measure to consider, along with other things, if you are a home buyer or a real estate investor.
Appreciation rates for homes in Birmingham have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 89.61%, which ranks in the top 50% nationwide. This equates to an annual average Birmingham house appreciation rate of 6.61%.
NeighborhoodScout's data show that during the latest twelve months, Birmingham's appreciation rate, at 5.29%, has been at or slightly above the national average. In the latest quarter, Birmingham's appreciation rate has been 2.58%, which annualizes to a rate of 10.72%.
Relative to Alabama, our data show that Birmingham's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 60% of the other cities and towns in Alabama.
One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Birmingham differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Birmingham - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 2000, to assist you in making the best Birmingham real estate investment or home purchase decisions.
$168,509
for Alabama
for nation
84,999
$1,690 / per month