HUNTSVILLE , ALABAMA
OVERVIEW FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS

Huntsville , AL is not the red-neck South any more! It has more engineers and PhD’s per capita than any other city in the US. The area has strong growth in terms of jobs and people moving into it. The Army is closing down other facilities and moving 4700 jobs to the Redstone Arsenal in the near future. In addition, Redstone is getting a 4 star general that will bring his entourage with him.

The link below will take you to a presentation from the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce. This gives you a lot of information about the BRAC jobs, Research Park development and a good over view of the city.

http://www.huntsvillealabamausa.com/new_exp/ed_activitiy2006.pdf

This link below will take you to a list of the top employers.
Top Huntsville Employers

Huntsville has many defense, aerospace and manufacturing jobs.

Cummins Research Park is the second largest one in the country. It has 23,000 jobs and 3800 acres and is still growing.

The Toyota Manufacturing plant has been in Toney, AL for just a few years. Their number of jobs has already expanded by several hundred.

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT INFORMATION

Here is some basic info on the rental market.

Taxes: (Non-owner occupied) 6/10’s of 1% of the purchase price for single family homes in the county. If the property is located in the city, taxes are about 1%. Most single family homes in the county are on public water and septic for sewer.

Insurance: ½ of 1% of the purchase price

Property Management: 10% of monthly rent

Property Manager : Constance Abbe 256-348-3097. She manages my personal investments in Huntsville.

Appreciation: Overall, the city is around 7%. The areas we sell in have been appreciating around 10% to 15% per year.

A typical 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage house that sells for around $150K will rent for about $1000 per month. A more upscale house around $170K will rent for around $1200 per month. Typical rent time is 2 to 6 weeks. I have not found a statistic of the vacancy rate for residential property in Huntsville. Remember there is no hard and fast rule for this. These are ranges and estimates with a variety of factors affecting your property’s rent amount and time frame.

My clients and I have found it to be a strong rental market. From blue-collar workers around the Toyota plant to people being transferred in to work in Research Park, there is a wide range of potential tenants.