Projected median sales prices for single-family homes:
Q1 2008: $140,020
Q4 2009: $147,690
Growth rate: 5.5 percent
While layoffs from domestic carmakers depress the economies of northern Rust Belt cities, South Korean car company Kia is injecting jobs into Alabama's Interstate 85 corridor. The new jobs will boost the local economy and light a fire under housing prices. With the city's buildable land filling up, prices will spike. Earl Martin, general manager of Aronov Realty, says prices will rise the most in new subdivisions on Montgomery's east side, as well as in the small towns along I-85. Other hot spots are bedroom communities like Wetumpka, 15 miles to the north in the so-called river region.
The other pocket seeing a resurgence is Old Cloverdale, a historic neighborhood in the heart of Montgomery where F. Scott Fitzgerald lived during the jazz age. Call it a trickle-down tax effect. After a decade of stagnation, the state government has been on a hiring spree for two years. The oversize public payroll is well represented in Montgomery's center, where about 9,000 state employees work alongside the staffs of 100 different trade associations and lobbying firms.
