The Huntsville housing market continues strong with more homes sold in the third quarter of this year than the average for the same period throughout the decade. Sales like that and fewer homes available could combine to cause higher prices ahead, researchers said.

The new analysis of the third quarter of 2019 was prepared by the University of Alabama in Huntsville for the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors.

The quarter ended in September with 2,350 homes sold in the three-month period starting with July. That’s peak sales activity for the quarter compared to the decade. The five-year average since 2015 is 1,976 homes sold, and the low period for the year was 1,052 sales in 2010, the report said.

Meanwhile, the third-quarter median price rose by 8 percent compared to an inflation rate of 1.7 percent. It’s “not a perfect comparison,” the report says, “but it does show the value of homes in Madison County have risen more than the overall cost of living.” That could be a sign of demand versus supply, reseachers said.

The average price for all homes sold during the quarter rose to $247,821. That’s a 10 percent jump from the third quarter of 2018. The median or midpoint sales price in Madison County for the quarter was $221,798.

The average number of days on the market dropped to 38 days – the lowest days on market since 2010. The supply of homes available for sale also continued to drop. Homes priced below $150,000 were hardest to find (18 days on market).

The report also noted key area demographics, because real estate sales depend on a variety of things including need, ability to buy and confidence in future income. The Madison County population in 2010 was 334,811 people, and the most recent annual estimate in the 2018 shows a 9.5 percent increase to 366,519. Median household income is up nearly 10 percent since the decade began.