The steady rise in population over the past decade is one indication. The high-profile development projects – from Mazda Toyota to Facebook – provide a snapshot of another.

But the population growth and the business developments are underscored by statistics of growth far beneath the surface that reveal the Alabama juggernaut that the city of Huntsville has become.

The city of Huntsville last week released its annual development review, a window into growth ranging from the number of new homes built in 2019 to where that growth is happening to the cost of buying a home to business in construction.

The report also revealed that Huntsville now has its first $1 million housing district – a census tract where average home sales had at least nine figures.

By every metric, Huntsville is growing and still growing – more last year than the year before in 2018.

Population

It’s well-documented that more and more people are calling Huntsville home. Last year, Huntsville moved past Montgomery to become the state’s second-largest city with a U.S. Census estimate of 199,808 residents. The Rocket City is projected to eclipse Birmingham as Alabama’s largest city in about four or five years.

In July, Huntsville estimated its population at 199,637 – an inconsequential difference of 171 from the census estimate. The city, by its own calculations, has seen its population grow by 10.8 percent since 2010 and is the fastest-growing major city in the state.

Housing

For the fourth time in the last five years, Huntsville saw its inventory of single-family homes increase and the 2019 increase was the biggest jump in more than a decade. The city added about 1,300 single-family homes in 2019 – a bump from a little more than 1,000 homes in 2018.

Multi-family housing units saw a dramatic jump from less than 200 in 2018 to more than 800 in 2019. That's the second-most multi-family housing units added in a year since at least 2009, eclipsed only by almost 1,000 units in 2014.

Overall, Huntsville saw a 2.1 hike in all housing units in 2019.

More housing is also on the way. In 2019, the city issued 2,407 housing unit permits – an increase of 35.2 percent over 2018. As reflected in the dramatic jump in multi-family housing units from 2018 to 2019, the city issued 73.9 percent more multi-family units building permits last year than the year before.

And the economic bottom line: The total contract amount of residential projects in Huntsville in 2019 was more than $184 million – a jump of 65.8 percent over 2018.

The only statistical decline was a 2.1 percent drop over 2018 in subdivision lot approvals. Still, Huntsville has approved an above-average number of subdivision lots in four of the past five years.

Real estate

Demand is on the rise and, subsequently, so are home prices.

The average sale price for a single-family home in 2019 was $261,986 – a rise of 7.6 percent over 2018 sale prices. The city said 3,886 single-family homes were sold in Huntsville last year – a rise of 9.6 percent over 2018.

The entire city saw the benefits of increased home sale prices with 50 of the city's 56 census tracts seeing year-over-year bumps.

The demand for those homes is evident as well. The average time for a home on the market was 46 days – down from 61 days in 2018. In two census tracts – Westlawn (near Huntsville Botanical Garden) and Stoner Park (in northwest Huntsville) – homes were on the market an average of 8 and 10 days, respectively.

Homes in Huntsville’s two most expensive census tracts were the slowest to sell. Homes in the census tracts including the gated The Ledges community and in the historical Twickenham district downtown were the slowest to sell with homes on the market an average of 132 and 126 days, respectively.

The Twickenham district had an average home sale price of more than $1 million – the first time a census tract in Huntsville has topped $1 million. Second to Twickenham were homes at The Ledges, selling for an average price of $737,150.

Commercial developments

Booming Huntsville boomed even louder in 2019. The city issued 590 non-residential building permits, an increase of 2.1 percent from 2018.

Those projects include, of course, the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota USA Manufacturing facility and its suppliers in southeast Limestone County that has been annexed into Huntsville. There is also the Facebook data center under construction in north Huntsville and a $150 million tower addition to Huntsville Hospital.

The growth is occurring most in the census tracts that includes Cummings Research Park in west Huntsville as well as downtown.

Literal growth

The city physically got a little bigger in 2019 as well, adding 415.7 acres through 13 annexations. Almost half of the land -- 199 acres -- was in northern Madison County along Monroe Road and another 120 acres in south Huntsville for the first annexation of the Hays Farm project.

Huntsville in 2020 has already sailed past its annexation growth of last year – adding 443 acres at its Jan. 23 city council meeting. That included an additional 410 acres for the Hays Farm project.