Athens and Limestone County has enjoyed a robust real estate market over the last several years, and there’s reason to believe that will continue in 2018.

Realtor Deborah Lamb of Southern Home Realty of North Alabama said home sales were sluggish after the summer but picked up again at year’s end. Last month, the Alabama Center for Real Estate said 155 units were sold in October, which represented a 28.1-percent increase over October 2016.

Just as importantly, the available inventory is down. ACRE said there were 587 available units on the market in November, which represented a 14.4-percent decrease from November 2016.

“Nowadays, if you put a nice house on the market for a decent price, it’s gone,” Lamb said. “One thing we’re seeing now is multiple offers, and that just didn’t used to happen. Older homes are selling for more, and it’s nothing to get the asking price.”

Alabama in general was a hot commodity in 2017, according to an annual study by United Van Lines, the nation’s largest mover of household goods. Last year, Alabama was the 10th most moved-to state in the country with 55 percent of moves being inbound as opposed to those leaving the state.

The study showed residents continue to move to the South (52 percent inbound moves) with South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama making the list of top inbound states.

“This year’s data reflects longer-term trends of movement to the western and southern states, especially to those where housing costs are relatively lower, climates are more temperate and job growth has been at or above the national average, among other factors,” said Michael Stoll, economist and professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Why come here?

Stoll’s mention of job growth and how that relates to moves to the South is especially true of Alabama and Limestone County. Huntsville-annexed Limestone County has been a hotbed of industrial growth in recent years, with Polaris and GE Aviation being examples. GE Aviation will employ 300 people by the middle of 2018, and Polaris plans to bolster their skilled labor force to 1,700 within the next two years.

Numerous reports say Alabama is also in competition with North Carolina to land a joint Toyota and Mazda manufacturing plant that would provide at least 4,000 jobs. A shovel-ready, Tennessee Valley Authority-certified megasite rests on more than 1,500 acres in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County and would be considered prime real estate for that project or any other large-scale manufacturer.

In addition to those existing manufacturers and hopes for more to come, thousands of Limestone Countians work at Redstone Arsenal or at hundreds of related government contractors in Huntsville and Madison.

For more proof, consider how much Limestone County’s population is grown in less than a decade. The population in 2010 was 82,782. The population in 2016 was 92,753, for a difference of 9,971 residents. For a mental picture of how that looks, the Rose Bowl at the University of California holds 92,542 people.

Where are they going?

District 2 Commissioner Steve Turner grew up in East Limestone and has almost grown accustomed to seeing farmland being turned into subdivisions filled with 2,500-square-foot homes.

In 2015, the Limestone County Commission approved 143 new residential lots in District 2, followed by 134 the next year. Last year was a little slower, with 85 new lots approved.

Still, the numbers of new lots in East Limestone have outpaced other unincorporated parts of the county by a large margin. There were 30 new lots approved in District 1 (northern Limestone) last year and just two in District 4 (western Limestone). There were only four new lots approved in District 3, but much of the district has been annexed into Huntsville and Madison, so those municipalities approve the lots.

Turner said he’s consistently amazed by the amount of new subdivisions he’s seeing in his district, particularly south of U.S. 72 and east of Mooresville Road. He’s recently witnessed hundreds of acres cleared for more new homes.

“There is as much new building going on now as there was when I became a commissioner in November 2012,” Turner said. “There’s somebody moving in today.”

For several years, it was the eastern side of Limestone County and east Athens that experienced the most dramatic growth, but it’s beginning to shift south. The area between Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road and Interstate 565, much of which has been annexed by Huntsville and Madison, is poised to become the new hotbed of growth in the years to come.

“I’m seeing a lot of growth,” said District 3 Commissioner Jason Black, who credited new industries and proximity to Redstone Arsenal as the reason for a spate of new housing developments. “You’ve got people moving here from Huntsville because they want something more rural, and then you’ve got a new development that’s almost like a small urban area.”

That development, Village at Oakland Springs, is an estimated $250-million development that will eventually feature a mix of single-family homes, town homes, apartments and a centralized retail center. Other new developments are being built off Powell, Segers and Burgreen roads in southeastern Limestone County.

Turner believes the eastern side of the county, whether north or south of U.S. 72, will continue to grow for years to come for many reasons. Proximity to a job is just a small part of that, he said.

“It’s a diverse place to live and it’s family-friendly,” he said. “People want to be near activities, and it’s just a neighborly place to be.”