Birmingham, Ala. Real Estate Transactions: Redmont Closes Mountain Brook Deal

24 historic apartment units in Mountain Brook, Alabama changed ownership Wednesday. Redmont Properties, the purchaser, owns other similar properties in the Mountain Brook and Homewood neighborhoods.

We closed the transaction after a little over a year of marketing. However the bulk of prospect activity came after reducing the price from $8.5M to $4.9M. While the former price might have worked well during a flurry of condominium conversions, that market has cooled and therefore, the property was better positioned as a asset/investment sale.

Mountain Brook boasts one of the highest per-capita income levels in the whole United States making it an extremely desirable market for investment.

Redmont purchases Mountain Brook complex, Birmingham Business Journal

The Real Estate Expert: Does that property have sewer service?

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Tax Records Show Us The Facts from Sam Duffey on Vimeo.

Commercial Real Estate Market Indicators to Watch in 2009

1. Does financial lending find its way to Main Street? If so, we should see buyers AND sellers get off the sidelines.

2. Will the retail woes continue after the 2008 holiday season? If so, we should see even more retailers reduce store locations or even completely throw in the towel. Early in December I noticed one mall with Circuit City, Linens N Things, KB Toys, and a national jeweler chain all advertising their "out of business" sales. For more thoughts see SNOPES.

3. Watch the dollar. While a strong dollar is generally good for our economy, the bulk warehousing industry has benefited from increased exports.

4. Is owning a home as cool as it was a year ago? If home buyer confidence does not improve, apartment indexes will rise as a viable alternative to shelter. Home ownership is so last year!

5. Layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. Watch this one closely. Layoffs effect all areas of commercial real estate. Less workers = less space needed. It doesn't matter if workers are crunching numbers or hammering sheet metal a job position requires usable space. Therefore less jobs require less usable space. Check out the employment reports from our govt.