DECATUR — The inaugural “Decatur Day,” hosted by Coldwell Banker McMillan & Associates, RE/MAX Platinum and the Morgan County Association of Realtors, brought some 40 industry professionals ranging from realtors to association directors together to hear from the Alabama Center for Real Estate on housing trends in its inaugural “Decatur Day.”

“My agents and I really liked the presentations,” Sales Associate at Coldwell Banker McMillan and Associates Bob McMillan said. “They had a lot of questions, they were very engaged in what (ACRE Executive Director Grayson Glaze and Associate Director Stuart Norton) were talking about and how (we) can use it in our day-to-day business. We really thought it was a great benefit to us and we appreciate ACRE taking the time to come up here.”

According to ACRE’s monthly housing reports, home sales in Morgan County fell more than 22% from 2022; in July, home sales were 14% below the forecast. Despite the drop in home sales, the reports show that prices are projected to hold steady even with inflation affecting most aspects of real estate.

McMillan said ACRE’s research helped further educate his office as it navigates a complex market.

“It makes it easier when we’re going on presentation with either a buyer or a seller to them about (the property),” McMillan said. ACRE’s market-driven data is very valuable to us, especially since we occasionally have to do reports for some of our corporate clients. They want to know the absorption rate and how many months of inventory. We don’t have to go hunting for that, we can just pull it directly off the ACRE website.”

ACRE will be back in the North Alabama region Oct. 27 at the Rocket City Economic and Real Estate Forum in Huntsville.

“It’s always great to engage with professionals in the real estate industry,” Norton said. “The many comments and questions from attendees really add context to the data that we see on a monthly basis.”