Huntsville area homes sales continued to cool down along with the temperatures when the calendar flipped to September.

The trend was across the board as home sales fell in the Huntsville-Madison, Athens and Decatur markets. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to one local mortgage lender.

“Even in the market we have today, it’s a great time to buy,” said Jonathan Smith, of Movement Mortgage. “There’s less competition in the market. You’re not competing against multiple offers. Even though the rates are in the 7s (percentage) now, they’ll be able to refinance that in about 12 to 18 months from now, when interest rates drop.”

“The market is probably normalizing,” added Superior Realty’s Monique Harper. “You don’t see as many people overbidding. You don’t see 13, 14 multiple offers on a property.”

In Huntsville-Madison County, 753 homes were sold, down from 776 in August and 935 a year ago.

In Athens-Limestone, 220 homes were sold, down just four from a year ago, but up from 191 in August. In Decatur-Morgan-Lawrence, 153 homes were sold, down from 188 in August and 167 in September 2021.