09/07/2026
One rate. Five different markets. All of them within an hour of my desk.
The thirty-year fixed was 6.89% Friday. Same number in Vestavia, same number in Alabaster, same number everywhere. That is the figure everybody reads about.
Here is the one almost nobody reads about: months of inventory supply. How long it would take to sell every home currently listed, at the current pace. Under roughly four months the seller still sets the terms. Over six, the buyer does.
35226, Hoover and Vestavia Hills — 2.7 months, selling in 56 days.
35244, Riverchase — 2.8 months, 61 days.
Alabaster — 3.7 months, 64 days.
Shelby County — 3.8 months, 75 days.
Birmingham metro — 5.0 months, 75 days.
That is a two-and-a-half month spread between the tightest zip and the metro average, at an identical interest rate. A buyer writing in 35226 is in a completely different negotiation than a buyer writing across the county line, and the rate sheet has nothing to do with it.
The August jobs report landed at 162,000 against a 56,000 forecast, nearly triple the estimate, and the thirty-year moved one one-hundredth of a point. The national headline did almost nothing. The zip code did everything.
So when somebody tells you the market is hot, or slow, the fair question back is: which one?
Inventory and days on market: AreaPro Weekly REMO, 08/31/2026. Rates and jobs: Mortgage News Daily, 09/04/2026.
What zip are you actually shopping? Tell me and I will pull its supply number for you.
Run your own equity math: https://gene-darden.github.io/investor-calculator/equity/