HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Around 1,400 jobs are expected to come to Huntsville over the next five years with Space Command Headquarters.
The Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce also anticipates that for each of those jobs, an additional two to three indirect jobs will also come. That means many people could be looking for housing.
“There will be a lot more buyers,” said Ben Wales, an Associate Broker with Gateway Alabama Realty Group.
Wales said he anticipates the people who will be relocating to the Rocket City will have a good budget to work with.
“A lot of the people initially moving here for Space Command are probably not looking at your starter homes,” Wales said.
According to the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors, the median home price in Huntsville is $339,000.
“I would venture that is a pretty good bit less than Colorado Springs,” Wales added.
According to the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, the median home price in Colorado Springs is $450,000.
Wales told News 19 that a lower median home price is one of the things that is most attractive to his buyers who are new to North Alabama.
“They always say, ‘I can’t believe how much I can get for my money here in Huntsville, ‘” Wales said.
The Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce said an influx of new residents is nothing the Rocket City isn’t ready for.
“Nearly half of our community is made up of people who moved here from somewhere else,” said Lucia Cape, the Senior Vice President of Economic Development & Workforce. “We have a lot to draw on when we give information about moving to Huntsville.”
Cape said the region has seen large influxes of new residents before, thanks to other additions on the Arsenal, like the Army Materiel Command, the Space & Missile Defense Agency, and the FBI. She said the Chamber will use the same game plan as before when assisting in the relocation process.
“That plan has been used, as I said, for 20 years in different capacities,” Cape said. “It involves sharing information, giving people the opportunity to make informed decisions about where they want to live.”
The Chamber said it has a good network of people built up in Colorado Springs, as it currently works with the chamber there, since many companies operate out of both cities already.
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