Since the 2007-2008 recession, the national real estate market has been in a seemingly constant slump. The Federal Reserve has estimated that the U.S. lost nearly $14 trillion from 2007-2009 as a result of the recession. Also, recent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has shown only slight recovery since the recession.

Despite a downtrodden national market, the real estate market, specifically homeownership of private homes with waterfront, in Tuscaloosa has been on the rise for the last several years. Home sales are up 16 percent from 2015’s numbers and are running ahead of sales forecast. The supply in Tuscaloosa’s housing market has dropped 20 percent from the previous year. With the demand for housing increasing, there isn’t enough supply to keep up with the demand.

The median sale price for a home in Tuscaloosa is $179,200, while renters can expect to pay an average of $1,187 per month in rent, according to trulia.com. The median sales price is up 9 percent from the previous year.

Tuscaloosa’s homeownership rate has steadily improved since 2008. However, the same can not be said of the national rate. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national homeownership rate has been in steady decline since the 2008 recession. The most recent statistics from the bureau show the national rate to be 63.5 percent, a 48-year low. The most recent rate is 0.2 percentage points lower than the first quarter 2015 rate.