Happy Thursday!

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, with a high of 90.

Today’s newsletter is 769 words — a 3-minute read.

Huntsville homeowners sold 3.8% fewer homes in September than they did a year ago, new Redfin data show.

Why it matters: Huntsville's drop in home sales was smaller than the national decline of 4.3%.

By the numbers: Closed home sales totaled 830 in September — 50 fewer than in August and 33 fewer than a year earlier, per Redfin.

What's next: Buyers may be gaining leverage: Pending sales fell 36.5% from a year earlier, while the supply of homes for sale increased to 4.5 months — about two weeks more than a year ago.

Yes, but: The Huntsville Area Association of Realtors' data is a little different, showing 4.1 months of supply, which it says is "giving buyers a bit more breathing room while maintaining a balanced market."

• Inventory is up 10.8% year-over-year, to 2,314 active listings as of Oct. 3, per HAAR, while sellers are still getting 98.6% of their asking prices, and report pending sales as holding steady.
• Data from HAAR out today shows that in Huntsville/Madison County, 2,814 homes are on the market, up from 2,666 from September last year, an increase of about 5.5%.

Zoom in: Sales are down. Prices and mortgage rates are up.

• HAAR lists 627 homes that were sold in September, down from 711 in September 2025, a drop of about 12%.
• HAAR data shows the median sales price is down to $335,000 from $345,000 in 2025 in Huntsville/Madison County, and across its seven-county region the median price was $305,000, down from $315,000 last year.
• Freddie Mac lists the current average mortgage rate in the U.S. at 7.4%. A year ago it was 6.3%.

Zoom out: In its update last month, HAAR listed Huntsville's affordability index at 88, down from 93 in 2025 and 95 in 2024.

• That means the area's median household income is 88% of what it would take to qualify for a median-priced home under prevailing interest rates, per HAAR.

A case of measles has been confirmed in Huntsville.

Catch up quick: The Alabama Department of Public Health announced Tuesday that an international traveler in Huntsville had tested positive for measles.

• That person visited the Subway on Bailey Cove Road between 11:30am-3pm on Oct. 4, 5 and 6, at the shopping center at the corner of Bailey Cove and Willowbrook Drive.
• The person also visited the Publix on Bailey Cove at Mountain Gap Road on Oct. 4 between 1-3pm.

Driving the news: ADPH, which says that measles cases in the U.S. often originate from international travel, urges people who visited those businesses to monitor themselves for symptoms: High fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes and rash.

• Unvaccinated people have a 90% chance of becoming infected if exposed to the virus, per ADPH, and symptoms usually appear one to two weeks following exposure.

Zoom out: Measles cases are up all over the country, with Johns Hopkins University reporting 4,267 so far this year, nearly twice last year's total of 2,286.

• The last time measles cases were higher than this year was in 1991, when the U.S. totaled 9,643 cases, per Centers for Disease Control data.
• A measles case confirmed in August 2025 in North Alabama was the state's first case in 23 years.

Context: The rise follows dropping rates of confidence in the safety of the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine in the U.S.

• Johns Hopkins puts Madison County's MMR vaccination rate at 95.3%, and the CDC reports that vaccine rates among kids continue to drop from almost 94% in 2020-21 to 92.4% in 2025-26.
• A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that about 76% of Americans believe the vaccines are safe and do their job, down 8% from 2020.

🌳 Huntsville's $12.5-million Big Spring Park East project is taking shape, and is on schedule to be open in time for Panoply next spring. (WAFF)

🧯 Owens Cross Roads voters rejected a proposed fire protection tax set to fund staff, gear and vehicles, 94 votes to 63. (WHNT)

🎤 Democratic Congressional candidate Andrew Sneed has added four stops to his "Hear Every Voice" town hall tour, starting Monday night at the Sandra Moon Community Complex on Bailey Cove Road. (News release)

✍️ Gov. Kay Ivey extended Alabama's State of Emergency from Hurricane Isaias through Oct. 28 as work continues to restore power to some residents. (Governor's Office)

🍉 Derek is hoping to pick a few more tomatoes — and hopefully a watermelon — before the end of the season.

Thanks to Crystal Hill for editing this newsletter.