Who knew finding an affordable house in Meridian would be so hard?

When my wife and I decided to move back here from the Gulf Coast about a month ago, I thought it would be easy to find a really nice home in our price range.

Surely homes in Meridian are cheaper than homes in Baldwin County, Ala. — one of the fastest growing counties in the country. Boy were we wrong.

The truth is, prices here aren’t much different. In fact, to find a home similar in size of the one we own there — which is on a golf course and is a short drive from the beach — we’d have to pay a little more.

Did Hurricane Katrina affect the local housing market that much? Local real estate agents say no. It’s hard to find any statistics to prove that the hurricane caused over-inflation — other than our experience trying to find a home.

One of the things I learned when we first moved to Pensacola, Fla., nearly 18 months ago was this: If a hurricane strikes, the housing market will soar. The reason: Supply and demand. There are fewer homes on the market in the aftermath of a storm and sellers get top-dollar for their homes because there’s less for prospective buyers to choose from. Appreciation of the median sales price of homes in Pensacola went through the roof after Hurricane Ivan.

But the market slowly cooled off as more homes went on the market. Sellers who hoped to sell quickly and make the money their neighbors did were in for a surprise. As more homes flood the market, buyers have more to choose from and they aren’t as anxious to pay top-dollar. Over-inflation disappeared. I suspect the same is beginning to happen here. I’m starting to see more “for sale” signs pop up around town.

That doesn’t mean, however, that homes in prime neighborhoods will slow. And regardless of the market, home ownership continues to be one of the best investments a person can make.

On another note, I made a few more observations while driving around town looking for homes and places to eat during my first few weeks back:

n My first attempt to back out of my parking place on 22nd Avenue reminded me that drivers treat this city street like a major highway. Vehicular etiquette obviously isn’t practiced on this road. I’ve yet to find one motorist kind enough to move over and let me pull out. I’ve literally sat in my car — head turned over my shoulder to the right, foot on the brake in reverse — and waited for five minutes to back out. And be extremely careful when walking across the street in downtown, even when you have the right of way. Most motorists don’t care if you have the right of way or not. They’ll drive past and honk if you dare set foot on the pavement.

n Note to motorists headed south on 23rd Avenue approaching Front Street: both lanes are allowed to turn left. If you intend to turn south on the 22nd Avenue bridge, you might want to get in the right lane before you get to Front Street. I’ve yet to turn left onto Front Street from the right lane of 23rd Avenue without having the person to my left try to cut in front of me as we approached the 22nd Avenue bridge. And it never fails that they look back as if I’m the one who made the mistake.

n Our roads are rough, particularly downtown. The shocks on my car get a workout every day on 22nd Avenue. Didn’t the city just spend millions of dollars to pave and repair streets a few years ago? I guess that asphalt has already worn off.

Oh well, at least fall is in the air. I love it. It makes me think of football, tailgating and, well, football.



Fredie Carmichael is editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at editor@themeridianstar.com