An Auburn Montgomery professor is about to help the nation get an education on the Montgomery-area real estate market with the help of the HGTV show "House Hunters." A local real estate agent who will be featured on the show thinks viewers will like what they see. The reality show follows prospective homeowners as they search for their ideal house, while spotlighting each location's amenities and neighborhoods. An episode that's tentatively scheduled to air in February will follow AUM associate professor Clara Young's search through the River Region.
Her real estate agent, Melissa Johnson, asked her to do the show when another client had to back out. "I still had to send in an audition tape," Young said. "It was a lot of work." Johnson said most of the work on her end involved getting anyone who appeared on camera to sign an affidavit agreeing to be on the show -- not always easy when neighbors emerged to do yard work or just watch in the background. Some potential home sellers even withdrew because of the cameras, she said.
She said the show's representatives were especially impressed by the low real estate prices in the River Region. Alabama's average home price stood at about $162,000 in the first quarter of 2012, one of the lowest in the nation, according to data compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
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