Lincoln Has Approved Far More Homes Than It Has Built. What That Gap Means for Buyers

"We hope we can get some retail in here to follow the houses that are coming," Lincoln Councilwoman Jennie Jones told ABC 33/40 after the June 9, 2026 council meeting. The important words there are "are coming." Jones said Lincoln has approved about 1,800 homes over the last four years and about 500 of them have been built. Many of the remaining developments haven't broken ground yet.

For a buyer comparing Lincoln with Pell City, Moody or Talladega, the city's future housing supply already has approval and is just waiting to be built. Supply on paper shapes the market differently from supply on the ground. In Lincoln right now, it also explains why a builder's price sheet is a better reference point than the town's resale median.

Lincoln's Approved Homes Compared With What's for Sale

The proposed ordinance the council took up in June said Lincoln had about 1,300 approved high-density residential lots where construction had not been completed. Here is how that compares with the whole county's for-sale market.

Lincoln's unfinished approved lots come to nearly five times the number of homes listed across all of Talladega County in September 2026. These figures measure different things. An approved lot isn't a house and isn't for sale. A listing is. The comparison still shows something about the next few years. In most towns, a buyer worries that nothing will be available. In Lincoln, the bigger question is how quickly about 1,300 approved sites become finished houses, and at what price.

The 1,800 and 500 figures come from a council member's statement. The 1,300 figure comes from a draft ordinance. They are working numbers from public officials, not an audited lot count.

Why the City Almost Paused, Then Didn't

That gap between approvals and construction is the reason Lincoln debated a moratorium this summer. The June 9 council agenda listed Ordinance 2026-18. It would have suspended consideration of subdivision applications, residential and mixed-use developments, rezonings that create new RS-2, RS-3 or RHD residential areas, and site plans and land-disturbance permits for residential projects over three lots or three units. The agenda gave an end date of May 26, 2027. ABC 33/40 described the circulated proposal as running through May 31, 2027.

City officials cited rapid growth and growing demands on municipal services, transportation infrastructure and the wastewater treatment system.

The council didn't adopt it. It indefinitely postponed the proposal. The Daily Home reported that the city would keep working under its existing subdivision ordinance. Council agendas from late June through September 8 list no revival or amendment of the ordinance.

The council proposed a different approach. Jones described a Design Review Team that developers would meet with before applying for a subdivision:

"...developers can come before where they even apply for subdivisions and they can meet with every department head and we can discuss how that impact will, whether it's sewer or water or fire or streets, how that will impact the city."

Jones also gave a cost estimate. She put the hit to the city at no less than $1.5 million for one year of a moratorium and $6.5 million over ten years, against a budget of $22 million. That shows the incentive. New homes bring in revenue that Lincoln's budget relies on, so the city chose case-by-case review over a full stop.

For buyers, this means the approved pipeline is still moving, and new proposals now go through a review that weighs sewer, water, fire and street capacity one project at a time. Whether the Design Review Team has been formally set up is not confirmed in the city records we reviewed.

Honda's Expansion Runs on a 2029 Clock

The obvious demand story in Lincoln is Honda. AL.com reported on September 3, 2026 that Honda plans a $472 million expansion of its Lincoln plant, with 200 projected jobs, a 2029 completion target and $50.2 million in state incentives. The plant already employs more than 4,500 people. The Daily Home reported that the county approved a tax abatement for the project at its July 13 meeting, with estimated completion in July 2029.

Two hundred new jobs, phased in over roughly three years, is a modest number next to about 1,300 approved lots. The coverage we reviewed doesn't measure how many plant employees live in Lincoln or how the expansion will affect local home prices. The scale still matters. If the approved lots get built, the new supply could arrive faster than the new jobs. That's a different picture from a town where a plant announcement meets a fixed supply of homes.

The Builder's Sticker Sets the Price Comparison

When unbuilt supply is this large, production builders end up setting the price that resale homes get compared against. In Lincoln, D.R. Horton's Autumn Estates at 179 Autumn Way advertises its Express Series homes "From $239,900." The plans range from about 1,281 to 2,164 square feet, with three to four bedrooms. The community page also promotes a special interest rate on certain homes, subject to terms.

Here is how that compares with wider-area numbers:

• Talladega County median listing price, August 2026: $249,900, up about 6.3% year over year. This is an asking price, not a sale price.
• Talladega County median days on market, August 2026: 65 days, down about 4.4% from a year earlier.
• Calhoun, Cleburne and Talladega counties combined, July 2026: median sale price of $215,000, down 2.1% year over year, with 4.1 months of supply and an average of 53 days on market, according to the Alabama Center for Real Estate.
• New homes in that same tri-county area, July 2026: 9 sales, 5.3% of all residential sales, at a median of $250,720.

Taken together, asking prices across Talladega County rose over the past year while the regional sale median dipped. New construction was only about one in twenty regional sales in July, even with more than a thousand approved lots in a single city. The pipeline hasn't reached the closing data yet. A Lincoln seller pricing a resale home near $250,000 is competing with entry-level new homes that start under that figure and come with a financing promotion. A comparison based only on sticker price leaves that promotion out.

ACRE's tri-county figures cover a region much larger than Lincoln. Its July report also describes sales as up 18.9% while giving counts that fell from 181 to 170, so we haven't relied on its sales-growth figure here.

Reading a Lincoln Subdivision by Its Stage

Because so much of Lincoln's supply is approved but not built, the stage a project has reached tells a buyer more than its name. Three public examples show the range.

1. Taylors Farm, off Magnolia Street north of Old Downtown Lincoln, is an established development of about 90 homes. The Daily Home reported that the council approved changing its zoning from RS-2 to RS-2 with special district overlays. The overlays permit smaller building sites, and Mayor Lew Watson said more home sites were planned.
2. The Veranda, Phases I and II, along Stemley Road, appeared on the June 16, 2026 Planning Commission agenda with a request to extend its preliminary plat. The agenda doesn't give a lot count or show how the request was decided.
3. Autumn Estates is marketed as now selling, with set floor plans and a published starting price.

Each one sits at a different point between approval and move-in. For a buyer looking at a lot or a home in a newer section, the useful questions are whether the plat is preliminary or final, how many phases remain, and whether utilities and streets are already in. For anyone thinking about building on land near town, the Design Review Team's focus on sewer, water, fire and street impacts shows which infrastructure questions the city is weighing in 2026.

FAQ

Did Lincoln pass a moratorium on new subdivisions? No. Ordinance 2026-18 was on the June 9, 2026 agenda, and the council indefinitely postponed it. The Daily Home reported that the city would keep working under its existing subdivision ordinance.

Does the Honda expansion mean Lincoln home prices will jump? None of the sources we reviewed connects the expansion to a measured change in local home prices. The project adds 200 projected jobs with completion targeted for 2029, compared with about 1,300 approved lots not yet completed in Lincoln.

Are permits still issued for small projects? Even the proposed moratorium applied only to residential developments over three lots or three dwelling units, and it was never adopted.

If you're deciding between a new home in one of Lincoln's growing subdivisions, an existing house nearby, or land where you can build your own, the stage of a project and its utility capacity count as much as the price. Brian is a broker, builder and engineer who can review plats, lot readiness and real build costs with you before you commit. Reach out to (Robert) Brian Camp. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.