Atlanta Spring Market Falls Flat
June 15, 2010
This spring has not seen the usual influx of new North Atlanta listings – people that don’t need to sell aren’t listing. We’re seeing fewer quality homes being offered and those that are listed are attracting immediate attention. Most well priced and well presented homes are contracting in 30-45 days at high sale to list ratios.
I encourage sellers to price aggressively and negotiate well. If you overprice and try to reduce, you’ll be lost in the pool of homes and become one of hundreds. You have to get on the radar of those few qualified buyers. The recipe for success has not changed – price, location, condition – the market is the only thing that dictates the value of your home.
Challenges of Short Sales
March 21, 2010
Atlanta Home Prices Down
December 30, 2009
The housing price downturn has hit Atlanta fairly hard even though it didn’t have the same boom as other cities.
Home Values and Tax Appraisals Don’t Add Up
December 9, 2009
Georgia’s property tax system imploded with last year’s historic real estate collapse. Across metro Atlanta, home values fell tens of thousands of dollars — sometimes hundreds of thousands — but tax appraisals did not follow them down.
In an unprecedented comparison of actual sales values vs. county tax appraisals, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined every residential property sale and every change in tax value in Cobb, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties in 2009 — about 550,000 records. The newspaper found that, for the first time, county appraisals are higher — sometimes much higher — than property is now worth, which means that tens of thousands of homeowners are being unfairly taxed ?on value their property no longer holds. » Learn More
Home Price Decline Nears Bottom
October 29, 2009
The decline in national home prices should hit a bottom next year, but many markets could still experience huge volatility as the housing industry seeks to emerge from its worst downturn since the Great Depression, according to economists appearing last week at the NAHB Fall Construction Forecast Conference.
Consensus expectations from the Wall Street Journal Economic Forecasting Survey are for home prices to reach their trough by mid-2010, said Richard Brown, chief economist at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Citing data from the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 10-City Index and its Futures Prices Index, Brown said home prices have declined 31.6% from their peak and are expected to fall another 4.1% through May 2011 followed by a price rebound of 7.8% over the next two years. (continued)
Uproar Over Appraisals
October 22, 2009
Uproar Over Appraisals: Property Owners Chafe at Change in System Designed to End Fraud
Appraisers, mortgage brokers and others blame new appraisal rules, which change how appraisers are assigned, for lost revenues, delayed and faulty appraisals, collapsed deals and other problems, even in some of Atlanta’s toniest neighborhoods.
Atlanta mortgage broker Steven Alexander of National Guaranty Mortgage Corp. said an out-of-town appraiser hired to evaluate a Buckhead mansion he handled recently came up with a value $500,000 below the $2.1 million he thought the house deserved.
Alexander said the appraiser ignored the fact that the home was designed by a well-known architect, was located in a more desirable school district than comparison homes and included luxurious features such as copper gutters, a patio fireplace and a basement entertainment center. As a result, the owners, who were refinancing, ended up having to get a loan with a higher interest rate because the lower appraisal made the loan appear riskier. (www.ajc.com)
Atlanta Journal Constitution (10/18/09); Russell Grantham
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New Home Sales Rise Marginally in August
September 30, 2009
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Following four months of solid gains, sales of newly built, single-family homes edged up by less than one percent in August as the window for an important buyer incentive began to close, according to data released by the U.S. Commerce Department today. Sales posted a meager 0.7 percent gain to a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of 429,000 units for the month.
Continue Reading…
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Atlanta Real Estate Market Update
March 17, 2009
There is an Atlanta real estate market graph on my Facebook page.
Today I noticed a slight uptick in the median price for Atlanta homes.
Have we reached bottom in the Atlanta real estate market?
Each week we take a snapshot of the Atlanta real estate market.
I quit posting updates in November. The market was flat.
Today, I decided to update the reports — primarily to answer a question for someone.
- 30004 – Alpharetta
- 30005 – Alpharetta
- 30022 – Alpharetta
- 30097 – Duluth
- 30062 – Marietta
- 30066 – Marietta
- 30068 – Marietta
- 30075 – Roswell
| March | November | |
| Median Price | 284,800 | 289,500 |
| Days on Market | 167 | 134 |
| Houses for Sale | 1819 | 2163 |
Bottom line? It’s a great time to buy property if you don’t have to sell first.
President Obama’s Strategy for Economic Recovery
March 5, 2009
The President’s strategy for economic recovery is a stool with several legs, as he’s said, and one of them is solving the foreclosure crisis.
“We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans, and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes,” Obama said as he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.
We’re sure you have a lot of questions, like, Am I eligible for assistance? Might I be able to modify my loan? When do I apply? We’ve put together an example sheet that will show you what options might be available to you, depending on the circumstances of your mortgage, as well as answers to some common questions.
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