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Atlanta Real Estate Sales - Market Update
By Ryan Ward | January 13, 2008
I need to start off this post by prefacing that this a general description of the overall Atlanta real estate market and individual areas and price points are not necessarily reflective of what you see here. However, it is very important to understand the overall Metro Atlanta real estate market as each component together does have an impact on buyers and sellers overall feeling about the market. The chart below is the most recent complete statistical report compiled by the FMLS from November sales and continues the downward trend seen in previous months.
Look carefully at the deep purple line representing 2007. Total sales for November of 2007 are at their lowest levels since the 1990’s.
Now, to look at this chart and see the end of the world of real estate as we know might be the first conclusion you resolve yourself to, but, don’t. It is true that sales have slowed dramatically, loans are more difficult to obtain and prices are falling, but, this is not the end of the world and you can look at this in two different ways. First of all, this is not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last. Long term, real estate always goes up, just like the stock market and when it is down, as it is now, we are presented with buying opportunities as opposed to selling opportunities. After a while when supply lowers, it will swing back in the other direction.
For Now, it’s a Buyers Market
High supply, prices dropping and low interest rates combine to make what we call a buyers market. On the news, we often hear that this is a bad market. Bad is relative. Bad for sellers? Certainly. Bad for buyers? Certainly not.
In my opinion, one of, if not the largest reason for hesitation on the part of buyers getting into the market while the getting is as good as it might get is media driven. Media driven information, by its very nature, has to present a negative spin or it will not attract the required attention needed for ratings and therefore advertising revenue for the media outlets themselves.
You need to ask yourself an important question if you are one of the many people sitting on the fence: Do I wait until the media says it’s a good market (whatever that means) or do I look at the facts as they are and make an educated decision and realize that now is a great time to buy?
Category: Atlanta Real Estate |
Hello and welcome to my Atlanta real estate blog. My name is Ryan Ward and I run The Ryan Ward Group at Keller Williams Realty Consultants. Stay informed with information on neighborhoods, market statistics, homes and editorials on local, regional and national news that affects all of us here in Atlanta and elsewhere. If you have any questions about what you read or would like additional information, please fill in the form below or give me a call at 404.630.3187.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Ryan, i did a similar analysis that showed echos yours. My analysis showed that closings in north fulton were down by about 1,000 (25%) compared to the peak a few years ago, but that average sales prices was up about $25,000. My question is: What would the average sales price have been if those extra 1,000 sellers whould have been able to sell and how much of an impact new construction had on the averages sales amount. If you’re interested, you can see my post at
http://www.liveinalpharetta.com/blog/2008/01/09/2007-real-estate-market-review-for-alpharetta-and-atlanta
Thanks for sharing these numbers.
Kevin.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Kevin,
It’s a very mixed bag right now. In your post you hit on the interesting side of this; less sales, higher prices - especially on the north side. We can try to slice it a number of ways. What if sellers had reduced prices? Would there have been more sales? No matter how you skin it, when you are in a market like this, there are certain truths that we can always fall back on. No matter the market, homes staged and priced correctly - good houses…will sell. This is especially true in more disireable areas like Roswell, Alpharetta, Milton and John’s Creek and I think that this is why these areas were able to see price increases even as the larger market stumbles a bit. Supply is still an issue though.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Ryan, the new blog looks great! You have done a wonderful job..
Matt
January 15th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Ryan - like that graph for the closed sales. What I am seeing here is that the volume of closed sales in 2007 approximates 2002 closings. To me this represents more of a normal market than the immediate prior years.
What is interesting is that the median price for a single family is down about 6% from 2006, however the average price is up slightly more than 5%.