This is something that we (and I think many other agents) struggle with in the market today. We meet with a client and go over what we believe should be the list price of a home and it's seldom a pleasant conversation. Typically, sellers know it's worth less than it was a few years ago, but getting the price right today really is more important than it used to be.

A home gets it's most activity from potential buyers in the early part of a listing period - the first 2 weeks. If it isn't priced for the market, it won't get an offer. Still, seller's feel they need to leave room to negotiate because they feel they need to squeeze every penny they can out of their sale. It's a fair enough idea, but it isn't grounded in what the data says they should…

January is the worst month for home prices in Atlanta and 2011 is no different - although not as bad as I thought. We now have all of the January data compiled and we do have a new bottom for home values in Metro Atlanta that takes us back to levels not seen since 1998.

But...

Closed sales were up and pending sales are up compared with 2010...

...and it's not as bad as it could be - or could have been for that matter especially with the weather we had early on in the month. Single family home (detached) prices are down 3.1% from 2010, but not lower than they were in January of 2009 and attached homes were down 18.4% from 2010. So I think it is more accurate to say that we have a mixed bottom. Technically, the new bottom of the market is January 2011,…

The 3rd quarter is over and it was not great - but not really worse than most analysts expected. During the second quarter (and before the statistics were complete), many of us thought that we would see year over year increases in sales volume, but those numbers were more heavily influenced by the tax credit than was factored in to many of the early interpretations. It now looks like we will end up a couple percent down in sales volume and 5-6% down in sales price. ANother significant statistics for real estate here localy is that for the first time, RE/MAX is no longer the number one real estate company in Atlanta. Keller Williams surpassed RE/MAX in the number of closed sides of real estate transactions. Congrats to all of us at KW in Metro…

ChartMasters creates a phenomenal quarterly market report that myself and our broker present to our office. A number of Keller Williams offices across Metro Atlanta are provided the same report - I presented it last Tuesday to our office. The presentation lasts for a couple of hours and gives all of us a pretty good leg up on other agents by providing us with a strong foundational base of the current real estate market.

If you have any questions, please either email me at ryan (@) premieratlantarealestate.com, call me at 404.630.3187 or post a comment and I will get back with you.

As with all YouTube video - make sure you switch it to 720p for the highest quality video...

Below is a question I received from a client I am working with so what I am writing is actually about answering the questions as best I can for my client, but it illustrates - at least to me - what one of the most significant differences is in today's market compared with the market of just a couple of years ago; regardless of price point, there is some reluctance to purchase now, whereas just a few years ago, there was almost a reluctance to wait for fear of losing the home to someone else who might also be interested in it. Here is the question from my client:

"I need an understanding of what price points are are likely to appreciate the most over the next 20 years.  Much of the appreciation before the crash was due to a declining interest rate…

Partial Reprint from the Atlanta Business Chronicle. You can read the full article here:

"The Georgia Senate Thursday unanimously passed legislation aimed at overhauling a property assessment system thrown into disarray by huge market-driven fluctuations in property values.
The bill, which now goes to the House, would restore Georgia homeowners’ loss of confidence in the fairness of the property tax bills they receive from local governments each year, said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, the measure’s chief sponsor.
Homeowners across the state are complaining that they’re being taxed based on assessments that no longer accurately reflect the declining value of their properties, said Rogers, R-Woodstock.
“The assessments are not keeping pace with fair…

If this isn't how they are done, it might be obtained by taking a sledgehammer and hitting one of those strongman devices you find at a carnival that has been altered to show prices.

I don't know that I blame appraisers. It's a difficult task when you are trying to appraise a property in an area that you are unfamiliar with. Because of HVCC, we find ourselves in a new era where appraisers are being asked to perform a job for less money than ever before and simultaneously perform fewer appraisals because of the reduction in sales volume. A good portion of the income that appraisers used to make is now taken by the Appraisal Management Companies. What this is really about is how the Federal Government has caused greater harm with it's solution than they…

After strong mid summer sales and real hope for 2010, the residential real estate outlook has dimmed again. The $8,000 tax credit is looking very much like the last great hope for 2009 to bring back some balance - or at least give a strong push of the pendulum back in the balance direction. The chart below shows sold single family residential units compared to pending residential units monthly during 2009.

The uptick is incredible and certainly caused by the end of the tax credit. We will have to see how much of this strong surge in pending sales actually close before making any real predictions for 2010 and it will be mid to late December before the numbers arrive. If a large number of these homes do close,…

Summer of 2009 is coming to a close quickly and some of the best deals in a generation are leaving with it. Were you able to capitalize on those deals or are you still waiting for prices to drop? If you're waiting, here is a recap of what you missed and why you may reconsider your position of waiting...and oh yeah...it looks like prices aren't really dropping any more - at least for good properties and especially in the more sought after areas of Atlanta

The average price for a home has dropped 8% in North Fulton since the summer of 2008, but, prices are trending up, sales volume is trending up and inventory is trending down.  We are still down in price from the summer of 2008 because pricing continued to decline until February of 2009 (they have been…

Waiting around and smelling the flowers? If you are one of the many buyers waiting for the bottom, it's quite possible that you have missed it. Waiting on a "bottom" is a terrible homebuying strategy anyway, but, now is really the time to get off the fence. We as real estate professionals are not capable of exactly calling the bottom and that means that you as consumers have no chance of doing so. Think I'm wrong? We now have had four consecutive months where the average price of homes for sale in Atlanta is higher than the previous month. In February it $172,860. Now it's $209,999 or over $37,000 higher than the low! Translated, this means since February, prices have gone up every month so many areas the "price bottom" may be behind us. The confluence of…