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        <title>Atlanta Real Estate Blog</title>
        <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/tags/real-estate-market/</link>
        <description>Atlanta real estate blog. Consumer focused real estate information for Atlanta and information and insight into local and national topics. Areas of interest include; Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Roswell &amp; Alpharetta. North Metro Atlanta.</description>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/pricing-a-home-in-a-down-market.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/pricing-a-home-in-a-down-market.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>Pricing a Home in a Down Market - You Can't Underprice a Home</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
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 do.


First, I'd like to discuss an important concept that regularly gets overlooked by both seller's and agents: It's impossible to underprice a home. Let me reiterate - you can't underprice your home. In a free market, it doesn't matter if you underprice by $1,000 or $50,000. It will sell for as much as the market will pay. Not more, not less.


So let's try to do a better job of recognizing the understandable objection about pricing and do a better job of explaining how the market works. If you list your home for the correct price, it will sell and it will happen fast regardless of your price point. It's not like homes aren't selling (see chart).





As you can see from this chart which shows home sales during this declined market, home sales are actually quite consistent. It's just that only the ones that represent exceptional value sell. If you price it at the right number, it's impossible for it not to sell. So the obvious question is that if you list it low and it sells fast, doesn't it meant that you could have listed it a little higher, waited and got a higher offer? The answer is of course no. Emphatically. If you overprice your home and need a price reduction to sell, it will sell for less than it would have had you priced it correctly to begin with (see charts below).








This second chart is very telling. If you price high and reduce, it will sell for less than it would have had you priced it correctly to begin with.


It is possible however to have missed the mark by pricing it a little bit too low. Guess what happens next...you get multiple offers and the price will be brought up to the highest possible price.


Still not convinved? Look how long it will take if you overprice your home instead of pricing it correctly (pay special attention to the fact that it doesn't matter at all at what price point your home is in).





Red is the time to sell of homes that did not get a price reduction. Yellow is homes priced correctly at the start.


So, don't fear low pricing. It's your best chance to get the highest amount for your home.
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            <pubDate>Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:23:05 -0400</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/new-bottom-driven-down-by-condos-single-family-about-flat.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/new-bottom-driven-down-by-condos-single-family-about-flat.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>New Bottom Driven Down By Condos, Single Family Prices About Flat</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
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, but I think that labeling the market as the worst it has been is only important for the doomsayers. Since the condo market is dragging us deeper in this hole while single family remains basically flat for 2 straight years (and now beginning a third year), I think it's important to make the distinction. The majority of sales (over 80%) are single family and that bottom was January of 2009. What we have is a technical new bottom and a bifurcation of the market trends as it relates to single family homes vs. condos.

The Hurdle is Financing (and therefore demand) and Foreclosures for Condos

Foreclosures played a large role in the decline in condo values as the median foreclosure price was $85,000. Until we shake out the remaining foreclosure numbers, we are going to have more trouble.&nbsp;

Financing for condos also complicate the problem. If you want to buy single family home it's not really a problem. 3.5% down and you are basically in. That's not the case with Condos where many buildings are not FHA approved making lending guidelines a bit more difficult. Where there is easier money, there are more sales. Since more sales by definition means higher demand, we see a relatively stable single family market and continued difficulty in the condo market. The good news for condo demand is that January numbers were up over 11% from January 2010.

There are great opportunities though for anyone willing to look. You can buy a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo on Piedmont park for under 230K. Try doing that 3 years ago. One bedrooms in Buckhead and Midtown for under $100,000 is not that hard to find either. For some buildings that are full in good locations with nice amenities, prices are pretty stable as well. It's just that trying to navigate through these waters without a very skilled agent who understands the market is pretty risky. That's not always the case, but working as a lone ranger right now is probably not a very good idea.

Where We Go From Here?

Sideways. For a while. That's for residential detached and down a little more for attached homes...

...and I for one am just fine with that. It's much better than it has been and should help bring confidence back to the market slowly. It's beginning to be a little more predictable too. The way it should be.

There just isn't anything to indicate a real upturn or downturn on the horizon. Anything can happen as we are seeing in the middle east right now with the effect on oil/gas prices, but without any real unforeseen changes, sideways should be the general trend for 2011.
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            <pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:41:32 -0500</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/3rd-quarter-atlanta-market-statistics-video.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/3rd-quarter-atlanta-market-statistics-video.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>3rd Quarter Atlanta Market Statistics - Video</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
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 Atlanta!

While the numbers look down, the truth is that it is marginal- more sideways really - and not as bad as the bottom (January 2009). There is a chance still that we may set a new bottom in January or February of 2011, but in the bigger picture it will be more accurate to say that we are really just continuing to drag along the bottom. The actuaries can come back later and pinpoint the exact moment of the day, week, month and year of the bottom because if that is what you are looking for before you buy a house then you have miscalculated how to avoid risk in the real estate market. I'm not saying go blindly into your next purchase - only that we are at the bottom and it's not possible to judge the exact moment although it is probably a safe assumption that if you buy right now you aren't likely to see significant equity increases based upon appreciation in the next 2-3 years. On the other hand you aren't too likely to lose money if you work with a competent professional to help navigate the minefield that is the current market with lots of great opportunities and lots of really bad ones! Sorry for the digression....below is the video (I'm still working on some technical qualities, but this is pretty decent). It's about 10 minutes long...

3rd Quarter Metro Atlanta Market Statistics&nbsp;

#3q-2010-market-stats#&nbsp;

&nbsp;
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            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:48:49 -0400</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/2nd-quarter-2010-atlanta-real-estate-market-statistics.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/2nd-quarter-2010-atlanta-real-estate-market-statistics.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>2nd Quarter 2010 Atlanta Real Estate Market Statistics</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
#2q-2010-market-stats#

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...
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            <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:17:57 -0400</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/not-all-client-questions-are-easy-to-answer.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/not-all-client-questions-are-easy-to-answer.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>Not all Client Questions are Easy to Answer</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
Below&nbsp;is a question I received from a client I am working with so&nbsp;what I am writing&nbsp;is actually about answering the questions as best I can for my client, but it illustrates - at least to me - what one of the&nbsp;most significant&nbsp;differences is in today's market&nbsp;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:

&quot;I need an understanding of what price points are are likely to appreciate the most over the next 20 years.&nbsp; Much of the appreciation before the crash was due to a declining interest rate environment which won't continue.&nbsp; I need to understand total cost of ownership after taking into consideration price, taxes, appreciation, finance charges, maintenance and difficulty of resale.&quot;

Well, I'm not sure why I am going to try to tackle this publicly, but, the need to blog is pulling me and I need to answer the questions as well so I'll try to kill two birds with one stone here. I'll address each segment separately:

What Price Points are Likely to appreciate the most over the next 20 years?

Admittedly, I have no crystal ball and so this is impossible to be certain of so&nbsp;a history of the last 100+ years in real estate appreciation will be helpful. This roller coaster ride plots the appreciation from 1890 to 2007:

#rollercoaster#

Here is a chart of you don't want to&nbsp;watch the&nbsp;long video. Click on the chart to see a full size. I borrowed it from the NY Times who borrowed it from &quot;Irrational Exuberance&quot; by Robert Schiller:



The point of the chart is to see that:

1.) Prices recently rose too much, too fast.

2.) Prices over time are likely to be higher rather than lower.

The question is what price points are most likely to increase the most over the next 20 years? First, I need to know if you the question refers to an increase in price as a percentage or as a gross dollar amount.

This is one of those questions that really requires more information to answer with precision, but generally, the more expensive the house is now, the more likely it is that it will be worth more money than a lower priced house. As an example, let's say that a $200,000 and a $2,000,000 each appreciate at 5%/year over the next 20 years.

This calculator will give us the future values:

The $200,000 will be worth &gt;$531,000 or, $331,000 more.

The $2,000,000 will be worth &gt;$5,300,000 or $3,300,000 more.

In fact the $2,000,000 would only need to appreciate about .8% in 20 years to increase in value the same dollar amount as the $200,000 house.

Given this, I think it's safe to say that when you leverage more money, you are more likely to have a higher yield. I hope that this makes sense.

I Need to Understand Total Cost of Ownership...

I need to understand total cost of ownership after taking into consideration price, taxes, appreciation, finance charges, maintenance and difficulty of resale.

Well, only a homeowner can ultimately answer this fully as one persons value on the actual living in the home may differ than another person. So from a dollars and cents perspective only we can make an attempt. Again, no crystal ball here...

Most of this, I suspect, will scale on a percentage basis so buying the right house will ultimately be the sum of what you can afford, what you want to buy, characteristics of the home, the location of the home, etc...Let's start with appreciation - the more expensive the house, the greater the dollar return. This should offset additional taxes on a more expensive home as you essentially pay taxes on a percentage of the home's value. Maintenance will be higher on a larger home - buy new and this will help to reduce those costs as well as monthly costs of ownership because newer homes tend to be more efficient.

Financing - this is tricky...let's say you pay cash for the house and it costs $2,000,000 and the home appreciates at 5%. We know that you will make &gt;$3,000,000. If you financed the house and invested most of that $2,000,000 for 20 years, could you make more than 5%? Sorry, I'm not going to answer that part. You'll need to get with your financial advisor :)

Now, let's talk resale with some statistics...

In the last&nbsp;7 months of 2009, 5,163 homes sold in Metro Atlanta between $200,000 and $300,000. That's 738 month. There are currently&nbsp;7,981 active listings at that price point. that's about 1.4 out of 10 that sell each month and about a 10.8 month supply of homes.&nbsp;The average days on market is 108.

During that same time, 277 homes sold between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 with an average days on market of 149. There are currently 1,101 active listings at this price point. That's 39.6 sales per month and an absorption rate of 27.7 months. This is a price point that has seen large price declines over the last 18 months. About 1 in 30 of these sell each month.

During that same time, 25 homes sold between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 with an average days on market of 117. There are currently&nbsp;246 active listings at this price point. That's 3.6 sales per month and an absorption rate of&nbsp;68.3 months. This is a much smaller price point. About 1 in&nbsp;75 of these sell each month and apparently it is only the very best ones. On a side note, these days on market statistics are not 100% accurate as many of these homes were previously listed and failed to sell. That time is not included in this statistic.

...frankly, the statistics don't mean that much by themselves and it is somewhat intuitive that more expensive homes are harder to sell.

However, if you weigh the greater difficulty in selling with the greater monetary gains realized, you may decide it is worth it. Of course, none of this can factor in what may happen next month, next year or a few years down the road when the market may stabilize or continue to fall. It is less likely that we will begin to see prices rise in the short term, but some think that most of the bleeding is over while others think there is more to come. At the higher price points, there is still an oversupply of homes, but, not many new homes are entering the market so 12-18 months from now appears to be a bottom. It's important to note that we have likely already passed the &quot;technical bottom&quot; of the overall real estate market in Metro Atlanta.

So, for the one person I actually wrote this for, I hope it helped. For anyone else, I would encourage any and all comments although the number of people likely to be interested in this is likely to be quite low!
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            <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:49:36 -0400</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/tax-assessment-reform-may-be-on-the-way.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/tax-assessment-reform-may-be-on-the-way.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>Tax Assessment Reform May Be on the Way</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
Partial Reprint from the Atlanta Business Chronicle. You can read the full article here:


&quot;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 measures chief sponsor.Homeowners across the state are complaining that theyre being taxed based on assessments that no longer accurately reflect the declining value of their properties, said Rogers, R-Woodstock.&ldquo;The assessments are not keeping pace with fair market value,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Property owners are paying (taxes) on value they dont own.&rdquo;In an effort to ensure greater accuracy, the bill would require local governments to send out assessment notices to property owners annually.Owners who disagree with their assessments would be given 45 days to appeal, up from the current 30 days.In setting property values, assessors would have to take into account the effects of foreclosures in the neighborhood.&quot;


I find this to be great news for homeowners across the state. I get emails from homeowners who find me online, past clients and friends asking how to go about the process of appealing their tax assessments. With the market in flux the way it is, we need a more responsive government.

This might be worth contacting your state representative...
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            <pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:43:21 -0500</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/im-pretty-sure-this-is-how-appraisals-are-performed-now.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/im-pretty-sure-this-is-how-appraisals-are-performed-now.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>I'm Pretty Sure This is how Appraisals are Performed Now</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
If this isn't how they are done, it might be obtained by taking a sledgehammer and hitting one of those&nbsp;strongman devices&nbsp;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 ever anticipated. The unintended consequences of HVCC&nbsp;may actually be hurting the real estate market more than helping by further pressuring prices down.

There is a Petition to Reverse HVCC

Take a minute, follow this link, watch the short video&nbsp;and maybe&nbsp;sign a petition to help permanently reverse HVCC.&nbsp; It's quite interesting.

The only entity who benefits from low appraisals are banks. Now, I want to be clear; I am not a bank-hater. There are plenty of people who think they deserve everything they get, but, I am not one of them. Banks are eating more bad loans from people who very well may have committed mortgage fraud with their &quot;stated&quot; income loans and the other things going on like short sales, etc...I appreciate lenders wanting safe loans, but, I think this may be unfairly padding extra equity that does not belong to them.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that FHA loans will not permit money from an appraisal to be paid to an appraisal management company beginning January 1st and that is a step in the right direction. If an appraiser is only getting $125-$150 of a $450 appraisal and they are the one doing all the work, something is wrong. HVCC is an attempt to correct a part of the lending process that may have been corrupted sometimes by loan officers pushing appraisers to find a value in a home that didn't exist, but, this was an extreme solution. It would have been much better to require mortgage brokers and lenders to be state licensed the way we as real estate agents and brokers are licensed. This would be more effective than HVCC in correcting the original problem and would not have the negative impact on the housing market. For those naive enough to believe that there is no negative effect due to HVCC, licensing would still do a better job than HVCC could ever do. 
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            <pubDate>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:30:04 -0500</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/the-tax-credit-effect-can-it-help-save-the-market.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/the-tax-credit-effect-can-it-help-save-the-market.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>The Tax Credit Effect - Can it Help Save the Market</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
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&nbsp;to bring back some&nbsp;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.

 


This text is replaced by chart. 
 



&nbsp;

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&nbsp;any real predictions&nbsp;for 2010&nbsp;and it will be mid to late December before the numbers arrive. If a large number of these homes do close, we&nbsp;should at least see one positive trend continue and that is a lowering of inventory.

The one consistent bright spot has been a steady and consistent reduction in inventory. With prices lowering again after the typical summer uptick, I believe the reason inventories continue to go down is related more to the fact that fewer people have enough equity to sell rather than anything else. Whatever the case, we need still need inventories to keep heading downward. We have yet to reach a balanced market so supply will continue to push prices down on a macro level&nbsp;due to low demand caused by stricter lending guidelines - even if some areas in the north metro area remain flat.

&nbsp;
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            <pubDate>Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:49:57 -0400</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/summer-speeds-by-taking-deals-of-a-lifetime-with-them.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/summer-speeds-by-taking-deals-of-a-lifetime-with-them.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>Summer Speeds by Taking Deals of a Lifetime with It</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 


Summer of 2009 is coming to a close quickly and some of the best deals in a generation are&nbsp;leaving with it. Were you able to capitalize on those deals&nbsp;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.&nbsp; We are still down in price from the summer of 2008 because pricing continued to decline until February of 2009 (they have been rising since). It seems as though market forces are correcting the market even without the inducements provided by the government and we are really expecting a surge of closings as the $8,000 tax credit expires at the end of November. Whether it gets extended or renewed is up for debate.&nbsp;I hope they renew rather than extend. I think it will induce more sales that way.

Nevertheless, deals are going fast. Unfortunately there are still far too many know-it-alls that think prices in Atlanta are going to be dropping another 15%-20%. I feel bad for these people because they fall&nbsp;into the &quot;clueless&quot; group and will miss the deals. Too bad, but, I suppose I can't convince everyone - nor should I try to, I suppose.

Here are some statistics that indicate real changes for the better in the market:


Positive year over year closings (more this year than last, sales volume is up).

Total price declines are continuing to decrease and would almost disappear by precluding condos and townhomes.

Average prices are up $43,000 from the low in February 2009.

December of 2006 was the last time inventories were as low as they are right now!

Expired listings are down - again. That's nine straight months of decline.


Now, the decision is yours, but, if you ignore the very obvious changes happening in the market, you really could miss the best time to buy. Will there be more great deals? Of course there will be, but, there are really great deals in any market so that is not a reason to not get into the market. Furthermore, some areas have submarkets that resemble a seller's market, but, I'll spend some more time on that this coming week.

If you have any questions interpreting these or other statistics, please drop a comment below and I'll be happy to help :)
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            <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:41:03 -0400</pubDate>
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            <guid>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/waiting-for-the-bottom-you-may-have-missed-it.html</guid>
            <link>http://www.premieratlantarealestate.com/blog/waiting-for-the-bottom-you-may-have-missed-it.html</link>
            <author>ryan@premieratlantarealestate.com (Ryan C Ward)</author>
            <title>Waiting for the Bottom - You May Have Missed It</title>
            <description> <![CDATA[ 
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.&nbsp;Waiting on a &quot;bottom&quot; is&nbsp;a terrible&nbsp;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!&nbsp;Translated, this means since February, prices have gone up every month so many areas the &quot;price bottom&quot; may be behind us. The confluence of low prices, high inventory and low interest rates presents itself as a window subject to close much faster than it opens so if you are going to move, you should know - it looks like the window is closing.

It's time to change what we call this. It's no longer a bad market or a good market. It's the new normal. For the next year to a year and a half, inventories will still be high and we will go through periods that see modest price declines but it will be hyperlocal, market and price point specific. The main reason is that loan qualifying has been constricted to shrink the sales volume, but, it looks like the market may be reaching a tipping point with inventory as it relates to sales volume. Next month (July) we are more than likely going to see resale home sales surpass those sales of 2008 based on pending sales now compared with pending sales at this time last year. That means the supply of homes is going to be heading down. With no loans available to build any new homes and people still moving to Atlanta, we are heading in a direction where there is a scarcity of new construction and a lowering supply of resales.

The only things that remain as unknowns are what interest rates will look like and how many more foreclosures continue into the market. The condo market is still looks to be shot for at least 2 years as the inventory levels are so high it will be that long before they have a chance to stabilize, but, many parts of Atlanta no longer resemble a buyers market. Many of those areas are in the northern suburbs of Roswell, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton and parts of south Forsyth.

In other words for the best deals in the most coveted areas, it's probably over or very close to it. Get down from the fence, buy if you are going to buy&nbsp;or watch as the savvy buyers around you get the rest of the best deals as you sit and wait for the perfect storm to happen. It's happening around you right now. There will always be&nbsp;a group&nbsp;who take advantage of the market and another group of people who look back and say to himself that they wished they had. It's part of life and we all know people in both of those groups.

Which group of people do you belong to?
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            <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:30:20 -0400</pubDate>
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