Atlanta Real Estate Blog - Premier Atlanta Real Estate

Redfin basically says they don't make enough money selling low priced homes and they are entitled to run their business how they want as a fair housing group accuses them of redlining and files a complaint (can be found in the linked story below) in court in Seattle. It seems to me, a discount model, however idealistic, proves once again to be bad for the consumer. Questions surrounding this practice apparently show up in cities across the country where they won't offer to show houses in lower-priced areas. A quote from the Refin CEO expresses their position:

“The challenge is that we don’t know how to sell the lowest-priced homes while paying our agents and other staff a living wage, with health insurance and other benefits. This is why Redfin agents aren’t always in low-priced neighborhoods.” - Glenn Kelman, CEO, Redfin

In other real estate news; the media is trying to convince you of impending doom in the real estate market, and once again, they misinform (I'll tell you how below) and Zillow Offers cuts 80 jobs from another real estate model that's great for them and bad for the consumer.

• From AP - Fair housing groups: Redfin ‘redlines’ minority communities
• From CNBC - National Association of Realtors reports drop in September pending sales of 2.2%
• Atlanta real estate market sees a larger slowdown than nationally month over month but up huge year over...

Full Transcript Here:

We're certainly all in unique times and the real estate market is not immune to the changes happening around us. Many buyers think now is the time to make low offers and many sellers are waiting on the sidelines - for the "right time" to list their home. In the meantime, the market is moving along - faster than you might think. I'm Ryan Ward with PARE and I'm going look at the numbers and see if we can get a little perspective on all of this in just about 2 minutes!

If you have any questions, please call, text me or drop a comment below...

For now, let’s compare last week to the same week one year ago and see what we find. I’ve used homes between $100,000 and $1,000,000 for this.

Last week, 1,203 houses went under contract and last year, 1,643 homes did. That’s a drop of 26% from last year and a smaller drop than the drop for new listings. The pending to active ratio, which we use as a leading indicator is 75% now and 74% last year. More good news.

Fewer pending sales should be expected during this time. However, since fewer new listings are entering the market than are selling, inventory is actually reducing. To further help keep the supply in check, more homes are coming off the market than last year as well. Last week there were 648 withdrawn and expired listings. Last year at the same time there were 434. More good news. New listings - pending sales -...