Real Estate Market

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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 Last week there were 648 withdrawn and expired listings.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...

It's no secret that the overall real estate market slowed last fall on a national and local level. However, the market in Roswell and specifically at a hyperlocal level in Martin's Landing remains extremely strong. There are 15 homes for sale in Martin's Landing right now (February 8th) and of those 15 homes, 7 are under contract! Keep in mind also that January and February are the slowest months of the year...

Two January Sales in Martin's Landing

Last year in January, 8 homes sold and while this year's number looks low, there were only 3 sales in February last year. Based on current pending sales, we will double or triple that this February. The January 2019 sales in Martin's landing were 11200 Martin Ridge Rd for $308,000 and 100 N Pond Ct for $242,000. Another home, 360 Spring Lake, was scheduled to close January 31st and it hasn't updated in the system yet. I'm not sure if it closed or had the closing pushed out a few days. I'll report it next month either way...

Martin's Landing Real Estate Agent

If you are ready to sell your home in Martin's Landing, contact us. The first step typically starts with getting an idea of what your home will sell for in today's market followed by finding out what marketing techniques will get your home sold for the most amount of money in the least amount of time. Fill out the form below or give us a call for a no-obligation consultation.

Time and again, I come across a home listing that is well kept, with awesome features, in a great neighborhood... but it just isn't selling.

Buyers will ask, "why has is been on the market so long?" Sellers will ask, "why isn't my house selling?" 

And the answer is usually: PRICE.

My job, as your highly skilled real estate professional, is to do the research and give you the tools and information to price your home properly, or to make the appropriate offer on a property. To get that information, I look at factors such as style, size, features, geographic location, schools, etc. in comparison to comparable recently sold (in the last 3 - 6 months) properties. I don't set the price - you don't set the price - THE MARKET SETS THE PRICE.

The goal is to sell the property in the least amount of time for the most money. And your pricing strategy will have a direct effect on your success of selling for the most money in the least amount of time. Statistics show that if you price your property too high, you risk sitting on the market for months. And in the end, you will probably be selling for less than if you priced properly from the beginning, because you will need to do price reductions to offset the perception that there is something wrong with the property. Price your property too low, and you aren't maximizing the potential profit from the sale - and the bidding war you hoped to achieve may never materialize.

Take a look at the snapshot below which demonstrates the effect price has on sales vs. listing price and days on market. Getting the price right from the beginning, is your best bet for selling your home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

Are you ready to have a chat about selling your home? I would love to meet with...

If you watch the news, read Facebook or know a real estate agent, you've probably heard abut how amazing this real estate market is and how much prices have gone up and it's a great time to sell. Did you also know that certain segments of the market are actually far more favorable to buyers than to sellers? Read on to learn what's really going on in the market...

The market really is actually split into two segments. For one segment, it's a sellers market and for the other, well, it's a buyers market. Do you know which is which?

There is a natural break in the real estate around the $500,000 home price mark. In large part this is because conventional financing in Atlanta goes up to $424,100. If you want to buy a $500,000 home and avoid a jumbo loan with higher rates, you need to put down $75,900 plus you need money for closing costs. This generally means that buyers must have a 20% down payment for loans on purchases over $500,000 and that limits the number of buyers and therefore demand and therefore prices.

The difference between the $500,000 and below market is staggeringly different from the $500,000 and up market. I'll show you 3 different markets in Metro Atlanta that point to this difference and if you jump into this market as a consumer, you need to be armed with this information because it could cost or make you 10's of thousands of dollars.

Point to Remember: If there are less than 6 months of inventory of homes, it is a sellers market and above 6 months of inventory it is a buyers market.

North Fulton

In North Fulton, it is a very strong sellers market below $500,000 and a buyers market for homes above $500,000. Let's look at the numbers:

Below $500,000:

• Active listings - 335 homes
• Sold...

Willow Springs is one of the largest and most popular neighborhoods in Roswell. It consists of approximately 680 homes and is also home to the Country Club of Roswell. Sales in Willow Springs are historically high for a number of reasons including the location and proximity to Georgia 400, shopping, dining as well as NorthPoint Mall and Avalon.

Willow Springs Market Update

This year (as of this writing in November) there have been 35 sales in Willow Springs. The most expensive sale was $750,000 and the least expensive sale was $278,000 so home prices, depending on style and location within the neighborhood vary with options for most buyers looking for the lifestyle offered in Willow Springs. Here are the statistics for Willow Springs

• There are currently 13 homes for sale
• There 8 additional homes under contract
• The average price for sales is $452,404
• The average days in market for homes to sell is 60 days, but for those home which were priced correctly and did not require a price reduction the days on market dropped to 39
• The median days on market, where half the homes took longer and half the homes sold faster is 29
• The median sales price is $410,000 where half the homes sold for more and half the homes sold for less
• The original list price to sold price is 95.46% for all homes sold and the list price to sold price for homes priced correctly was 97.89%

Compared to Roswell in the Same Area

When we compare Willow Springs to Roswell in the same are and price range you can get a feel for how it stacks up to surrounding neighborhoods. There are of course, other factors besides just the statistics that come into play but it still gives a baseline for comparison.

In this area of Roswell...

Summer is over and school has started and that means we run into the beginning of the fall cycle of slower home sales through November and the typical uptick in December before the slowest two months of January and February. Inventory is still very low and fully one third of all homes currently listed for sale are under contract but change is coming - it's just a matter of when we see a change and no longer if we see it.

Check out the infographic below for the big numbers:

What Does This Mean?

I don't think I would read too much into the slower sales for a couple of reasons. First, most new home sales are not accounted for in any database so it's difficult to get a totally clean number. Second, even if we do see a little slowdown in the sales, there still isn't enough inventory to drag us into a buyers market. At least not yet. There are of grumblings from buyers about homes being priced too high in their opinions and as an agent, I would agree with certain homes but that's anecdotal and not marked by any substantial evidence. to the contrary, we still see very low days on market for homes that are updated well and priced accurately. There is no shortage of buyers just a shortage of good homes.

When the market does shift, I wouldn't expect any change until the fall of 2017 at the earliest in Alpharetta and when it does if there is a price correction it would be my best guess that we may see a small, 4%-5% downturn in prices that won't last long as long as nothing radically changes in the overall economy.

Questions or Comments?

As always, we welcome feedback as long as it's respectful. Leave a reply below!

As a homeowner, real estate agent and a potential homebuyer in the coming months I've come across some extreme examples of what not to do with paint when you have your home for sale. First I would say that what people do inside of their homes really is their business. We all have different tastes and colors we prefer and we often use our home as a primary tool to express those tastes. However, when you make a decision to sell your home and the interior photos are out there for world to see and you are trying to make a great impression on a potential buyer, there are some things that you should never overlook. Bold color is at the top of that list because it's impossible to ignore.

If you want your bedroom painted a soft red/pinkish color, by all means slap some paint up on the walls and enjoy it for all that it's worth to you. But seriously, don't post a photo of it online as part of a commodity for sale that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's going to immediately cause an objection and will certainly leave some buyers flipping to the next listing without even giving your home a chance. Here's an example I came across this morning. I'm sure they love it and that's fantastic. But now they want to sell it and it's a great example of how to list a home and not sell it:

The number of people looking for a home that matches this criteria and price that want their bedroom painted this color in the city you live in and in the location you live in and the price your home is for sale for is zero. This really needs to be painted neutral.

Here's a kitchen - please overlook the clutter momentary (if that's possible and could be another ranting blog posts about what sellers aren't doing that they should be) - can we call this one the Christmas kitchen? How could a buyer possibly make sense of what it would be like...

It's true that the real estate market in the general vicinity of Downtown Alpharetta is about as strong as anywhere in Atlanta right now but the market for ranch homes near downtown is particularly strong. There are a number of reasons that make this submarket of homes particularly hot...

Walk to Downtown Alpharetta

If you haven't been through Downtown Alpharetta recently you've missed a considerable transformation. A ride down Academy Street or Cumming Street off of Main Street or even up Canton Street parallel to Main Street is showing some big transformations and that's due in large part to the proximity to all that Alpharetta has brought into the downtown area. There is something going on every weekend and Thursday nights and to be able to walk to the events is a huge selling point - it's what every suburban city is trying to achieve but Alpharetta has accomplished this in a way that many other areas have not yet been able to do and because it's Alpharetta, it makes the area all the more in demand.

Affordability

Home prices in Alpharetta are as high and demand for the area is strong. To find a renovated ranch home for under $400,000 is an attractive option. New construction starts in the $600,000's and that's just simply out of reach for most homeowners. I think the days of huge homes as status symbols is winding down and people are more interested in lifestyle than 5,000 square foot homes that do nothing but collect dust. It's a more practical approach to home ownership and quite frankly, I welcome it!

Large Lots

You know the saying - they don't build them like they used to...well, I don't necessarily agree in terms of construction quality but they certainly don't give you lots like they used to. Most of the ranch homes in Downtown Alpharetta are older neighborhoods from the 1960's and 1970's and they have wonderfully large and level lots perfect for pools (which you might be able to afford since you aren't buying an $800,000...