If they would only read my blogs, we wouldn't have a government freaking out! HA!!!
Below is an article published by the AJC no less! Usually the paper of record for slitting you wrist with the bad news! If they can see the market in a positive light, surely we all can!!! As I said on Monday.....Life is good! If you are thinking about buying or selling we would be honored to have the chance to sit down with you and prove to you why hard work and high end marketing makes the difference in selling your home and be able to show you exactly why Keller Williams won the 2007 Consumers choice award for buyers!!!!!
Have Atlanta’s home prices hit bottom or are a series of small gains just a reflection of the season?
For three months now, resale prices of single-family homes in the metro area have been inching up, according to new data from a Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
“Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis and Tampa showed improvements in their annual and monthly returns, but all four are still too close to their recent lows to determine if the markets have stabilized,” according to an S&P release.
Meanwhile, the Case-Shiller indices of 10 and 20 cities show record one-year price declines through July, although the rate of decline is slowing. The indices are down 17.5 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively.
Metro Atlanta’s 1.3 percent price increase over three months is more likely a seasonal uptick than a true turnaround, local real estate experts say. Sales are traditionally higher in the summer than other times of the year.
“I really think we’re experiencing a little bit of that,” said Eugene James, director of housing research for Metrostudy in Atlanta. “There are too many unknown factors at this point in time.”
One factor is metro Atlanta’s elevated inventory in the resale market, which is keeping prices down. It’s about seven months above what it should be based on current sales, according to Dick Hearin, senior vice president of Coldwell Banker’s Builder Developer Services. Hearin compiles Multiple Listing Service and First Multiple Listing Service data.
Another factor is buyer trepidation. “We are at levels of the 1990s in terms of closings,” when there were fewer people, said Steve Palm, president of the real estate research company SmartNumbers.
“Our prices right now are below 2003,” Palm said. “Our median price in July was over $20,000 less than in 2007. We are decimated.”
Those willing to buy are having difficulty getting loans. “My concern is the credit markets,” James said. “The lending institutions are out of cash.”
Over a year’s time, prices in metro Atlanta are down 8.2 percent, about half as bad as the 20-city average, according to the S&P release.
“In Atlanta, we never saw home prices get that frothy,” so the dropoff has not been as steep, said Mercer University economist Roger Tutterow.
The pace of price decline nationally has cooled a bit. From May to June, home prices fell 2.2 percent; from February to April, the drop was 6 percent, according to the S&P release.
“There are signs of a slowdown in the rate of decline across the metro areas, but no evidence of a bottom,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee.
Home prices around the country peaked in June 2006. Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami have been the worst performers over the past 12 months. Prices have fallen 28 to 30 percent in those cities.
Atlanta’s June to July change was an increase of 0.4 percent, following 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent increases.
“I do think we’re quite close to the bottom for home prices in Atlanta,” Tutterow said.