Atlanta Real Estate Turns Up in July
categories: First time home buyers, Foreclosures, Metro Atlanta Statistics
All the lagging numbers aren’t in yet but for July 2008 there were 4451 single family homes sold in metro Atlanta. Right now, for July 2009 there have been 3738 homes sold with an additional 1444 homes in pending status which were scheduled to close in July - bringing the total closings to potentially 5182. If all of those pending transactions actually closed in July then that would represent a 16% increase over the previous year.
Now, some of those certainly got shifted to August closings so the actual number will come in lower than 16% but July has shown us the first year-over-year increase in the number of sales in over 3 years.
A majority of those transactions can be attributed to a combination of first-time home buyers and foreclosure sales. In fact, foreclosures and short sales made up 31.8% of all metro Atlanta homes sold for the 2nd Qtr. of 2009. While this isn’t a surprise, what might surprise you is that percentage of foreclosure sales is lower than 1st Qtr. 2009 which was almost 37%.
This can partially be attributed to demand but also, many banks have been slowing the foreclosure process to determine what changes may take place with loan modification rules. So, the 64-million dollar question is, “how many more foreclosures will hit the market and when?”. There certainly is an appetite for distressed properties but with currently inventory levels going down, an onslaught of new foreclosures could slow us up again. Inventory levels for single family homes haven’t been this low since the end of 2006.
There is hope that the first-time home buyer tax credit will be extended beyond the December 1st deadline but as of right now that is still the deadline. The bottom line is that while deals continue to present themselves, we’ve definitley bottomed and have started what I think will be a slow but steady recovery for the local real estate market. Tell me what you think…
We have had a great last few months, including 5 new custom home contracts. Glad to see things pick up.