When you live in Buckhead and Atlanta, traffic is a big part of your life. This new traffic feature on Google maps gives realtime data for Atlanta. I’m going to try to remember to use this site before I set-out to battle Atlanta traffic.
Archive for August 2009
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Categories : Atlanta Resources
Wednesday,
August
26th,
2009
It seems to me as if real estate in Atlanta Georgia has finally hit a bottom and is now on the upswing. I’ve written before about how some of the local Atlanta housing indicators are showing positive signs.
Smartnumbers has recently compiled the July Atlanta real estate data, and it looks promising.
Here is what Steve Palm had to say regarding the July data:
It is not official yet, but after lags are reported single family detached will have a positive year-to-year increase in closings for July. It still looks like single family attached (condos and townhomes) will be negative, but combined with single family detached, total closings will still be positive. This is very encouraging, but we need consecutive year-to-year monthly increases before we even consider this as our turnaround. I am going to be optimistic, as I believe we will.
In a strict technical sense, he doesn’t believe we are in a turnaround, but I think Atlanta is awfully close to an upswing. If you’re looking for the housing market bottom, you may have just missed it. I think timing the market could be a dangerous game. Of course, if the Federal Government doesn’t stop printing money as if we are a third world dictatorship, then all bets are off.
As Palm says below, the market could heat up very quickly:
I am predicting back to back positive year-to-year monthly closings, as I believe August will be positive too. There were 8,778 pending sales for all single family at the end of July compared with 6,825 at the end of July 2008. If lender liquidity could improve, this market could heat up fairly quick.
The inventory report on the right shows the reduction of houses on the market. It is a positive sign. I think a good portion of the inventory reduction is from the banks unloading a lot of their bad assets, which in turn will decrease the downward pressure on Atlanta housing prices. I mentioned, on a previous post, that Synovus has made a big push to unload bad real estate assets of its books. Some of the other banks have complained that it’s hurting the market. I liken it to removing a band-aid, you can go for the quick-pull / fast-pain or the slow-pull / long-drawn-out-pain.
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Categories : Atlanta Homes Sale
Synovus, headquartered in Columbus, is aggressively unloading its repossessed homes throughout the Metro Atlanta area. I believe this will add pressure on the other Georgia banks that continue to carry a lot of home inventory on their books. There are still great foreclosure deals in Buckhead and the North Metro area. I’ve been advising my clients to make aggressive offers, if the home is owned by a bank and has been on their books for a while.
Here is an excerpt from the AJC article on this subject:
Some smaller banks grumble, worrying that the property dumps by the big players causes housing prices to tumble even further.
“It’s definitely going to have an impact on those banks that do have toxic assets they are trying to get rid of,” said Carolyn Brown, president of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia. “They all are trying to get the best dollar they can obtain.”
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Categories : Atlanta GA Foreclosure
Monday,
August
17th,
2009
If you would like to get your Atlanta home sold quickly and for maximum value, I suggest the following five home improvements before you market it for sale. I think all five have a nice balance between cost and immediate impact.
- Paint your walls – There is no better way to increase the value of your home than with a coat of paint. And luckily, there are few home improvement projects that are as inexpensive. A fresh coat of paint throughout your Buckhead home will make it appear fresh, clean and inviting. You should chose only a couple of neutral colors for the entire home, as you’re trying to make your home appeal to a broad range of buyers.
- Replace your carpeting and refinish your hardwood floors- If your carpeting is worn, stained or has simply seen its better day, then you may want to consider installing new carpeting. An attractive, neutral carpet will do wonders for your home’s appearance. In Buckhead, many people like, and demand, hardwood floor. Make sure your floors are in great condition; it will be a great selling point. You will likely see a 100% return on a new carpet / hardwood floor investment.
- Update your lighting fixtures and hardware – Nothing outdates a home like old light fixtures and door knobs. Luckily, most lighting fixtures and hardware are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. I’ve seen plenty of homes that scream 1980s due to their shiny gold door-knobs
- Purchase new kitchen appliances – Buckhead buyers love new, stainless steel appliances, so there is simply no better way to lure them in than with new, shiny appliances. Plus, new appliances can be used as a bargaining tool during the negotiation process.
- Improve the home’s curb appeal – Power-wash the home, sidewalk and driveway. Cut back any overgrown trees, trim your hedges, remove weeds from your plant beds and plant colorful annuals. Your home may look amazing on the inside, but if the outside looks less than stellar, you may lose many, potential buyers before they even walk through the door.
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Categories : Sell My House
In early 2009 Congress passed a Temporary Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. This nearly $800 billion stimulus package offers wonderful temporary tax incentives. Many of the incentives that are presently set to expire at the year of the year include the following credits/deductions/incentives:
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Tags : tax credit, Taxes
As I’ve mentioned before, the outlying Atlanta suburbs have really been hit hard by the housing slowdown. The subdivisions that seemed to sprout-up overnight in Forsyth and Fayette county, are now being referred to as “zombie” subdivisions, where only a few homeowners sit among acres of vacant, bank-owned lots. Hopefully, the bankd won’t be changing any of the subdivision names to “Dawn of the Dead.”
While there might be small examples of the “zombie” phenomena in the immediate Atlanta suburbs, like Dunwoody and Sandy Springs, it’s more common in the fast-growth counties. Here is an excerpt from an article in the AJC on the huge volume of vacant subdivisions in metro Atlanta.
To say the market has been sluggish would be an understatement. The main problem is sheer volume – a staggering 150,000 vacant housing lots across metro Atlanta are available, more than a decade’s supply at current absorption rates.
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Categories : Atlanta GA Foreclosure
Bill Baker is perhaps the best classic home architect in Atlanta. I was very excited to see, and read, this interview with Mr. Baker on “Things That Inspire.” If you have an interest in classic home design and have not looked at the “Things That Inspire” website, then you are missing out on a great resource.
I recently bought a new home in Buckhead, that has a few years of work and renovations ahead of it. I’m constantly looking at the “Things That Inspire” website, for design ideas.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Q: What’s something you shouldn’t skimp on when designing a home?
A: Families should always concentrate on getting their room sizes correct from the beginning of the project. That is the one thing that can’t be changed later once the house is built. There’s nothing more tragic than seeing a family undersize their home only to find that it doesn’t meet their needs later. This is the one area I always encourage my clients not to skimp on.
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Categories : Buckhead Homes
Tags : Bill Baker
Hopefully it’s not just an anomaly, but Atlanta home prices are up. What’s interesting is the recovery of Atlanta home prices appears to be happening before the national recovery. I’m encouraged by the Atlanta real estate market. I think it’s a great time to be buying a home in Buckhead, or some other North Atlanta communities.
Atlanta Home Value Index
If you’re interested in buying Atlanta real estate, please feel free to contact me.
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Categories : Uncategorized
I’ve written about short-sales on this blog in the past. A short-sale can be a good alternative for all parties involved, but keep in mind, it can be a very frustrating experience. As a buyer, you are now negotiating with two (or more) parties; the homeowner and the lender(s).
The lenders can be very difficult to work with. During this unprecedented real estate market, the lenders are overworked and lack experience in short sales. Here is an excerpt from a recent USA Today article on the perils of short-sales.
But many short sales are faltering, largely because some lenders may lack the internal staffing, expertise and systems to process such sales in a timely fashion. And short sales can be complex, especially if they involve home-equity lines of credit or other second liens held by different lenders, who also must agree to take less than the amount they’re owed from a home’s sale.
Several lenders acknowledge that banks have been part of the problem, in part because most have done so few short sales in the past that they’ve faced a steep learning curve.
“About half of short sales never close. We see it as a big lost opportunity, and we need to improve the rate we close them,” says David Sunlin, vice president in charge of short sales at Bank of America.
Uncompleted short sales that go to foreclosure are costlier for lenders and homeowners. For lenders, a short sale may save as much as 30% of the expense incurred by going to foreclosure.
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Categories : Atlanta GA Foreclosure
Tags : Short Sales
Anecdotally, through some of my recent sales and working with clients, I’ve felt the housing market has been improving. Recently, I have been seeing some market data to back up my intuition.
Click on this chart of Atlanta residential home sales to see that the home sale prices appear to not only have stabilized, but are starting to show some strength. The market area for these numbers is roughly North Atlanta and North Metro Atlanta.
While I don’t think we are going to get back to pre-2008 prices overnight, I’m encouraged by the direction of the trends. As I mentioned in a previous post, the absorption rate, while still high, has leveled off.
On the flip side, it’s still a good time to be buying. There are some really great deals on houses in Atlanta and the market appears to be headed for a recovery. If you’re interested in buying or selling a home in Atlanta, please feel free to contact me.
Chart source: SmartNumbers.
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Categories : Atlanta Homes Sale
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