Atlanta Home Sales
According to the Atlanta Board of Realtors and based on data from the First Multiple Listing Service, compared to a year ago August the median sales price for Atlanta homes sold has risen a solid 11%. In that same time though, our sales volume for Atlanta real estate has dropped by 7%.
This long trend of fewer sales and higher prices seems to be due to many home buyers remaining on the fence as to exactly when to pull the trigger. Though we have still incredibly low interest rates that folks from decades past would have jumped at, we still have many buyers just too unsure about the economic environment, and preferring to keep money in their accounts rather than lock it into down payments.
Another deterrent is that we’re experiencing a lower inventory of Atlanta homes for sale than last year, a year where 60% of homes sold for cash, indicating a heavy influence on the market by investors. This year does not seem to be as heavy with investors as most of the great deals seem to have already passed.
Just 27% of Atlanta home buyers today are first-time home buyers, which is low compared to a more comfortable 40% we’d experienced during stronger years for our market. Less first-time homebuyers translates into less buyers to pick up currently owned homes of sellers that may be looking to step up to higher priced properties. At the same time, many of those current owners are also still waiting for their homes’ depreciation during the recession to get washed by new appreciation trends. That means fewer great Atlanta homes for sale to excite homebuyers off their fences. Knock any one of these dominos down though, and perhaps we’ll be on our way to regaining some of that strong Atlanta real estate market we once enjoyed.
