North Atlanta Real Estate Voice
Archive for the 'Market Trends' Category
Is this the best time to buy a house in Marietta GA?
A few thoughts on why this is the best time to buy a house in Marietta, GA.
To start, right now rates are at 4.375% on a 30 year fixed and 3.75% on a 15 year. And, rates are in the high 4’s on an investment property. Clearly, we are near historic lows on borrowing money.
Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance Is Making a Comeback
As the market tries to recover, lender paid mortgage insurance is making a comeback. Mortgage insurance is required when the borrower puts down less than 20%. However, instead of adding the PMI (private mortgage insurance) to the payment, lends basically increase the interest rate to cover PMI. This is very good for those who put 10% down or less because the borrower paid mortgage insurance (where you have the separate mortgage insurance payment) is very costly in the mortgage payment. Adjusting the interest rate results in a lower overall mortgage payment and is also tax deductible since it is part of your interest.
To give you an idea of the current rate on a lender paid mortgage insurance product, a 30 year fixed mortgage with a 10% down payment including lender paid mortgage insurance is 4.75% on a 30 year fixed today! You can even get lender paid mortgage insurance with as little as 5% down.
So, to summarize, YES, now is a great time to be buying at homes for sale in Marietta, GA or anywhere else in the Atlanta real estate market.
If you are thinking about taking advantage of this great buying opportunity, please contact me and I can provide you with additional information and access to some great mortgage lenders.
Thank you to Sean Trombetti with Amstar Mortgage for this information.
Marietta, Georgia Market Analysis Update
The Marietta area is highly rated among professionals and young individuals looking for homes in the state of Georgia. The area offers a favorable, easy air and land access, good job prospects, good schools and low taxes making it one of the top cities in Georgia to live in.
The median sales price for homes in Marietta, GA for September 2009 to November 2009 was $166,676. This represents a decline of 7.1%, or $12,824, compared to the prior quarter and a decrease of 2.8% compared to the prior year. The average listing price for Marietta homes for sale was about $314,000 as of December 23, 2009.
The housing market in Georgia has begun to recover. The national recession hit the area hard last year but not as bad as other areas and I believe it is on its way to recovery.
West Cobb Housing Market Review
Here is a snapshot of the West Cobb residential real estate market covering single family homes for sale in Kennesaw, Acworth, Marietta, Powder Springs, Mableton and Austell, GA.
Housing Market Review
DECEMBER 2009
Homes Sold: 296
$ Volume: $63,585,700
Average Original List Price: $246,987
Avg. Last List Price: $227,955
Avg. Sold Price: $214,817
ASP/ALLP: 94.6%
Avg. Total Days On Market: 125.0
Would like to know the market stats in your subdivision or a specific area?
Simply contact me and I can get that information to you.
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East Cobb Housing Market Review
Here is a snapshot of the East Cobb residential real estate market covering single family homes for sale in Marietta, GA.
Housing Market Review
DECEMBER 2009
Homes Sold: 125
$ Volume: $38,672,010
Average Original List Price: $343,821
Avg. Last List Price: $328,070
Avg. Sold Price: $309,376
ASP/ALLP: 94.5%
Avg. Total Days On Market: 94.6
Would like to know the market stats in your subdivision or a specific area?
Simply contact me and I can get that information to you.
Do you like what you’re reading?
Why not subscribe to this blog?
FHA Tightening Lending Guidelines for Home Buyers
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced last week that it will be raising it’s down payment requirements for borrowers. It will also be raising the monthly mortgage insurance that is a requirement of their loans. All of this is being done to address the risk in the mortgage and housing markets and to make sure that the FHA remains financially solid and maintains its long-term ability to guarantee affordable mortgages for families.
The FHA issues about 33 percent of all new mortgages and is the largest single source of lending for home purchases. FHA Commissioner David Stevens says the tighter lending standards are significant, but not overwhelming for most borrowers.
Home Price Reductions Slow
According to Trulia.com, 21 percent of the homes on the market as of January 1, 2010 have had at least one price reduction. This represents the second straight month price reduction levels have decreased and the lowest level since April 2009. The total dollar amount of the price reductions also decreased 14 percent to $21.2 billion. The average discount for price-reduced held at 11 percent from the original list price.
The South had the lowest overall number of homes with price reductions at 20 percent. The West, Midwest and Northeast each saw 22 percent of homes with price reductions. The number of major cities with price reduction levels at 30 percent dropped from 14 in December to 7 in January. Cities that saw the largest decrease in price reductions were Los Angeles at (46 percent decrease), New York (36 percent decrease), Memphis (34 percent decrease), Minneapolis and Honolulu (both at 33 percent decrease).
Luxury homes (defined as those listed at $2 million or higher) have been hit the hardest by price reductions with the average discount being 15 percent while the average discount for homes below $2 million held at 10 percent.
Read the full article here. Read another version of this article here.
For Marietta homes for sale in December 2009, the average discount was 5.6 percent. For all houses in Cobb County for sale in December 2009, the average discount was 5.7 percent.
2009 Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension Gets Preliminary Approval in Senate
According to WSJ.com, Senate negotiators reached a tentative deal to extend a tax credit for first-time home buyers, but its passage remains uncertain.
The agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time home buyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners. The reduced credit would be available to all home buyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years.
Atlanta, GA Housing Market Review
The most common questions I am asked are: Is the market getting any better and is activity picking up?
The problem in providing an answer is that is really depends on the day you ask. Over the last 12 months, there really has been any consistent trend in the market. Some weeks see lots of activity and interest while others have no activity. It has been this lack of consistency that has made this such a difficult market.
Positive News
Interest rates continue to be low (in the high 4%/low 5% range) and the $8000 federal tax credit for first time buyers and $1800 Georgia state tax credit for all buyers are good until the end of November. In fact, houses are probably the most affordable they’ve ever been. And, if you’re a home buyer, it’s still a buyer’s market.
On The Other Hand
National unemployment in about 10% and Georgia’s is slightly over 10%. Job losses and uncertainty have undermined the confidence of home buyers. In addition, while money is cheap, it is also still difficult to get a mortgage if your credit is not very good.
To get a clear picture of the overall Atlanta market, I have broken down the sales trends for 2006 through 2008. For 2009, I kept my original analysis period of January thru April and have added May thru September. This way you can see how the year is trending. The chart below shows the trends for all of the Atlanta using the FMLS data for single family homes.
EXPLANATION OF CHART
This chart shows the number of homes sold in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 (thru September). 2007 and 2008 are also broken down into Jan-July an Aug-Dec time frames. The last column represent the the number of currently active listings and their average asking price. The actual data for each bar and line is shown at the bottom of the chart.
ANALYSIS
Units Sold – 2006 – 2008
2006 saw 46,437 homes sold with that number increasing to 58,115 in 2007. We know that that market slowdown began in summer of 2007. This is clear by looking at the breakdown of 2007 sales: 37,497 units from Jan-July and 20,618 units from Aug-Dec. Total units sold in 2008 declined to 46,677 with the second half of the year seeing only 18,178 homes sold.
Units Sold – 2009
Thru April 30, 2009, 11,631 homes sold. If we extrapolate this for the entire year, 2009 would see approximately 35,000 homes sold. From May thru Sepetmber, 21,317 homes sold with an average sales price of $207,000. This represents an 83% increase in home sales AND a 12.5% increase on average sales price.
There are currently 37,674 homes on the market which is approximately 15% less homes than at the end of April. This also represents 10.3 months of inventory at the current absorption rate. Clearly we are seeing a positive trend in sales. However, inventory is still above the 7-9 months which would represent a balanced market. In addition, the current average list price of $361,000 for active listings is way too high and will need to come down in order to sustain this sales trend.
Average Sales Price
In 2006, the average sold price was $264,000. This increased slightly to $265,000 in 2007. The average sold price peaked in the first half of 2007 at $269,000. By 2008, the average sold price was down to $229,000. For the first four months of 2009, the average sold price was $184,000. From May thru September, the average sales price increased by $23,000, approximately 12.5%, to $207,000.
Average List Price
The average list price in 2006 was $271,000. The difference between the average list and average sold in 2006 was 2.7%. By 2007, the gap between list and sold price increased to 3.4%. In 2008, the gap had further increased to 6.1%. For the first four months of 2009, the gap reached an amazing 20.0%. From May thru Deptember, the gap between asking and sold prices had narrowed to 9.1%.
Average Days on Market
This data is not shown on the chart but in the table below:
2006: 76
Jan – Jul 2007: 84
Aug-Dec 2007: 91
2007: 87
Jan-Jul 2008: 95
Aug-Dec 2008: 91
2008: 94
Jan – Apr 2009: 98
May – Sept 2009: 93
As we can see, the average days on market has decreased slightly increased from to 98 to a current 93 days.
Please feel free to contact me with questions about your specific market or community. You can request a FREE home market analysis here.
RELATED POSTS:
Atlanta, Georgia Housing Market Review
North Fulton County (Roswell, GA and Alpharetta, GA) Housing Market Review
The most common questions I am asked are: Is the market getting any better and is activity picking up?
The problem in providing an answer is that is really depends on the day you ask. Over the last 12 months, there really hasn’t been any consistent trend in the market. Some weeks see lots of activity and interest while others have no activity. It has been this lack of consistency that has made this such a difficult market.
Positive News
Interest rates continue to be low (in the high 4%/low 5% range) and the $8000 federal tax credit for first time buyers and $1800 Georgia state tax credit for all buyers are good until the end of November. In fact, houses are probably the most affordable they’ve ever been. And, if you’re a home buyer, it’s still a buyer’s market.
Cherokee County, GA – Housing Market Review
The most common questions I am asked are: Is the market getting any better and is activity picking up?
The problem in providing an answer is that is really depends on the day you ask. Over the last 12 months, there really hasn’t been any consistent trend in the market. Some weeks see lots of activity and interest while others have no activity. It has been this lack of consistency that has made this such a difficult market. However, things are starting to change and trends are developing.
Positive News
Interest rates continue to be low (in the high 4%/low 5% range) and the $8000 federal tax credit for first time buyers and $1800 Georgia state tax credit for all buyers are good until the end of November. In fact, houses are probably the most affordable they’ve ever been. And, if you’re a home buyer, it’s still a buyer’s market.
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