Home Prices

What price did that listing end up selling for? Now you can find out on IntownElite.com

Ever wonder what that house down the street sold for? You know what the list (asking) price was when it went under contract, but what was the final sale number? Previously, our local MLSs, who provide the listings on our site, wouldn't allow agents or brokers to display sold listings or their prices. There were some national portal sites which would show sold prices, but they got their data from public records, which were several months behind, and had some issues with accuracy.

That all changed with a recent decision by the National Association of REALTORs®. NAR changed their IDX policy to recommend that MLS's make sold listings and their prices available for agents and brokers to display on their websites. (IDX, or Internet Data eXchange, is the system by which agents and brokers share their listings on each others websites.) Although neither of our local MLSs are governed by the NAR, they both have decided to allow sold listings to be displayed on our websites for properties that have sold within the last 3 years. GAMLS was the first to go forward with this, and their sold listings can already be seen on our site. FMLS followed along later, and those sold listings should be available shortly.

Since our data comes directly from the MLS you can be assured that it will be both timely and accurate. MLS rules require agents update the system within 3 days of closing, so the sale price will be available on our site quickly, sometimes even the day of closing. Also, all of the listing photos remain available, so you can get an idea of the condition of the property. This is yet another reason why our site is superiorto the national portals, which typically...

If you're involved in the Atlanta residential real estate market in any capacity, buyer, seller, agent or other, you've noticed that something has changed over the last year. The market has shifted significantly. Homes are selling fast, and I mean crazy-fast.  What's "crazy-fast?"  Days.  Sometimes just one day.  Sometimes not even a day. Often with multiple offers.  I've experienced faster than expected sales recently on both sides of the transaction, on my own listings and when representing buyers.  And from speaking with other agents around time, I'm not alone.  "Sure," you might say, "that's anecdotal evidence, but is it really true for the Atlanta market as a whole?"  I looked at the numbers and here's what I found.

I checked the FMLS records over the last 3 years to see how many homes sold each year in various days-on-market brackets. For the purposes of this blog post, I'm just using single-family homes sold in the city of Atlanta. Below are the numbers:

Homes sold in 14 days or less in Atlanta:

• 2010: 919

• 2011: 922

• 2012: 1453

 Homes sold in 7 days or less in Atlanta:

• 2010: 399

• 2011: 406

• 2012: 691

Homes sold in 3 days or less in Atlanta:

• 2010: 127

• 2011: 137

• 2012: 269

Homes sold in 1 day or less in Atlanta:

• 2010: 49

• 2011: 65

• 2012: 103

 ...

Of course we all know that neighborhoods are important for many reasons; friendly neighbors, community support, etc. And we all know there are many reasons to choose a particular neighborhood; location, style, affordability, etc. However, from the perspective of your wallet, there's another important benefit the right neighborhood can provide; price stability.

A recent study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University showed that higher-priced homes are less susceptible to bubbles than are lower-priced homes. Higher-priced homes don't appreciate as quickly in a run-up, but neither do they fall as quickly in a downturn. According to analysis of Standand & Poor's / Case-Shiller home price data, prices of lower end homes in Atlanta fell by nearly 50% from the 2007 peak to December 2010. The drop for higher-end homes fell by less than half that percentage. Of course, this is a macro look at the entire Atlanta metro area, in which "low tier" homes were qualified as those under about $122k and "high tier" homes were those above approximately $221k. You might extrapolate from this data that even higher-tier homes in desirable neighborhoods may have lost even less value since the 2007 peak. You'd be right. A quick check of the sought-after Intown Atlanta neighborhood of Morningside shows an average sale price of $668,952 in 2007. The average sale price in 2010 was $582,339, a 12.9% decrease from the peak. That's certainly a lot better than the national average. Checking the Buckhead neighborhood...

When it comes to selling your home, there are many facets to consider. The timing of your move, prepping your home, how to market your home and countless other considerations. One might say, however, that the most important consideration is setting the listing price. In our experience, we have found that many sellers use flawed assumptions when determining their listing price. WIth this post, we begin a series of articles on the topic of pricing your home for sale.

There are many options one can use to help determine the value of a home. One option that has become more popular lately is the so-called "online valuation." There are several websites, (such as Zillow, HouseValues, etc.) which claim the ability to determine the value of your home. So, how do they work, and are they any good?

These online valuation sites fall into two basic categories. The first category of sites are those that use a mathematic algorithm to calculate a value for your property. The problem with this method can be distilled into an acronym well-known in the computer industry: GIGO, or Garbage In, Garbage Out. This means that incorrect or poor quality input will always produce a faulty result. The "garbage in" stems from the data that is used in the calculations. Where do they get this information? Well, typically they use publicly-available information, such as tax records. The problem with that is, tax records are notoriously outdated and inaccurate, especially in Atlanta. 

Another problem is that the homes in Intown Atlanta neighborhoods are not homogeneous. These are not the cookie-cutter neighborhoods of the suburbs, where many houses are virtually identical. It's fairly easy to determine...

This week brought a couple pieces of good news about the Atlanta real estate market. First, a report released by Metrostudy shows that Atlanta's housing market has hit bottom, with primary indicators having reversed and now trending to the positive.  Although the trend is positive for sellers, we at Intown Elite believe that buyers continue to maintain the power in negotiations, since there’s still nearly 13 months of inventory on the market.

The other good news for the real estate market is the extension of the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers until May 1, 2010. In addition, a credit up to $6,500 is available for other home buyers who have owned their current homes for at least 5 years. This opens tax incentives to "move-up" buyers who are purchasing a primary residence.

As always, there are limits to these credits, so please contact your real estate professional for the details.   These tax credits are not likely to be further extended, so if you are considering buying a home, now is the time.

Please feel free to contact us here at Intown Elite with any questions you have about the new tax credits. Thank you and happy house-hunting! 

It’s been a while since we made a blog post, partly due to the holidays, but partly because we have been busy with several new buyers.  Why, in an uncertain economy, are so many buyers jumping into the real estate market?  Do they know something you don’t know?  It’s really quite simple - the current market condition represents an unprecedented opportunity for home / condo buyers.  So what makes now such a great time to buy?

It’s a buyer’s market.

That’s because there are currently many more people trying to sell real estate than there are people willing and able to buy.  That means prices are lower and sellers are more negotiable now than in the past.

Scarcity = Leverage.

Qualified buyers have the power.  Not only are there fewer buyers than there are sellers overall, but banks are being more strict on their lending standards.  Gone are the no-doc “liar’s loans”, sub-prime, Alt-A and other crazy loan products that created the financial mess we’re in.  These tougher standards make qualified buyers even more scarce.  If you are a qualified buyer in this market, you are the rare gem.  This gives you the upper hand in negotiations.

Mortgage rates near 50-year lows.

Not only can you get a reduced purchase price on a home, but your cost to borrow money is also at historical lows.  Many Atlanta mortgage lenders have reported rates under 5% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage!  This also increases your buying power, enables you to buy more home for a given payment, or get a lower payment on a given home.

People are funny.

Human behavior is sometimes irrational and we often repeat our...