"... good things tend to happen to companies and individuals that consistently do the right thing and bad things tend to happen to those that even occasionally do the wrong thing."
- Michael Josephson
A Few Metro Atlanta Market Facts...
-Metro Atlanta and North Georgia real estate is still on sale for buyers. Many properties are still available below replacement costs.
-Mortgage rates are still historically low - for now. Rates dipped down into the 4% range for a while and are still in the low 5% range. Rates are expected to stay low for the spring and summer months, then start inching up to around 6% by late this year and early 2011. Eventually rates have to rise as we wrestle with our debt and the Fed exit of the mortgage-backed securities market.
-Metro Atlanta and North Georgia home values have hit bottom. I am officially calling it! Home values have seen the bottom. According to Case-Shiller, March 2009 was the bottom. Home values approached those lows again in January and February 2010 but did not cross the line. Now they are rising. Remember, you never see the bottom until it is already past. We are already past the bottom and will see home values stabilized with slow but sure increases in 2010 and beyond.
-Atlanta is a great place to live and work. Businesses will continue to move to the Atlanta area to take advantage of the low costs of running their business, the reach of our international airport and our business-friendly local & state government. A recent KPMG study rated Atlanta as the #2 city in the nation for lowest costs to run a business. The lower commercial office costs may be a blessing in disguise for residential real estate.
-Sideline sellers will start coming back into the market later this year and 2011. There are some wonderful properties with owners who really want to sell but did not like the market values. As values increase, they will come back into the listing market.
-Short sales & foreclosures will remain a major part of our market for the next few years. As long as unemployment remains high, we will continue to see short sales & foreclosures. The new HAFA guidelines will help make this a more streamlined process.
-Inventory levels will remain lower than normal. The banks will not flood the market with foreclosures. New home starts will remain low. Sideline sellers will slowly come back to the market. The largest segment of inventory to watch will be new short sales. Overall, we believe the inventory levels will remain low which will make the best properties (with the best marketing) stand out.