Atlanta MLS Listings Climbing  | Atlanta Active Listings Climb to 84711 - I was just checking the Atlanta FMLS listings this evening and was surprised to see how quickly they are rising.  The number has increased by about 1500 since yesterday!  In early January they were about 78,000.  To rise to 84711 Active FMLS Atlanta area listings this early in the season is astounding.  Last year our all time high of MLS listings in the Atlanta FMLS was about 88000 last summer.  April always seems to be the biggest month for new listings to come on the market,a nd it coincides with school ending mid May, and school starting in early August!  If we are at this high a listings this early in the season 2008 will be an all time high year of listing inventory. 

Atlanta high listing inventory is compounded by low sales.  This is guaranteed to force a lot of pricing pressure on other competint homes.  In January there were only 2401 homes sold in all of Atlanta metro!  That is a 39% drop in sales from January 2007. 

• Active Listings 84711 
• Pending - 8520 Properties Found
• Contingency - Other - 486 Properties Found
• Contingency w/Kickout - 250 Properties Found

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Since a mortgage is a loan that is used to purchase real estate... what percentage do you own when the entire purchase is financed?  0%!   That's right !  Nada!  A mortgagee usually has an equitable interest secured by the deed, but we go right back to ZERO again!  Sometimes it is compounded by a second trust or home equity line of credit.  The problem is that a lot of folks thought the same thing!  Think about this scenario!  Would you buy a luxury $35000 car on a credit card?  OK, but you would buy a home or the obligation on a 250K home with a 100% loan that you didn't even read the big print!

It is a no win situation with no way out!  The only way it could possible ever work is if prices rose at exponential rates.  That can never happen because that is tied to salaries and income.  When has your salary made you more money than you can handle?  So now, that mistake compounds others! You cannot sell a home for more money just because you owe more on a home.  A home over the long term rises in value, but the rise is not predictable and varies locally and nationally.  The old plan used to be when buying a home is to start small and perhaps trade up.   Starter homes was the perfect place to raise some cash.  Buy low, and sell high!  The larger the down payment for your next home...allowed for a more manageable monthly payment that normally was cheaper than rent.   You could create a nest egg for your retirement, and a shelter for your family.  It all made sense! Buying a home was not about a flip or short term investment. It was for shelter.  The purchase of a home without a plan should not tear a family and a neighborhood apart because there was no plan or thought given to the purchase.  Before buying, decide what your needs are, define your goals, and does it fit your budget?  What about your budget 2 years from now?  Does it fit?  If not, you are impulse buying!

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SOLD IN RECORD TIME!

"Gee I could have had a V-8!"  The biggest mistake in most persons lives is looking back over their shoulder and realizing they made a mistake!  It is a great time to buy a home in Atlanta!  Don't wake up one morning regretting it!  "I should have bought when prices were at rock bottom!"  Even for Atlanta real estate professionals with loads of experience, timing the market is almost impossible.  Is it the right time to buy?  Will prices go lower?  Are their better deals out there?  What is the rock bottom price the seller will take?  Should you buy a new home, resale or foreclosure?  Buyer beware!  At some point the activity picks up and those great deals are gone while the buyer's are still paralyzed with indecision!  The worse thing in life is the kid in a candy store looking at all the candy he/she can buy with that $1 bill!  The only problem is that they can only purchase on thing!  What will the buyer buy?  Will it be the right purchase?  Will it be the best possible price?  One things for sure, it cannot get much better than this!  Rates are great, and the sellers are really willing to deal and have sweetened the pot with updates, paint, granite counters, and stainless appliances!  Times a wasting!
 

• There are 83,000 Atlanta Homes for Sale 55975 Detached Homes and 11135 Atlanta Condos and Town Homes
• Sales Have Dropped to 2400 Atlanta Homes Sold in January and 386 Town Homes and Condos Sold in Atlanta Jan 08
• 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgages are around 6%
• There are over 7600 Foreclosures on the market in January!
• Many New Atlanta New Home Builders are offering special incentives.
• Many Atlanta home sellers are willing to pay your closing costs!

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The new FMLS statistics have just been released for Area 14 sales this week. Area 14 is the MLS designation for the East side of North Fulton County (East of GA 400 in Fulton County - includes unincorporated North Fulton, Alpharetta, Roswell and the new city of John's Creek.) From last January sales are off over 50%. For the Month of January 2008 there were only 60 Single Family Home Sales. This is a bitter pill to swallow with the reality of all time highs in inventory of other homes for sale in Area 14 with over 1155 Active Listings! A substantial drop in sales activity. Homes sold for 94.88% of OLP/SP.

North Fulton Area 14 Single Family Homes Sold  in January 2008 Comparison

• January 2008  60  Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $ 450,331 Day to Sell 74 
• January 2007 103 Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $ 403,858 Days to Sell 77
• January 2006 113 Sales Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $ 395,698 Days to Sell 54
• January 2005 106 Sales Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $392,700 Days to Sell 64

Active - 1155 Properties Found

North Fulton Condos and Town Homes Sold Area 14  in January 2008 Comparison

• January 2008 Sold - 16 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 214,585 Days to Sell 103
• January 2007 Sold - 25 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 192,262 Days to Sell 88
• January 2006 Sold - 26 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 231,987 Days to Sell 86
• January 2005 Sold - 17 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 207,387 Days to Sell 135

Active - 288 Properties Found- Condos and Town Homes sold for 93.94% o fOLP/SP.

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The new FMLS statistics have just been released for Area 13 sales this week. Area 13 is the MLS designation for the west side of North Fulton County (West of GA 400 in Fulton County - includes Roswell, Milton and city of Alpharetta.) From last January sales are off over 50%. For the Month of January 2008 there were only 44 Single Family Home Sales. This is a bitter pill to swallow with the reality of all time highs in inventory of other homes for sale in Area 13 with over 1113 Active Listings! A substantial drop in sales activity.

North Fulton Area 13 Single Family Homes January 2008 Comparison

• January 2008 44 Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $ 497,015 Day to Sell 122
• January 2007 88 Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $ 389,921 Days to Sell 84
• January 2006 66 Sales Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $341,596 Days to Sell 69
• January 2005 113 Sales Sales Single Family Homes Average Sales price $392,700 Days to Sell 81

Active - 1113 Properties Found

Condos and Town Homes Area 13 North Fulton January 2008 Comparison

• January 2008 Sold - 13 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 250,518 Days to Sell 100
• January 2007 Sold - 32 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 186,883 Days to Sell 98
• January 2006 Sold - 29 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 242,514 Days to Sell 75
• January 2005 Sold - 32 Sales Condo / Town Homes Average Sales price $ 211,108 Days to Sell 84

Active - 423 Properties Found

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The bank does not want to lose any money on their assets, but they are losing their asses if everyone comes in with a low bid on a home they have valued at a greater price.  So the easiest way to drive the price up is to create an auction mentality.  In the real world you would have other bidders, in this world...there aren't any!  The numbers of closed sales in many markets tell you that.  All you have to know is your market statistics.  In the Atlanta market sales are off between 40-45%.  There are less buyers because there is no credit!  OK...next item...unless you have cash, you are probably not going to get reasonable financing for investor owned property!  Lastly, if this is your own personal residence...you may be in good shape!  Do not believe everything you are told!  Basic rule in real estate...is have them place it in writing that you are advised there are other offers on the table.  They won't!

Most bank owned properties today, and foreclosures are doing this because no one ever challenges them.  They get away steam rolling an agent that has never seen a bad market.  An agent whose ego will prevent them from asking questions to others that have real experience!  So they move foreward into a deal, and pass the DANGER SIGNS!  Even if there were other offers, they are all probably as bad as yours.  The secret to negotiating a foreclosure is to have your financing or cash in place, no special stipulations, and close it fast for a ridiculous price!  Why?  Because there are no other buyers right now!

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Atlanta Real Estate Market Report January 2008 - Sales Plunge 38.9%  -  The FMLS Monthly Statistical Report was just issued a few moments ago and the news is not so great!  Sales of single family homes in Atlanta have plunged across the region another 38.9%. Please keep in mind, this is not just the city of Atlanta, but represents sales in our entire MLS system which includes some 24 counties!  The numbers are abysmal!  This includes condos town homes, and single family detached homes. January saw only 2,787 single-family closings or a decline of 38.9% from January 2007.  Condos and town homes also declined. There were 386 condo and town home closings in January... a decline of 49.0% from the same year ago.  Atlanta metro area saw detached single family closed 2,401 homes in January. A 36.9% decline versus January 2007 and the 18th decline of Atlanta real estate in the past 19 months.  Lower sales also is indictive of much higher inventory levels.  We are now carrying over 83500 Active listings.

• Single Family Detached Homes 2401 Sales
• Town Homes  and Condos 386 Sales
• 7,604 expired listings for all single family in January 2008.
• 2,925 withdrawn listings for all single family in January versus 2,237 for January 2007.
• The average condos and town-homes price was $176,895 in January '08 - 6.5% lower than January 2007
• The average single family home price for detached was $246,833 in January 2008.  $44,000 lower than the all-time high for single family detached, which was $285,078 in June 2007.
• The days-on-market for January single family was 101.8. This is the highest DOM since January 1998's 108.4.

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A lot of MLS organizations do not accurately reflect days on market. Data may only be preserved for two years...even though some properties may have a history that goes back a lot deeper!  Inaccurate data may  also give a major boost to loan fraud if we can see the same property has been flipped 20 times in the last 3 and a half years.  If we do not have access to accurate data, we are not in a position to help anyone other than the seller.  This may be very easily translated into consumer fraud!   In my opinion a lot of MLS organizations may be setting themselves up for some major lawsuits.  You are either supplying accurate data, or it is biased to present a picture that isn't true.  Data should be preserved to serve all clients, not just the sellers.  Without buyers, the seller isn't able to pay a commission.  So why is the DATA deleted?   I don't know...the cost of storage has come down so much these days that should not be an issue.  Either the data system are purged periodically, or they must be trying to help the sellers not having stigmatized listings that are actually on the market for years instead of days.  But there are two clients in every transaction.  Since all agents no longer exclusively represent the sellers as in sub-agency...we have a right to know to better inform our buyer clients, and the public at large.

There is a reason a home sits on the market, over priced, a structural issue, a zoning issue, location and more.  So if as a buyers agent my client asks what is the history of that property it looks like pretty good deal, and I am able to say....it has been listed for 10 time prior at the same price with 6 other real estate agencies, and it has been withdrawn twice...My buyers need to know that!  If the combined days on market are really 1500 days as opposed to 78 days my buyer has a right to know that!  Otherwise we are perpetrating consumer fraud!  There is a difference between let me get my checkbook out and write on this immediately...or saying  "Something is rotten in Denmark!" 

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I was just doing some research on the Atlanta MLS this evening and ws looking at a particular subdivision that really was a sleeper a few years ago.  I had considered buying for myself, but it did not suit me.  For my own taste... the location and the finish work was mediocre.  So I passed on it.  The homes were all priced in the upper 400K's at the time.  One resale begged us to make an offer, but I wasn't interested.  So tonight I looked at the same subdivision and they are now selling in the 690K's!  I was amazed!  I have to stop and think maybe I do not know real estate as well as I thought I did!  As new construction a few of the sales prices were higher, but they had an incredible run of sales in spite of quite a few expired and withdrawn listings when they were priced a little lower.  As I looked at a sampling of about 25 sales well into the 550K's to 699K I noticed that over 18 sales were no money down whatsoever!   On a few others, I would question the assessment, and square footage in the tax records.  They looked way inflated for the product!  In fact the sales prices were bumped up on a few new homes!  That is not unusual in new construction, but most of the homes sold that I looked at had no money down, and a few were only 5-7% down.  

When you think of it, I had some high end listings a few years earlier where in the upper brackets it really is difficult to find many buyers that qualify or have the income or disposable cash to purchase expensive homes.   In fact it was almost impossible.  So in the period of a year or so they sold 26 homes, and over 100 in the last couple of years.  It really makes you stop and think!  Did these buyers really all have the income to purchase a home in the upper 600K's without any money?  Was it coincidence they all used the mostly the same lender (I assume the builder's)?  They are now into their mortgage for a few years if they all used the same product I am curious how many will be able to afford to pay the new adjusted payments.  If not the value in this one subdivision could plunge almost by a third in my opinion!  Foreclosures in a subdivision like this are just a matter of time before they start showing up.  Do  you think the loans were legitimate or was there fraud involved?  Oh and one more item, most sales were made without buyer representation!

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