Existing-Home Sales Rise Again in January

This is pretty interesting info.

I was surprised that the total number of sales in January 2011 were 5.3% higher than in January 2010. Last year, we were in the midst of the first time home buyer tax credit, which really boosted that segment of the market.

The biggest growth in January 2011 was investor purchases, which rose to 23% of all sales. With housing prices depressed, a lot of buyers are investing in real estate. If you've ever thought about it, give me a call, and I'll send you a copy of Gary Keller's book The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. It does a great job outlining a conservative plan to growing wealth through real estate.

Below is snippet of the article. You can read the entire article about home sales, prices, mortgage rates, etc. at Realtor.org.

"The uptrend in existing-home sales continues, with January sales rising for the third consecutive month with a pace that is now above year-ago levels, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Existing-home sales¹, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million in January from a downwardly revised 5.22 million in December, and are 5.3 percent above the 5.09 million level in January 2010. This is the first time in seven months that sales activity was higher than a year earlier.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the improvement is good but could be better. “The uptrend in home sales is consistent with improvements in the economy and jobs, which are helping boost consumer confidence,” Yun said. “The extremely favorable housing affordability conditions are a big factor, but buyers have been constrained by unnecessarily tight credit. As a result, there are abnormally high levels of all-cash purchases, along with rising investor activity.”

A parallel NAR practitioner survey² shows first-time buyers purchased 29 percent of homes in January, down from 33 percent in December and 40 percent in January 2010 when an extended tax credit was in place.

Investors accounted for 23 percent of purchases in January, up from 20 percent in December and 17 percent in January 2010; the balance of sales were to repeat buyers. All-cash sales rose to 32 percent in January from 29 percent in December and 26 percent in January 2010.

“Increases in all-cash transactions, the investor market share and distressed home sales all go hand-in-hand. With tight credit standards, it’s not surprising to see so much activity where cash is king and investors are taking advantage of conditions to purchase undervalued homes,” Yun said.

All-cash purchases are at the highest level since NAR started measuring these purchases monthly in October 2008, when they accounted for 15 percent of the market. The average of all-cash deals was 20 percent in 2009, rising to 28 percent last year.

The national median existing-home price³ for all housing types was $158,800 in January, down 3.7 percent from January 2010. Distressed homes edged up to a 37 percent market share in January from 36 percent in December; it was 38 percent in January 2010."

Property Owners Overcharged

A report to be released today commissioned by the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership will release information that supports the findings of an AJC investigation that was published in a series of articles in December. The findings confirm the report that tens of thousands of homes were overvalued last year by county tax assessors. This report aims to take an educated guess as to by how much homeowners overpaid in the 5 major metro counties. The report goes on to say that areas hit hardest by foreclosures overpaid the most on average, and it identifies those zip codes hardest hit.

A zip code where I know many of you own homes was listed as one of the 15 hardest hit in the metro area: 30315.

There is more information in the article linked below.

As I've mentioned before, if you are appealing your assessment and would like some help putting together comparable properties for your case, don't hesitate to contact me. It's something I can help you put together.

AJC Article: Property Owners Were Overcharged

Some Positive Signs in the Atlanta Housing Market

Real estate stats for the 4th quarter of 2009 are in, and there are some positive signs for the first time in what seems like quite a while! The year finished on a strong note as the number of homes that sold in the 4th quarter of 2009 were up 14% from the 4th quarter of 2008. While all but the two highest price ranges experienced improvement from 4th quarter 2008, the biggest improvements were seen under $299 - with an increase in solds of 22%.

A positive outcome that is the result of increased sales is the decrease in standing inventory. Inventory is still around 10 months, which means that it is still a buyer's market. However, inventory is come down drastically from the high point of 18 months in October of 2008.

The last thing to point out is that the median price in the last quarter of 2009 was higher than the median price for the last quarter of 2008. However, the median sales price for the full year of 2009 was down 12.5% than the previous year.

It seems that there have been some positive developments in the Atlanta real estate market over the past few months. I will continue to monitor the local markets and will keep you up to date on all the pertinent information. Please feel free to contact me if you want some more detailed statistics.

Justin Landis
Keller Williams Realty Peachtree Road
cell 404.803.0471 fax 404.704.0686
justin.landis@kw.com
www.justinatlantahomes.com
justinatlantahomes.blogspot.com