Category Archives: Value of a home

The Real Truth About the Atlanta Market

Posted on February 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Atlanta certainly has taken a beating in the local and national media over the past week.  The latest Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index report was released, ranking Atlanta second only to Detroit, with a price index of 88.93, down from a high of 136.47 in mid-2007. This represents the fourth straight month of decline for the city, and a 13% year-over-year decline, the largest loss of any metropolitan area in the country. This brings the median home price in Metro Atlanta to $178,000, down 12% from December 2010, the lowest it has been since 1998.

Not all areas in Metro Atlanta have suffered from such drastic deflation. Sub-markets inside the I-285 corridor, along with areas of North Fulton County have retained value far better than homes in the outlying areas.  With foreclosure and short-sale inventory at an excess in the suburbs, prices continue to fall, dragging averages  for the entire metro area down. 

On the bright side, inventory in the area is decreasing.  Currently, metro Atlanta’s home supply is at a 10-year low, with the number for new construction being the lowest it has been in 15 years.  In 2009, there were over 120,000 available units on the market.  This number has shrunk to under 50,000 units today.

More positive news arrived when the latest unemployment numbers were released.  The national unemployment rate is down to 8.3%, the lowest it has been in three years.  In Georgia, unemployment decreased for the third month in a row, to 9.7%, down from a high of 10.4% in December 2010.

More people entering the job market, coupled with low supply and record low prices and interest rates could spell relief for metro Atlanta home sales.  According to the National Association of Realtor’s Pending Home Sales Index, sales reached a 19-month high in November and the trend continues.

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Posted in Atlanta Real Estate Market, Housing stats in Atlanta, Value of a home

What will happen to the unfinished lots in higher end communities?

Posted on January 25, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By: Meril Missbach

What should be done with unfinished lots in higher end communities?  A few thoughts:

It is unfortunate that so many high-end single family communities broke ground during the real estate boom, only to be left with empty lots collecting dust during the decline of the economy.  As the market declined, the original builders were not able to sell the upscale houses above the price at which it cost them to build.  Therefore, the lenders have had to foreclose on the empty lots, leaving the communities partially unfinished.

In my opinion, the best thing that could happen to these unstable communities, is for a financially stable, reputable builder to purchase the foreclosed lots and build smaller homes that are in keeping with the architecture and curb appeal of the existing larger homes.  These smaller homes would be sold at much lower prices than the original, larger homes.  Rather than continuing to build large homes at dramatically reduced prices, the smaller homes would allow for a more affordable product that would be appealing to a larger audience. These new smaller homes would not be in direct competition with the larger luxury product that currently exists and, therefore, the value of the larger homes would not be brought down by the new construction.  The current homeowners would not be upside down in their mortgage.  Homeowners in these communities will be able to sell their homes based on the size and finish, regardless of the disparity of pricing within the community.

Five years from now, when the market is more stable and we are looking back at communities that were completed between 2009 and 2011, we will see many communities that have varying sized homes and significant price ranges.

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Posted in Foreclosure, Lots in High End Neighborhoods, Value of a home

Friday Five: Top five walkable suburbs in the U.S.

Posted on November 12, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Brad Horner

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that non-profit group Walk San Diego found that homes in walkable communities retained 5% more value than non-walkable communities during the recent housing market decline. For the study, the group broke an area known as Mid City (which includes a handful of San Diego neighborhoods) in 11 separate zones to study walkability and found that the pedestrian-friendly spaces saw less of a decline between 2007 and 2009. Walkable areas decreased 12.4% while non-walkable areas decreased 17%.

We aren’t surprised in the least, as we regularly hear that a neighborhood’s “walkability” is what brings in potential buyers at many of the local properties that we represent.  Metro Atlanta has quite a few unique walkable neighborhoods, many of which have likely taken cues from the more well-known walkable suburbs in the U.S. – including those that were recently ranked in the Wall Street Journal’s list of the top 10 walkable suburbs in the U.S. (ranked by education levels, per capital income and travel time to work).  The top five include:

  1. Bethesda, Md.
  2. Princeton Township, N.J.
  3. Highland Park, Texas
  4. Evanston, Ill.
  5. Birmingham, Mich.

 

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Posted in Friday Five, Value of a home

Now is still a great time to purchase a home in Atlanta!

Posted on August 1, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Leslie Williamson

In the August edition of Atlanta INtown Paper, Collin Ellingson, Senior Vice President of Sales with Coldwell Banker NRT Development Advisors states “Now is still a great time for a smart buyer to purchase a home in Atlanta.”  What advise does Ellingson give?

1)  Both on the buyers side and the sellers side be realistic about the three or four wants or needs.

2) Buyers need to be patient when looking for a home, there are a lot of choices and the buyer needs to be educated.

3) Sellers need to be realistic about their selling price – setting the right price is key to generating interest in the home.

4) Sellers need to keep in mind that they may get less than expected when selling their home but they can make up the value on the buying side.

As Ellingson states ” It’s not all doom and gloom.  There’s value in all neighborhoods right now if you’re patient and you understand what you’re looking for.”

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Posted in Atlanta Real Estate, award winning real estate, Real estate advice in Atlanta, Value of a home

Mortgage rates hit 39-year low

Posted on July 6, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Christine Macrenaris

I’m catching up on e-mail after a nice long week vacation and an article regarding low interest rates stops me in my tracks.  According to Inman News, mortgage rates have hit historical lows since 1971.

Rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages are 4.04 percent for those of you thinking of refinancing! For all of the sales agents out there, this information is key to helping you show the affordability of home ownership. With developers offering significant price reductions and with the right financing – now is the time to buy.

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Posted in Interest Rates, Value of a home

We have Atlanta covered

Posted on June 22, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Christine Macrenaris

Even though the Federal Housing Tax Credit program is a distant memory, there are still many opportunities for buyers to take advantage of in this marketplace.  There are several new construction town home and condominium projects with a handful of homes remaining in their inventory, and developers are offering amazing deals in order to closeout these projects.

For instance, Grinnell, located in Inman Park, has a 2-bedroom/2-bath home discounted by $69,000.  Just up the road, LaVista Walk has just 2 remaining townhomes with amazing price discounts.  Kirkwood Station, located in the historic Kirkwood area, has only a few townhomes remaining that start from $249,900.  For a buyer who wants to be in the heart of Decatur, The Artisan has 4 remaining 3-bedroom condos with close out pricing up to $160,000 off original pricing.  And the deals are not limited to inside the perimeter area. Highgate at Sandy Springs have 3-bedroom homes available starting from $119,900!

Now is the time to take advantage of developers who are in the position to close out their remaining inventory and offer amazing values, as these prices may not last. This week’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, “Home prices, sales continue to rise,” reported that both the median sale price and the number of homes sold increased in Atlanta in May from the month before and the year before.

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Posted in Tax credit, Value of a home

Market Response during the last 18 months!

Posted on June 8, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Brad Horner

As we approach the mid-point of 2010, I recently took the opportunity to sit down with Susie Proffitt of The Florida Home Show and Atlanta’s Best New Homes to talk about how our company, our clients and consumers responded to the real estate market during the last 18 months.  

Though economic factors continued to impact the industry and create apprehensions and obstacles for potential home buyers, many of our diverse developer, bank and institutional clients were still able to buck trends and increase qualified traffic and, more importantly, sales.  In the below video, Susie and I discuss how NRT Development Advisors helped them to do so by creating and executing innovative, results-driven marketing and sales strategies, including repositioning, partnerships, events, social media outreach and more.

I invite you to take a few minutes to watch the below video (by clicking on the image), which offers insight regarding how to approach the current market and includes video of the beautiful homes we have the privilege of representing.


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Posted in Bank Owned, Company news, Market data, NRT Development Advisors, Real Estate, Sales and Marketing, Value of a home

What Does the Future Hold after the Tax Credit?

Posted on May 4, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Jessica Weston

Now that the April 30th tax credit deadline has passed, many of us real estate professionals are anxious to see what the immediate future holds.  Will buyers continue to be excited about the incentives offered by homeownership or will they wait to see what the government will do next? 

Fortunately, the tax credit didn’t seem to sway many buyers one way or the other, especially not like it did the first time in November of 2009.  The main buying decision this season was price.  And developers and builders have realized this.  Now, more than ever, pricing is competitive and buyers are eager to take advantage of these steals.  It’s cliché, but with interest rates threatening to rise, buyers who want to take advantage of this “buyer’s market” are eager to do so right now! 

 Many buyers believe the market is stabilizing and their confidence in their buying decision is growing.  According to a Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services survey found in an article on Yahoo News , consumers are “optimistic about real estate values, with 46% expecting prices in their area to increase over the next year”.  This same survey showed that among the list of buyers concerns, the tax credits ranked the lowest, with rising mortgage interest rates, unemployment, and stricter lending guidelines being the highest. 

There is no doubt the tax credit helped to stimulate the real estate market, but we are hopeful that consumer confidence in real estate continues to rise and that this consumer confidence in the economy as a whole will prove a stable real estate market is near.  Once that stable market has proven to be here with employment on the rise, affordable housing prices, and rising interest rates, we hope to see a boom in the sales for the summer 2010.  I don’t have a crystal ball, but it seems we’re moving in the right direction!

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Posted in Tax credit, Value of a home

Friday Five: Factors to consider when selecting comps

Posted on April 16, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Brad Horner

One-third of U.S. consumers polled this week by Gallop indicated that they believe home prices would rise in the next 12 months.  And the recent Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller home price index backs up this sentiment, as it reported the eighth consecutive monthly increase in home prices.  Yet analysts predict that home prices might fall again during the second half of 2010.

So how do you determine a home’s value during such an inconsistent market?  That’s a big question that NRT Development Advisors regularly receives when counseling clients about home pricing strategies.  Our answer: Comps.

Comps allow sellers and buyers to compare “apples to apples” and determine the price of what such a home   could realistically sell for in the current market.

Below are the top five factors you should consider when selecting comps:

  • Size – This includes the number of bedrooms and baths, additional rooms such as a study or playroom, number of garages and lot size.
  • Square footage – Cost per square foot is an important measure in determining a home’s value. For example, if your home’s value per square foot is $250 and the average per square foot of nearby similar recently sold homes is $275, it shows that your home is valued less per square foot than nearby similar homes.
  • Features –Look for the presence or absence of similar characteristics, such as chimneys, decks, walk-in closets and oversized bathtubs. And don’t forget about energy-efficient upgrades, including appliances and insulation.
  • Exterior features – This includes brick, siding, gables and more.  Brick homes are typically worth more than homes constructed with other materials.
  • Foundation – Is the home built on a basement or slab?  Homes on a basement are typically valued higher because there is more room for expansion.

By analyzing the current listing prices of competition and final prices of recent comparative closings, sellers can appropriately price their homes to make them an attractive option, and buyers can know that they’re getting a fair deal on a purchase.

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Posted in Appraisels, Friday Five, Value of a home

Equitable price/value relationship

Posted on March 11, 2010 by | 1 Comment

By: Maria Mena

In today’s economy, everyone seems to be focused on price. You can’t open the newspaper, your mail or your e-mail without being bombarded with the deal of the day, the month and, in some cases, the deal of a lifetime.

And no other industry has been more impacted by the focus on price than real estate. Which I find funny, actually, because since the beginning of time, the 3 most important evaluation criteria for a real estate property have always been location, location, location.

While location continues to be a critically important aspect of the successful marketing of a property, an overwhelming percent of today’s buyers are shopping price first and neighborhood second. People on the hunt for deals are crisscrossing cities to find the “right priced home.”

But a competitively priced property alone will not make the sale. While this may sound contradicting it is actually at the heart of selling any product.

The reason revolves around the need for products to have an equitable price-value relationship. Whether it is real or perceived, the relationship must be equitable or the sale will not close.

It is only when value is perceived to equal to or greater than price that the consumer begins to buy. The absolute price doesn’t really matter in this equation. This is not about affordability. It is more about reasonable, sound and understandable value.

For instance, NRT Development Advisors helped The Stacks promote a sale on one of the community’s studio homes.  The attractive price point helped to bring qualified buyers to The Stacks, and the studio quickly sold.  But it wasn’t price alone that sealed the deal, as other nearby communities were selling larger homes at lower prices.  The Stacks team helped the buyer to see the studio’s full value that was included in the price, which included lower HOA dues, a stabled and established Homeowners Association, a strong sense of community among the current homeowners at The Stacks, walkability to restaurants, true loft living with original brick walls and more.

First and foremost, the purchaser must understand what’s inside the deal. It is only then that value can be assessed. It is for this reason that it is critical for any sale to fully explain what is included in deal including the location advantages.

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Posted in Sales and Marketing, Value of a home