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Metro Atlanta Report:
Metro Atlanta
Report: A GREAT Time to Buy
By Steve Palm
Smart Numbers
This will not be an
encouraging year-end report. October & December produced signs of market
stabilization, but December returned to a lot of downward trends.
Single family
detached had 3,178 closings for December or a decline of 37% from
December 2006. This result is also lower than December’s 1998-2005
results. After lags are reported, Single family detached may exceed
12/2001, three months after 9/11. Single family detached has declined
year-to-year for 16 out of the past 17 months.
Condos and townhomes
closed 579 units in December or a decline of 38.9% over the same year
ago period. This is the 10th consecutive monthly year-to-year decline
and the 13th decline out of the past 16 periods.
For the year, condos
and townhomes were down 12.2% from 2006. Single family detached was down
16.9% 2007 versus 2006. The only other year-to-year decline for single
family detached was 2000/1999. That was the year of the NASDAQ collapse
and the percentage decline was only 2 tenths of 1 percent. On the other
hand, the only year-to-year decline since 1996 for condos and townhomes
was 1999/1998 and that was only 8 tenths of 1 percent.
Total single family
was down 16.2% for the entire year, 2007 versus 2006. Since 1996 there
has never been a reported year-year decline for all single family
housing, until 2007.
The very weak demand
for housing during 2007 really showed up in the pricing trends for
December. The average sale price in December for single family detached
was $250,910 or a decline of 3.5% from December 2006. Since 1994, this
is the greatest year-to-year monthly negative change in average price.
There have been only 5 negative changes in year-to-year monthly average
price declines in the past 13 years and two of them have been in the
past three months.
The average price
for condos and townhomes was $186,034 in December. This was a 7.8%
decline from December 2006 and the lowest reported average price since
July 2006.
Single family
detached had 8,128 expired listings in December, easily a new monthly
record, surpassing September 2007’s 6,561.
There were 1,656
expired listings for condos & townhomes in December and a new monthly
record, easily surpassing December 2006’s 1,311 expired listings. For
all single family there were 76,140 expired listings in 2007 or almost
20,000 more than 2006.
Days-on-market for
all single family was 88.1 for 2007. This is the highest recorded yearly
DOM since 1994.
Well, we are through
with December and 2007! Now we are in 2008 and we need more interest
rate cuts and to stay out of recession. However, it may be too late.
Hopefully recent and future actions by the government can stave off any
economic downturn.
However, what a
GREAT time to buy a home in 2008, as lower interest rates are coming,
prices are coming down, and it is an entertaining election year! What a
FANTASTIC time to buy a home!
This document is copy
protected by Steve Palm, Smart Numbers and is reproduced with
permission. No party may use or reproduce this information without the
express written permission of Steve Palm and Smart Numbers |
