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September 2003   America's Real Estate Superstore

Metro Atlanta's Real Estate Update for July 2003.

August 28, 2003 

July 2003 had 5,125 single family detached and 599 condo & townhome closings. They both combined to close 5,724 units or another large increase of 9.7% over the same year ago period. After a down first quarter, a "flat" April & May, we now have had record closings in June and again in July. 

We are now up for the year too. After such a negative first quarter, this is a good turnaround for our market. 

Results for August and September will provide a good indicator for the rest of 2003 and 2004. During the past eight weeks, interest rates have gone up almost 1.4 basis points. After "bottoming" out in the second week of June at around 4.8%, the 30 year mortgage is now around 6.2%. This is still a very good rate, but nonetheless a negative for the market. 

Gasoline prices have also spiked up, which is not nearly as market influencing as interest rates, but again, still a negative. 

What is very encouraging to see, is that prices did not rise much the past two very strong months. This is due to the fact that there was a lot of inventory to choose from. The average price for condos and townhomes actually dropped from the previous month and was up a modest 4.0% over the same year ago period. The average price for July was $185,985 versus June's $188,985 and July 2002's $178,844. 

The average price for single family detached was $240,789, which is again another all-time high. This instill only a 2.0% increase over the same year ago period, so even though the prices keep rising, they are doing so at very low percentage increases, which is good for the market. 

Days on market, inventory, and expired listings all trended favorably in July, with the most notable being days on market. Review the attached charts to more effectively see the trending, but days on market had a large drop from June to July. 

Traditionally, days on market starts to increase after the June - spring season, but with the market heating up it actually dropped from 77.5 in June to 73.7 in July. This result was only 1.6 days higher than the same year ago period. This is also a lot better than January's 86 result, which was an 11.4 increase from the same year ago period. 

The market inventory also stabilized the past two months and this is good to see after almost three years of "constant" upward seasonal increases. However, if the market remains strong and inventory starts going down, then expect prices to increase substantially. 

Thank you, 

Steve Palm
Smart Numbers