Jimmy Stanton is having his once a year sale - he is trying to sell everything he has on hand at a deep discount, and in doing so, make room for more fresh, beautiful, lovely stuff!

All week until the end of the day on Sunday. The store closes Monday, and opens again on Tuesday, completely refreshed.

Armoires, beds, accessories, paintings, frames, books, chairs, end tables, lamps, you name it.

I bought $240 worth of Modern Alchemy candles that smell like the following scents:

* Ex Libris (antiquated leather bound volumes of handmade papers and parchment)

* Opium Den (a languid hazy cloud of smoldering resins, opiates and tobacco fumes)

* Tincture of Winchester (a fire arsenal of wood stock, 19th century lacquer and smoky gunpowder)

I’m not kidding. You should smell these candles…Jimmy has cool accoutrements for Intown Atlanta living - go now while they are all on sale.

Stanton Home Furnishings in the Edgewood Retail District

Atlanta Home Sales Bottoming Out Link to a PDF version

Atlanta Home Sales “Bottoming Out” Click to read an online version at ajc.com

A previous Intown Insider article about “the bottom” Words from the man, Bernard Markstein.

A joke about economists for real estate sellers in 2008 A reminder that the AJC’s authority, Roger Tutterow from Mercer University, and Bernard Markstein, the National Association of Home Builder’s authority, are merely economists.

Economists can forecast, but can they really get hyper-local?

I say no. Streets, neighborhoods, school districts and builders with good fundamentals, and Sellers who pay attention to the “leading indicators” for their street smarts will fare just fine in 2008.

Those who are missing the finest fundamentals, must compete on price against lots of competition. Those who don’t pay attention to the “leading indicators” for their street smarts, shall suffer.

Ecclesiastes 3: To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Single family home sales are down 40% year over year across Atlanta, according to Steve Palm’s recent Smart Numbers report. Knowing that, I decided to get hyper-local, and research my neighborhood, and make some judgments about my specific submarket, and our immediate competition. In doing so, I get to check out Steve’s research and see how it holds up on my streets.

On the bright side, the average sales price for new or newer houses like mine (built in 2003 or later) in my area of Atlanta is up about 6% from 2006 over 2007. I live in Hawthorn Park, a 47 home neighborhood with a 6 acre creekside forest and other common areas, built in 2003 in the heart of Kirkwood, and about 1/2 mile from Oakhurst. I like to say that I live on an island in the middle of Kirkwood. Back in 2003, just about everyone paid less than $400,000 for a minimum 3/2/1 with a garage, maybe a basement, maybe a BIG bonus room, and definitely lots of nice features.

Like nice, big kitchens.

And, nice open floor plans with seperate dining rooms.

And, naturally beautiful settings.

Well, I let some other Hawthorn Park island dwellers know today that we have some decisions to make about pricing and marketing. Of course, there is a lot of broader market bad news, and I choose to keep my street smarts up, and not let it get to me. As the leader of a real estate agency team, I must work within the market that we serve - good market, slow market, buyer’s market, seller’s market, whatever it may be, it’s my job to help my clients sell properties and purchase properties based on informed decisions.

If you listen to all of the bad news available nationwide, then you may end up being deeply affected spiritually, mentally, even physically.

Use your “street smarts” filter!

So, used my street smarts filter and I validated a market truth today. Read the rest of this entry »