This will probably be my only post this year that addresses value in this particular price range. Why? Well, because most of these properties are not worth buying… But, this one is…   for the right price. This one belongs to one of my clients, who needs to short sell this house in Oakland City – I listed it for $9000 in September – it remains unsold. We are relisting the property soon, and I am thinking that $4000 is the right price. His mortgage lender may differ with me, but I let them set the $9000 price back in September. No offers followed! Some of you may be thinking – huh? what? Is he really talking about this like it matters? Well, my client matters – he needs this short sale! So, check out these FMLS statistics - 8854 houses sold for under $50,000 in Georgia last year, 1422 in Atlanta, 147 in 30314, 265 in 30310, and 205 in 30315. 363 houses sold for under $10,000 in Georgia last year, 266 in Atlanta, 39 in 30314, 73 in 30310 and 47 in … [Read more...]

Yesterday, while standing on the rooftop of Six Feet Under in Grant Park, I made the bodacious claim that we will see a median price increase for metropolitan Atlanta for residential real estate. We are already seeing that in places like Decatur, and other high performing real estate submarkets in Buckhead, and in some of the suburbs. Anecdotal evidence shows me that activity in the lower price ranges, particularly under $100,000, is strengthening while activity in the higher priced submarkets continues to show signs of stability. The recovery is underway but it will be some time before we see prices firming across all segments of metropolitan Atlanta. We will continue to see depressions in places like Lakewood, Vine City and even in some of the Atlanta neighborhoods  that are going through school struggles. Here’s my video with the claim – stay tuned in 2012! … [Read more...]

Trulia.com's "rent versus buy index" is the best resource on the internet for answering a very generic question - should you rent, or should you buy in metropolitan Atlanta? For the past few months, Atlanta property, dollar for dollar, is better to buy than to rent - on average - across many counties. The BUY NOW versus RENT NOW numbers get even more dramatic for buying now when certain submarkets are studied. Here's two examples: 1. just about any close in condominium, loft or townhome 2. just about any house in a great Intown school district My friend Scott Mauldin sent me a 16 page document yesterday entitled "Housing: A Time To Buy" written by some of his folks at JP Morgan Asset Management - the overwhelming evidence supports buying in the best Intown Atlanta submarkets - is it time for you to make the move up? You can find the article within two clicks, here. … [Read more...]