Atlanta right now is suffering from a condo and town home overbuilt situation. New homes builders in the last few years scrambled to fill a market void of condos and more especially town homes. In layman's terms they over did it on steroids. I know for a fact that quoting inventory levels and absorption rates is useless with so many properties on the sidelines in bankruptcy court and entire blocks of units waiting to be auction off in bulk sit just below our radar. Attached housing has a major shadow inventory in this town.
The problem for the home seller is that there is basically no demand for their units. That is due in large part with rising unemployment and lack of consumer confidence. How that translates into our business is less sales, and declining prices. I created a trends chart to show you the pricing of attached condos and town homes to show you what is really occurring in our market. The overall trend is still not good, and I do not think we have bottomed. We need jobs. There is no such thing as a "Jobless recovery!" Persons need income to pay bills, and cannot contemplate purchases when they are counting the days until their unemployment runs out! 19% of upper end job seekers have left the Atlanta area recently seeking employment! Attached home prices have plunged 26.62% from January 2007 when compared to January 1020 and the current average sales price of $129,750.
*These prices are reflective of the greater Atlanta METRO MLS coverage area, and do not represent sale prices in the city of Atlanta alone.
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