It was recently reported by the Atlanta Board of Realtors that in Atlanta prices rose but sales were down by 5.7 in August year on year. The average sales price jumped to $148,500. The explaination, lower sales can be blamed on higer interest rates that increased by about 1 % in a year and also fewer buyers can qualify for a loan due to salaries not keeping up with living costs and some additional legislation that puts the lender in a position of applying more scrutiny so that less would be borrowers qualified. However, there is some contradiction in this news as ABR President Nancy See was said to have stated that "demand softened slightly and lower prices reflect this." So we are not sure if prices did rise or fell slightly?
The report was based on pricing information for the following counties:
- Cherokee
- Clayton
- Cobb
- Dekalb
- Douglas
- Forsyth
- Fulton
- Gwinnett
- Fayette
- Henry
- Paulding
One thing is sure, and that is things seem to have leveled off and after several months of hype about the US economy improving and the housing recovery responding to a stronger economy we seem to be heading towards calmer waters. A steady recovery going forward is still a great thing but we are not going back to the peak in demand and prices that preceded the housing bubble 0f 2006 - 2008 any time soon.
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