I decided to drop the weekly Jasper GA real estate sales and activity reports and move to a monthly format to make the information a little more decipherable and . . . perhaps a little less dire sounding.  Not sure if I'll be able to accomplish the latter, but at least I can work on the former.  Weekly data just seems too small of a snapshot to get a good handle on the market, and can sound quite depressing when there isn't much activity in the course of a week.

For the month of June '08, we saw close to a hundred "new" or "returned to market" listings . . . with only 17 homes for sale being placed under contract of sale (down from 21 in May of this year). This reflects a decline in pending sales approximately 55% lower than June '07, and 61% down from June '06.  Average list price of homes going under contract was a little over $192,000, whereas average closed sale prices in June '07 & '06 were above $200,000.  Average days on market likewise were higher than prior years (by about 45 days).

I've been looking for a way to put a positive spin on this data, but . . . will have to get back to you on that.

(Actually, there is a silver-lining -- if you're willing to look beyond the gloom and doom of today -- which I've written plenty about elsewhere.  Increasing Pickens County job opportunities and proposed residential and commercial developments still support the long-term viability of the community, regardless of any temporary downturn created by external forces.)

Since June also marks mid-year, I thought it would be instrumental to see how the first half of this year compares to the two prior years.  At 137 Pickens County GA homes sold / under contract, we are down 37% from 2007. . . and 50% off from 2006 numbers.  Much of this decline appears to have occurred in the 2nd quarter of 2008.  There also appears a slight downward movement on average sale prices from $217,000 in 2006, to just above the $200,000 mark for 2008.  Days on market also only slightly higher.

One surprising note is that inventory of homes for sale in Jasper GA actually hasn't changed much.  As of the end of June '08, there were 618 active listings for sale in the MLS . . . while at the end of June '07, there were 614.  Not much difference. Of course, much of this is attributable to an increasing number of expired and withdrawn listings staying off market, and a reluctance of sellers not in a "must-sell" situation to even place their home on the market until conditions improve, but it's still a benefit to those who are trying to sell not to have competition continually increasing around them.

If sales continue at the pace set in the first six-months of the year, total sales for the year would be 274 homes.  At this rate, it would require 27-months to deplete all existing inventory . . . assuming no new listings came on the market during that time!  (Particularly hard hit by this market, appear to be the neighborhoods of Bent Tree and Big Canoe, which combined account for nearly 60% of all homes for sale in Pickens County GA.  If sales continue at the pace of the first half of this year in these two communities, moving all their inventory would take around four-years!)

While it is hard to offer sellers much of a ray of hope at this time (other than the standard caveats about staging and pricing), those who are looking to buy a home or land in North Georgia certainly have a great opportunity to obtain what they are looking for at some very agreeable terms.

For more info on home sales in Jasper and Pickens County GA, email Trent or call (770) 757-3399.