Covington Georgia Real Estate Market Watch for July 2009

Here’s a summary of what’s happening in the Covington and Newton County real estate market as of the end of July, 2009:

Homes in Covington and Newton County newly listed on the Georgia Multiple Listing Service during July totaled 246, down 34.9% from the same period last year.  However, pending sales in July were up by 32.8% over a year ago.  The reason is three-fold… July is historically a good selling season as families try to get resettled before school reopens, home prices remain depressed as opposed to last year, and mortgage interest rates remain low.

The average sales price of a home in our area in July was $113,323, down 17.5% from July 2008.

There remains a 9.3 month supply of homes for sale in Covington and Newton County.  We’re getting better, but a 6 month or lower supply is generally considered by Realtors® to be a “normal” market.  The absorption rate, or how long it should take to sell the number of homes available in a particular price range, stretches from a low 3.6 month supply in the $0 - $100,000 price range, to a 44.6 month supply of homes priced between $225,000 and $250,000, to a whopping 53.6 month supply in the range between $450,000 and $500,000.

New foreclosures coming on the market continues to be one of the largest problems in our local real estate market.  Even though sales of homes have improved recently, the numbers of foreclosed homes continues to add to our existing inventory and keep home prices depressed.  Today’s "Covington News" legal section contained 32 pages of new foreclosures coming onto the market… not an unusual occurrence.

There were 54 foreclosed homes which arrived on the market in July, bringing our yearly total for 2009 to 476.  Unfortunately, that keeps us about on track with 2008, during which we saw 790 foreclosures in the County.  Newton County was cited last week in the "AJC" as having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.  Unfortunately, that statistic does not seem to be abating.

Although we can’t compare Newton to our surrounding counties due to different urban and rural characteristics, population concentrations, median incomes, etc., it’s still interesting to note that Butts County had 7 foreclosures in July and 54 for the year to date, Henry County had 144 for the month and 884 year-to-date, Jasper County had 1 and 15, Morgan County 6 and 21, Rockdale County 46 and 318, and Walton County 51 foreclosures in July and 316 for 2009 thus far.

If you have questions or comments, or would like more detailed information on the real estate market in Covington and Newton County Georgia, just let me know.