The following article brings hope to the Atlanta market. We find that other areas of the Atlanta metropolitan community are experiencing the up-swing in the market as well. Good information here thanks to the Atlanta Developement Authority as published in their newsletter.
If we look for the positive in our world, we will always be able to find it. Go find something POSITIVE!!!!!
The Pulse of Progress, Atlanta's Economic Monitor
Volume 4, Issue 4 April 2008
The Atlanta housing market has lost some steam in the last 18 to 24 months, but overall Atlanta has weathered the storm fairly well compared to other national housing markets. The data validates the healthy heartbeat of housing prices in Atlanta.
According to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the rise in housing prices has slowed down in the Atlanta metropolitan area during the last three quarters of 2007.
Atlanta has continued to see increases in home prices, in contrast to decreases in cities such as Cleveland and Los Angeles. These cities were chosen as representative of pacific coast and Midwest markets.
Putting home prices in a larger context, national home prices have dropped 3 percent from January 2006 to January 2007. Home prices in the South Atlantic U.S. also dropped 3 percent during this same period.
The following shows that Georgia's four-quarter appreciation of 2.6 percent falls within the blue highlighted range of state appreciation values. Among the states with negative appreciation values are California (-6.6 percent), Florida (-4.7 percent), and Ohio (-0.4 percent).
Hit the worst are Pacific coast states, Florida, and the Great Lakes states, which are experiencing little to negative appreciation of home prices. This affects the ability of home owners to tap into equity or refinance to a fixed rate mortgage. In some cases, it even makes it impossible for some to sell their homes because they may be upside down, and the seller doesn't have the cash to come out of pocket at closing.
Thankfully, Atlanta is not facing this level of difficulty compared to the rest of the US because it continues to post positive appreciation.
Metrostudy, a provider of primary and secondary housing market information, reported that the number of closings on new housing construction in metro Atlanta decreased 37.3 percent (8,033 units) from 3rd Q 2007 to 4th Q 2007. The number of housing starts decreased 56.5 percent (4,905 units) during the same period. The good news is that, despite these decreases during 4th Q 2007, there were approximately 1.6 times more closings than starts, which indicates that the excess supply of new construction units is diminishing.
In addition, Metrostudy reported that there is almost an 11-month supply of new home construction, of which there is nearly a 7-month supply that is finished and vacant. The positive difference between the 8,033 home closings and the 7,757 completely constructed homes during 4th Q 2007 is another indicator that Atlanta customers are buying down the oversupply of new construction, particularly in south Fulton County.
Princeton Lakes (199 closings), Oakley Township (131 closings), and Hampton Oak (128 closings) were three south Fulton communities ranked in the top 15 selling communities by closings in metro Atlanta by Metrostudy for 2007.
A 12-month view of housing permits for the City of Atlanta shows a declining trend for both single-family and multifamily housing. The City of Atlanta issued more than twice as many permits for single-family units as for multifamily units in February 2008. During the 12-month period almost 86 percent of the permits issued were for multifamily units, which consist almost exclusively of units with five or more bedrooms.
Atlanta's housing market reflects the resiliency of its economy overall. While it is true that Atlanta's housing production has been influenced by the national decline in home construction, the evidence suggests that Atlanta does not have a "bursting" housing bubble.
This newsletter published by the Atlanta Development Authority.
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