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MLS Moments - How’s the Atlanta Market Today?

[ Add Comment ] 05/09/08 | Kathy Drewien | Filed under: Alpharetta, Atlanta Real Estate, MLS Moments, Marietta, Roswell

The goal of MLS Moments posts is to provide a snapshot of the Atlanta market on a regular schedule.

I’ve been tracking the number of houses for sale in Atlanta, and how many houses have sold for several weeks. The average list price, the average sales price, and the average days on market have been recorded, and compared to the prior week.

Week after week, the message has been the same. The real estate market in North Atlanta is flat.

A couple of posts back I used a chart that summed up the market, “You’ll notice that when some things are up, other things are down.” Even if you like numbers, the constancy of the reports is B-O-R-I-N-G.

So, I’ve decided to report on a monthly basis the number of houses for sale, the number sold, and average prices. Real Time Atlanta Real Estate Market Profiles are available any time. Detailed weekly reports are available to download.

Tonight, I’ve looked at absorption rates - the amount of time it will take to sell all of the houses currently listed for sale, based on how many houses are currently reported as sold and closed.

I created a great chart full of data for East Cobb, West Cobb, North Fulton and North Gwinnett. It has pretty colors to define the rows and columns. And, for the life of me, I can’t get it into this post.

This is what the absorption rate chart looked like in September 2007.

absorption_rate

Tonight, there are 8097 homes listed for sale in North Atlanta. And, there are 981 homes that are “under contract” - a total of 9078 houses for sale. Only 1860 houses sold between January 1 and April 30, 2008.

What does this tell you? It will take 19.5 months for the market to absorb the number of houses currently for sale - at the rate houses are now selling.

I think my time is better spent answering the question of Atlanta sellers, “Why isn’t my house selling?“

If you enjoy tracking the numbers, or don’t want to miss the answer to why your house is not selling, subscribe to our posts.

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MLS Listing Moments - North Atlanta

[ Add Comment ] 04/14/08 | Kathy Drewien | Filed under: Alpharetta, Atlanta Real Estate, MLS Moments, Marietta, Roswell

North Atlanta Real Estate MarketToday's MLS listing report includes sales to date in comparison to last week's multiple listing statistics. Sales data for 1st Quarter 2008 is reported using information I have examined. This is not an official report from FMLS.

The market remains flat with little change in the overall number of houses listed for sale in North Atlanta zip codes.

First quarter 2007 was a different market with 2251 houses sold in the same zip code area. Sales are down 40% from the same period last year. In short, there are not the same number of buyers buying today.

My friends and colleagues across the country report similar drops in the total volume of home sales.

Today, when asked, "How's the market?"

My reply is more personal. "My income is down 40% from this time last year."

End of report.

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MLS Moments: Atlanta Real Estate Market Review

[ 2 Comments ] 03/23/08 | Kathy Drewien | Filed under: Atlanta Real Estate, Buyers, MLS Moments, Sellers

Kathy DrewienMLS Moments: Atlanta Real Estate Market Review March 23

This week’s Atlanta real estate market review is based on last week’s MLS Moments. On March 17, Atlanta mls listings for sale numbered 7,356. I recorded 771 pending sales, and 788 North Atlanta homes sold through mls cooperating brokers.

In that same MLS Moment, I spent quite a bit of time looking at mls statistics by price range. But, it was very late at night - or I should say early in the morning - and my brain simply couldn’t wrap itself around the market data. So, I held off until tonight.

NOTE: All price ranges are in thousands. Pending sales are houses under contract. DOM is the average days on market. All findings are based on mls listing data, deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. These stats are compiled by Kathy and not First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS) or Georgia Metro Listing Service (GAMLS).

For Sale Pending Sold DOM
<100 27 9 8 79
100-200 908 180 195 84
200-300 1674 249 217 87
300-500 1986 176 215 92
500-750 1178 79 89 101
750-1000 681 43 29 129
1000+ 902 35 35 223
TOTAL 7356 771 788 94

Review our self-defined North Atlanta geographic zone by clicking here.

The chart tells us right away more than half (53%) of North Atlanta buyers are looking to buy a house priced less than $300,000. (This trend was first noted in our 2006 North Atlanta Real Estate Review with 58% for the same market area, and held true in 2007.)

The number of houses for sale priced less than $300,000 is only 35% of the North Atlanta houses for sale. If you have a house to sell valued at $300,000 or below, now is the time to sell. Call me; let’s talk about getting your house sold before school is out.

Now let’s look at the number of North Atlanta houses for sale in comparison to the number of houses that have sold, or absorption rate. What we are calculating is the time, in months, it will take to absorb the current number of houses on the market based on year-to-date closings. We are going to refer to this rate as the Current Market Index (CMI).

PRICE RANGE CMI
<$100,000 6.75
$100-200,000 9.31
$200-300,000 15.43
$300-500,000 18.48
$500-750,000 26.47
$750,000-1M 46.97
$1M+ 51.54

As you can see, there is more supply than demand in all price ranges. I anticipate a positive change in the CMI for Atlanta houses priced under $300,000 as we move into the spring market.

My prediction for the higher priced homes is not positive. Even with 4-years of existing inventory on the market, I see builders continuing to build homes priced $800,000 and above.

If you want to follow the weekly trends, subscribe to MLS Moments.

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MLS Moments: Atlanta Real Estate Market Review

[ 2 Comments ] 03/08/08 | Kathy Drewien | Filed under: Atlanta Real Estate, MLS Moments

Kathy DrewienI've just finished reviewing the mls listings activity through February. As a reminder (disclaimer), this is market information that I have compiled, not the Atlanta multiple listing services. The geographic focus is the North Atlanta suburbs. (See the zip codes included.)

The number of closed sales may continue to adjust as reports are filed with the local mls office. 

The reported year-to-date numbers through February 2008:

  •  7230 active mls listings UP
  •  776 are "under contract" pending closing UP
  •  664 sold and closed UP
  •  $380,929 average sales price DOWN
  •  95 average days on market. UNCHANGED

You can see the number of single-family houses on the market are up from last week's report. So are the number of properties closed. However, the increase in new listings (168) continues to out pace the increase (90) in mls listings reported as closed.

The number of homes for sale (inventory), in contrast to the number of homes closed, enables us to calculate the absorption rate for our market area. This is simply a numeric way to report supply and demand trends.

It's important to note the absorption rate can be quite different between price ranges and zip codes. Earlier this week we gave a good example of what our client wants to buy, and how few matching homes are available for sale.

Are you an analytical type? Keep track of our market reports. Subscribe to MLS Moments.

Your comments are invited. Look for Comments in the title bar. 

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