THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: Metro Atlanta Real Estate

American real estate has been through some up and downs these past couple of years to say the least!  If you bought real estate during the height of the real estate bubble (2002 - 2006), you may have heard  the horror stories of the value of your home being drastically reduced, if even still existent at all.  But for those that bought in Metro Atlanta, even during the heyday of the real estate bubble, there is actually good news for you… really there is. 

Georgia, particularly Metro Atlanta (including the city and the surrounding towns like Sandy Springs, Marietta, Lithonia, Duluth, Alpharetta, etc.), unlike Nevada, Florida, Arizona, and California, did not experience such a drastic inflation of real estate value.  While those states experienced real estate appreciation 30% and upward within a 1 year time span, Georgia experienced comparatively moderate appreciation - and the ugliest new stories are based on what’s happened and happening in the more extreme markets. 

Did you know that Metro Atlanta experienced average homes sell in Oct. 2008 comparable to average home sells in Oct. 2003 (according to First Multiple Listing Service, FMLS, residential attached listings closed stats report)?  Did you know the average sells price of Metro Atlanta homes in Oct. 2008 is just under the average for Oct. 2002 (according to FMLS)?  And here is a real shocker, despite what you may have heard, the average time it takes for a home to be listed and then to finally go under contract to sell (days on market) for Oct. 2008 is just under the time it took in Oct. 2007.   This is good for Metro Atlanta because that means the normalizing of the market won’t wreak the amount of havoc as we have heard about in Phoenix, South Beach, LA, and the likes.  So as you hear the news reports, keep in mind they are looking at the country as a whole and are usually focusing on the most ugly scenarios.

Unfortunately, we did still experience inflated value so there will be a period of adjustment that must take place for those that bought during the boom to regain the value that was once in their real estate property.  But the good news, is that Metro Atlanta is expected to be in a Seller’s Market again come 2011 - hooray! 

What’s all this mean?  It’s time to buy now!  There are great deals in the Metro Atlanta area, even outside of the foreclosure properties among those Sellers that are highly motivated (because they either are relocating, can no longer afford their payments, etc.) and they are making deals now that Buyers may never see again in this market.

Check out USA Today’s article Why home values may take decades to recover and learn more about what has happened across the nation with real estate, keeping in mind that Metro Atlanta has just not experienced the bad and even ugly seen in some parts of the US.