Yes, It’s a Seller’s Market Again in North Fulton

Even if you haven’t been following the real estate news, it would be hard to miss the all the chatter about increased home sales over the

It is quickly becoming a seller’s market in North Fulton. photo © Iriana Shiyan – Fotolia.com

past several months and the low inventory situation in North Fulton and much of the country. If you want to catch up start by reading  here, and here.

The Wall Street Journal published an article, citing numbers for The National Association of Realtors supporting that the tide is changing a bit in residential real estate. With low inventory and buyers not finding what they want in existing inventory a seller has more leverage with price than they have had in the past several years.

According to the WSJ and the NAR,

The upshot is that there’s a growing pool of buyers chasing a shrinking supply of homes. If the trend holds, prices will keep going up. At the current pace of sales, it would take just 4.2 months to sell the current supply of homes available for sale, down from a 6.2 months’ supply one year ago. Read the full article on the WSJ blog.

This is good news for sellers. If you have been sitting on the fence wondering if this was the right time to sell. It is! We are here to help you get ready, so give The Cueny Team a call.  You can see current inventory on the Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty

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Home Price forecasts for 2013 are on the rise

Source: Wall Street Journal

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. expects U.S. home prices to rise 3.4% in its base-case estimate and up to 9.7% in its most bullish scenario of economic growth. Standard & Poor’s, which rates private-issue mortgage bonds, on Friday said it expects a 5% rise in 2013.

The J.P. Morgan analysts boosted their base-case estimate from 1.5% after a convincing rise in the “net demand” for housing this year has surpassed 2 million homes for the first time since 2006, said John Sim, a strategist at the investment bank. Net demand is the pace of existing home sales minus the inventory of homes available for sale.

“Net demand has picked up a lot in 2012,” said Mr. Sim. “Once you get north of the 2 million territory, you are in the positive growth area unless you get a lot of distressed inventory, which this year hit a low point” since at least 2008, he added. J.P. Morgan predicts that net demand to rise to 2.7 million next year from 2.3 million this year.

An expected increase in home prices in 2012 triggered a run into some of the riskiest real estate assets, such as subprime mortgage-backed securities from the real estate boom, and analysts including Mr. Sim expect that trend to continue. Rising home prices and the quest for yield has also given a tailwind to new mortgage bond issuance that has been mired in the fallout of the housing crisis and regulatory uncertainty for the past four years.

U.S. home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 6.3% in October, the biggest increase since June 2006, according to CoreLogic. Investors zoning in on the increases bought subprime mortgage bonds, which have posted returns of more than 40% since December.

Home price increases could exceed J.P. Morgan’s base forecast if investors seeking yield push deeper into real estate, according to Mr. Sim’s home price report.

What’s more, just the uncertainty over whether politicians will be able to steer clear of the “fiscal cliff,” the scheduled tax increases and spending cuts next month, may hurt investor confidence, the J.P. Morgan analysts said.

If taxes rise, reduced income for the potential homebuyers will damp housing demand, they added.

But the expectations for higher home prices are still widespread. Nearly three-quarters of investors polled by J.P. Morgan expect home prices to rise 5% in 2013.

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Advice for Move-Up Buyers: DO IT NOW!

Barbara Corcoran on the TV Show Fast Money:

“Right now, if you are upgrading to a bigger house, even if you’re selling at 10% off, you buy your new house at 10% off. Price appreciation is going to go much higher than people anticipate.”

Source: KCM Blog

Here in Atlanta I have seen that inventory of move-in ready homes in a prime location is at a minimum and homes in this condition are selling very quickly.

Now may be the best time to work with The Cueny Team on getting your home sold. Our team is poised to achieve optimal results for our clients and we can assist with REO/bank owned sales, short sales, those relocating to Atlanta, or moving to their next home!

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Foreclosures fall in 62% of US cities

Source: CNNMoney

Foreclosures fell in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s largest metro areas during the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac Thursday. The recent data suggests the housing market is beginning to rebound. Photo: Robyn Beck/APP/Getty Images

Foreclosures fell in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s largest metro areas during the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac Thursday.

With 62% of the nation’s 212 largest markets seeing foreclosure activity shrink during the latest quarter, the ongoing decline is yet another sign that the housing market is starting to stabilize.

During September, foreclosure activity in 58% of the major metro markets had even dropped below September 2007 levels.

The numbers indicate that “most of the nation’s housing markets are past the worst of the foreclosure problem,” Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac’s vice president said in the report.

Major cities like San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego saw foreclosures fall by double-digit percentages of 26% or more.

Stockton, Calif., which saw a 21% decline in foreclosures, still managed to claim the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, however. “That foreclosures there are still the highest in the country speaks to how severe the problem was,” said Blomquist.

Other California cities in the top 10, all posted year-over-year declines of between 22% and 34%.

Yet, there are still some trouble spots, particularly in Florida.

Blomquist attributed Florida’s problems to the after effects of the robo-signing scandal. Florida is a “judicial state,” where foreclosures get processed through the courts. Lenders hesitated to bring foreclosure cases before a judge until they were confident their paperwork would stand up to the stepped-up scrutiny that followed the scandal. But now that new rules have been put in place through the $25 billion mortgage settlement, they are playing catch-up.

Of the metro areas with the 20 highest foreclosure rates, all are still in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida, with two notable exceptions. Chicago saw a 34% jump from a year-ago, and had the ninth highest foreclosure rate. Atlanta had the 15th highest rate. The good news there: Foreclosures fell 20% year-over-year.

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Why Home Prices are Rising from the Wall Street Journal

Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal Developments blog recent post titled, Five Questions: Why Home Prices Are Rising, is a great read concerning real estate today. Success in real estate varies by each local market, but the three points below apply to the current market in Atlanta.

Prices in July were 1.2% above their year-ago levels. Photo credit: Associated Press

Home prices through July posted their largest year-to-date rise since 2005, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index covering 20 major metropolitan areas.

Prices rose by 5.9% from the end of last year, according to the index, compared with a 0.4% gain for the same period last year and a 2.1% gain in 2010, when tax credits fueled a burst of home sales activity.

Are price gains limited to one segment of the market—say, foreclosed properties?

Not really. Data from real-estate firm CoreLogic show that the increases are being felt across all segments of the market. Overall median home prices in August were up by 12% from one year ago, as are median prices of existing homes that aren’t distressed sales.

Median prices of bank-owned foreclosures were up by 3%, while median prices were flat on short sales, where banks approve the sale of a house for less than the mortgage-debt that’s owed. Median prices of new homes, meanwhile, are up by 6%.

There are still a lot of foreclosures. How could prices be rising?

While foreclosures are still high by historic standards, the share of bank-owned foreclosures that are selling is down sharply over the past few years. Listings of foreclosed properties are down by 24% from one year ago and by more than 45% from two years ago.

While sales of foreclosed properties, which typically sell at a discount, have fallen by about 20% from one year ago, sales of traditional homes are up by 16% from one year ago, according to Ivy Zelman, chief executive at research firm Zelman & Associates. Prices, then, are rising not only because supplies of homes for sale are down, but demand is up.

Are banks strategically holding properties off of the market?

There’s little evidence that banks have seen an increase of marketable, or ready-for-sale, foreclosed properties sitting on their books. It’s true that there are still millions of properties that are in the foreclosure process or where borrowers have missed a couple of mortgage payments, and it’s unclear when or how aggressively banks will move those properties through the foreclosure process. In many cases, lenders and other mortgage companies that handle foreclosures have struggled to meet certain state requirements governing foreclosures. But the actual volumes of foreclosed properties that are sitting on banks books are down by around 24% from one year ago.

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Case Shiller Home Price Index increases for the 3rd consecutive month

More great news for the housing market! Home prices in the Case-Shiller 20-City composite increased 1.6% from June to July.  This is the third consecutive month that all 20 cities recorded increases.

The New York Times recently updated their interactive graph that contains the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 20 major metropolitan areas, including Atlanta.

Click on the image to visit The New York Times interactive graph.

Figures shown are not seasonally adjusted or adjusted for inflation.

Source: The New York Times

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Three reasons your home may not sell in today’s market

John Adams is an author, broadcaster and investor. He answers real estate questions on radio station WGKA (920 AM) every Saturday at noon. money99.com

Written by John Adams for the AJC

The other day I overheard one very young agent talking to another very young agent about the listing she had that would not sell. The listing agent blamed her owners for not embracing social media and paying to set up a Facebook page and a twitter account to help market the house.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for smartphones and websites and tweets and blogs and SEO, but the real estate world just does not revolve around social media.

In fact, there are three primary reasons that your house won’t sell. They haven’t changed in the thirty five years I have been in this business, and they bear repeating:

CONDITION :

The condition of your house is unacceptable.

It’s vitally important to remember that prospective purchasers will buy your house emotionally, then justify it logically. Buying a home is a very emotional process. And the house carries all manner of feelings along with it.

If your buyer simply can not imagine themselves living in your house and enjoying raising their family, they won’t fall in love with it and they won’t even make an offer. All buyers say they just want the facts, but in reality, emotions rule the day.

So if you are fooling yourself into believing that you shouldn’t replace your smelly dirty carpets because the new owner will want to pick out their own color, you are only hurting your chances of getting a sale.

MARKETING :

Nobody knows it’s for sale.

In today’s tough real estate selling market, it’s not enough to just stick a “for sale” sign in the yard and hope a prospective buyer will show up. OK, I admit it’s possible. But not likely.

In my opinion, this is where an experience real estate professional really earns their commission. Surveys show that almost 90 percent of homebuyers begin their home search on the internet, and there are literally a thousand ways to capture them as leads.

A good agent is worth his or her weight in iPads if they can bring the power of the Internet to bear in helping spread the word. The Internet-based Multiple Listing Service is likely the most powerful tool in the agent’s arsenal. But it takes even more than that.

My own experience shows that about a third of my prospects come from the internet, another third from yard sign and directional signs, and the final third from all other sources. It’s that final third that has become elusive in today’s younger real estate agents.

It involves everything to holding a neighborhood open house for nosey neighbors to posting fliers are nearby schools, churches and employers. It can be as expensive as catering an agent open house with great food and prizes to as little as taping business cards on the yard sign so passers-by will remember to call.

Great marketing will get the word out, but the third problem is the real deal killer.

PRICE :

Your asking price is too high.

I saved this for last because inexperienced agents always want to start with the price.

My advice is to get the house in excellent condition, have the house professionally appraised by a licensed appraiser, then list the house for sale at that amount.

Remember that almost every potential buyer will want to get a loan to purchase your house. And if the house won’t appraise for the contract price, they won’t be approved for the loan, and the deal will fall through.

In today’s real estate market, there is nothing more frustrating than reaching a meeting of the minds, signing a contract, having your inspection, applying for the loan, then watching the whole thing blow up because the house didn’t appraise for the contract price.

Further, you are better off turning down low ball offers than you are getting offers that won’t get to the closing table. Get it appraised, hand out copies of the appraisal to every prospect, and rest comfortably knowing you are selling it for what it’s worth.

Condition, marketing and price. Unless these three parts of the selling puzzle are in place from the beginning, all the facebook and tweeting in the world won’t move your home into the sold column.

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‘Normal’ Home Sales Soar

While sales of distressed properties – foreclosures and short sales – have shrunk since the first of the year, a surge in sales of “normal” non-distressed properties has pushed total home sales through June 4.5 percent higher than last year even though buyers face tight credit and low inventories.

With attention focused on extraordinarily tight inventories that have restricted sales during the past six months, marketshare of non-distressed homes are at their highest level since August 2008, a sign of strengthening demand from buyers realizing their time has come to act before prices increase further due to a slowly improving employment picture and greater consumer confidence.

Walk to everything from this sought after street in Virginia Highlands. 890 Drewry Street has been totally renovated with an addition to include a beautiful master suite with large walk-in closet and master bath. Click on the image for more photos and information from Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty.

During the January to June period, the number of non-distressed sales is up 15 percent over the same period last year, according to CoreLogic.

The increase in non-distressed sales is strengthening prices. Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 3.2 percent in June 2012 compared to June 2011. On a month-over-month basis excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 2.0 percent in June 2012 compared to May 2012, the fifth consecutive month-over-month increase., according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Both supply and demand are playing a role in the decline of distressed sales and the increase in normal sales. In June, the distressed share of sales fell to 21 percent, the lowest level in almost four years. The months’ supply of distressed properties has been steadily decreasing over the first half of the year and now stands below seven months, equaling the same level of the supply of active listings.

Increased competition for the limited inventory of non-distressed property listings helped push the average home sales-to-listing price ratio to 95.6 percent in June, the highest in three years, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

HousingPulse reports that median time on market to sell a non-distressed listing fell sharply in June to 11.7 weeks, a drop of a full week from the May reading of 12.7 weeks. As recently as March, the non-distressed property time on market had been 14.0 weeks. The June 2012 time on market for non-distressed listings is the lowest in over two years and substantially below the June 2011 reading of 15.0 weeks.

Source: RISMedia

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Google+ Hangout: North Atlanta Market Report

I recently had another chance to virtually hangout with David Boehmig, Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty President/Founder, and we discussed the market statistics for North Atlanta (FMLS areas 13 and 14) through June 2012.

If you can’t watch the video, here are the highlights:

Market Statistics for North Atlanta (FMLS Areas 13 and 14) through June 2012
Inventory of homes for sale – decreased 27%
Closed sales – increased 12% over previous year
Pending sales – increased 11%

In summary, the North Atlanta real estate market has seen robust activity and a stabilizing and improving market. Homes are selling and those that are priced right experience multiple offers. In my personal experience and The Cueny Team experience, this has been the best year to date in my 9 year real estate career!

Click here to see a current list of single family homes for sale in North Fulton/North Atlanta.

Click here to see all articles concerning the state of the Atlanta real estate market.

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No to Low Maintenance Subdivisions in North Atlanta

Social media is constantly evolving, some times for the better and other times not so much… I am excited about a new development within Google+ called Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts provide a face-to-face video conference that you can record and publish to YouTube. I recorded my first hangout this week with David Boehmig, our company President and Founder. Watch the video below as we discuss statistics for homes sold in no to low maintenance subdivisions this year!

In the event you are at work and cannot watch the video , here are the highlights:

No to low maintenance subdivisions are for people who want to reclaim their weekends. These subdivisions provide services such as lawn care and exterior maintenance within the HOA fees.

Homes sold in low maintenance subdivisions in FMLS areas 13 and 14 during the first half of this year had these impressive statistics:
Average Days on Market: 29.8 days
Sale Price to List Price Ratio: 97.4%
Lastly, of those that sold in 2012, only one of them had a price change!

If you would like to search for homes in a no to low maintenance subdivision, click here to do so on my website. Subdivisions include Palisades, Crabapple Crossroads, Cottages at Creekstone, Cottages at Crabapple, Woodvale, and Wolf Willow Close within Crooked Creek.

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