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New Metro Atlanta Home Sales Rise in November

New single-family Metro Atlanta home sales were up in November. The increase was lower than anticipated, signaling a slight momentum change in the housing market. Recent Commerce Department statistics show new home sales increased 4.3% during November. This equates to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000 new homes sold. The number of homes sold in October was revised downward to 470,000 units (from previously reported estimates of slightly over 495,000 homes.)

New single-family Metro Atlanta home sales were up in November.

Metro Atlanta Home Sales: An Analysis

New home sales comprise roughly 9.3% of the total housing market. The original forecast had been for 505,000 units in November. Despite falling short of projections, sales were up 9.1% compared to November 2014.

The increase is a positive sign to many economists who worried about a downturn in new home sales – especially in the wake of a recently reported drop in the resale of single family homes. According to the National Association of Realtors, previously owned home sales decreased 10.5% during November. The drop was blamed in large measure to the new disclosure regulations that caused delays in loan closings.

When a contract is signed to purchase a new home, that sale is immediately counted in the reported data. Those sales, therefore, were not affected by the new lending disclosure rules. Mortgage insiders say the new rules have added more time to the loan closing process.

December's existing Metro Atlanta home sales will be reported soon, and experts say a rebound is expected. The higher numbers are anticipated because of a tightening employment market which is slowly but surely increasing wages.

New home inventory increased to 232,000 in November, a rise of nearly 2.2% – the biggest jump in nearly six years. Still, the supply of new homes is down 50% compared to the housing boom levels. And, despite homebuilders across the country gearing up for new construction fueled by the promise of higher sales prices, inventory is still a concerning factor.

Economists say using November's recent sales trend, the current supply of houses would take 5.7 months to sell. In October, the supply was projected to take 5.8 months to sell. Contributing to the slight slowdown is the rise in the median sales price of a new home of .8% compared to this time last year. The median home price is $305,000.

Find more articles on Metro Atlanta home sales by reviewing our Atlanta Real Estate News section to your right just below Atlanta Real Estate Categories. We also post articles on a regular basis on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

May Metro Atlanta Home Sales Highest Since 2008

Metro Atlanta home sales in May were greater than in any other May since 2008, while home prices continued to rise. Sales are on a four-month trend in which they were higher than both the previous month and the same month in the previous year.

Metro Atlanta home sales were higher in May than in any other May since 2008

Many positive factors are contributing to a strong housing market this year. Job growth and wages are slowly improving, while rents are increasing rapidly and mortgages are becoming much more accessible. When these factors are coupled with continuing low interest rates, the result is a growing number of consumers with the confidence to buy or sell a home.

Completed transactions in May were 8.9 percent higher than in April and 3.5 percent higher than May 2014. The median sales price of homes sold has risen for 40 consecutive months.

Prices Increasing Along With Metro Atlanta Home Sales

Metro Atlanta home prices also continued to increase. In May, the median price was 7.8 percent above the price seen last year. The average month-over-month increase for the first five months of 2015 has been 3.6 percent.

Looking beyond the Metro Atlanta area, thirty-eight metro areas across the country reported higher sales on a year-over-year basis, with 11 reporting double digit increases in May.

The average days on market, or the number of days between when a home is first listed in an MLS and a sales contract is signed for all homes sold in May dropped seven days from April to 64, and two days below the average of 66 in last year.

The inventory of homes for sale increased by 0.4 percent from April, the first time back-to-back monthly increases occurred since May and June 2014. As home sales continue to grow, the months’ supply of inventory in May was 3.6 on a scale where six months indicates a market balanced equally between buyers and sellers.

Find more news pertaining to the recent number of Metro Atlanta home sales under our Atlanta Real Estate News Section of articles to your right just below our Atlanta Real Estate Categories.

We also post tips on Facebook and Twitter. Follow us there for many other real estate related news articles and tips as well.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Record Existing Metro Atlanta Home Sales Expected

Existing Metro Atlanta home sales are expected to finish the year at their highest level since 2006 according to the National Association of Realtors’ economic forecast forum revealed at its 2015 Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

However, accelerating price growth and rising mortgage rates have the potential to change the expected finish.

Existing Metro Atlanta home sales are expected to hit their highest level since 2006 by the end of 2015

In the most recent existing-homes sales report, sales surged to their highest annual rate in 18 months, showing a promising beginning to the spring homebuying season.

Nationwide, total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, jumped 6.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million in March from 4.89 million in February — the highest annual rate since September 2013 (also 5.19 million).

What's Driving Metro Atlanta Home Sales?

Sustained job growth and interest rates below 4% have been the catalyst behind the improvement in Metro Atlanta home sales where supply needs to increase measurably to meet the pent-up demand for buying.

Unlike the existing Metro Atlanta home sales market, demand for single-family new home construction remains weak, and the homebuilding industry is acting accordingly by focusing on multifamily rental housing. New home construction for first-time buyers is about half of the long-term average and the reason is simple: the decline in homeownership and marriage rates among young adults. Things are not projected to return to normal levels for the building market until at least 2017.

Get more news regarding Metro Atlanta home sales and the trends affecting those sales in our Atlanta Real Estate News section below our Atlanta Real Estate Categories in the column to your right.

Remember, we also post daily on our Facebook Page, and over at Twitter. We'd love you to check us out there too.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Metro Atlanta Home Sales and Prices Rising

Metro Atlanta home sales continue to increase as more and more homes come on the market, a sign of strength in housing as the Spring home buying season swings into high gear.

Metro Atlanta home sales have been constrained by a shortage of properties on the market, which has pushed up home prices and limited choices for potential buyers.

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Rising With Nation

Metro Atlanta home sales are rising right along with the rest of the country

The National Association of Realtors said just recently that existing home sales increased 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 5.19 million units, the highest level since September 2013. The percent increase was the largest since December 2010.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales rising to only a 5.03 million-unit pace last month.

The report was another indication that the economy is regaining some momentum after hitting a speed bump at the start of the year. But data on retail sales, housing starts and manufacturing suggest the rebound in second-quarter growth will probably be insufficient to convince the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates in June.

The outlook for housing is favorable against the backdrop of a strengthening labor market.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said applications for loans to purchase homes increased 5 percent last week to the highest level since June 2013. It was the fourth time in five weeks that purchase applications rose.

At March's sales pace, it would take 4.6 months to clear houses from the market, down from 4.7 months in February. A supply of six months is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand.

With supply still tight, the median price for a previously owned home increased 7.8 percent from a year ago.

That was the largest percentage gain since February 2014 and suggested that the pace of home price increases, which had been slowing after double-digit growth for much of 2013, appears to be re-accelerating.

First-time buyers accounted for 30 percent of transactions last month, well below the 40 to 45 percent share that economists and realtors say is required for a strong housing recovery.

Get more information as it pertains to Metro Atlanta home sales and prices in our section on Atlanta Real Estate to your right under Atlanta Real Estate Categories.

Remember, we post tips daily to Twitter, and also on our Facebook Page. We'd love you to check us out there too.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Metro Atlanta Real Estate News – May 2015

Metro Atlanta Real Estate News - May 2015

In our Metro Atlanta Real Estate News for May 2015:

Pending Metro Atlanta Home Sales Up

Pending Metro Atlanta home sales were up in March, even though the low supply of available homes for sale is still a concern.

The National Association of Realtors said this week that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rose 1.1 percent to 108.6 last month. The index has climbed 11.1 percent over the past 12 months after having dipped in 2014.

Pending Metro Atlanta home sales were up in March 2015 with inventory of homes for sale still down

Overall, figures suggest strengthening demand from would-be buyers, even though there are relatively few new listings on the market and sales prices are rising at a faster rate than wages.

NAR says new home construction needs to increase and more existing homes need to come to market. Traditional buyers continue to replace investors paying cash. The association says that indicates this year’s activity is being driven by more long-term homeowners.

Pending Metro Atlanta home sales are a barometer of future purchases. A one- to two-month lag usually exists between a contract and a completed sale, meaning that the gains should appear in April and May sales numbers.

With pending Metro Atlanta home sales up, greater buying activity has yet to bring more sellers into the market, with a mere 4.6 month supply of homes on the market. Economists consider a standard market to have at least a 6 month supply of homes for sale.

Right now, new homes are coming onto the market at about half of historic norms, creating a supply-and-demand mismatch that keeps younger households on the sidelines.

Building more new homes would help boost supply, but home construction has been weak. Developers are focused increasingly on building apartments and more expensive homes for wealthier buyers.

One factor pushing up prices is a steady decline in so-called "distressed" sales, which include foreclosures and short sales. Short sales occur when the seller owes more on a home mortgage than the house is worth. Both usually sell at steep discounts to traditional Metro Atlanta home sales.

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Lowest Home Ownership Rate in 20+ Years

While Metro Atlanta home sales continue to rise, the home ownership rate in the U.S. has fallen below 64 percent for the first time in over 20 years.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that the seasonally adjusted 63.8 percent rate in the first quarter of 2015 is far below the 69 percent rate just 10 years ago – a time when homebuying may have been the easiest for Americans.

As investors continue to buy single-family homes to feed rental demand, and first-time buyers remain unable to afford rising prices, U.S. homeownership is taking a big hit.

Rentership has increased dramatically since the financial crisis and Great Recession, and continues to do so as the economy improves and more young people move out of their parents' homes into rental apartments. Many of them straddle jobs while managing student loan debt or other expenses, finding it impossible or extremely challenging to come up with a down payment in the current seller's market.

With millions of properties still underwater — those homes worth less than owners owe for their mortgage — there is still a stigma attached to owning a home in the wake of the 2007-2008 housing market meltdown and foreclosure crisis.

However, longer-term trends seem to be pushing homeownership rates back to "normal" levels, according to Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic.

In the mid-1990s pro-homeownership policies led to an expansion in mortgage credit and the homeownership rate peaked in 2004 at 69 percent. Homeownership rates are back to roughly their long-term trend between the 1960s and 1990s.

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Metro Atlanta Housing Market Could Face Problems

With pending Metro Atlanta home sales up and not a lot of new inventory coming on the market to help slow that down, and the home ownership rate now at it's lowest level in over 20 years, could there be trouble brewing in the housing industry?

The future of the Metro Atlanta housing market depends on jobs, and people earning enough to buy houses. But experts at a recent forum are predicting problems due to income levels. Until incomes improve across the board and hurdles to credit access are eased, it is expected that the Metro Atlanta housing market will continue to perform below capacity.

Some of the nation's top economists meeting at a forum at the National Association of REALTORS®' Washington, D.C., office last week all echoed the same sentiment.

Households could be trying to save more because of the "unique uncertainty" in people today. There's a general tendency now for people to want to save more, because they're afraid. They're afraid for their jobs. What do you do? You don't spend money lavishly; you try to accumulate some. But they don't succeed.

Economists at the forum said today's Metro Atlanta housing market represents just a partial recovery from the severe downturn that hit the country about seven years ago, but they differed on how much of a role overly tight credit is playing in the slow return to a full recovery.

The problem today doesn't seem to be a credit issue. It's more of a demand issue. Borrowers have less money now after millions went into foreclosure. We're facing a whole new ball game in the Metro Atlanta housing market, and it's anyone's guess if the lower income problem will be overcome soon enough to save the industry.

Posted in: Atlanta Newsletters Tagged: Metro Atlanta housing market, Metro Atlanta home sales

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Numbers: Victim of Winter?

Metro Atlanta home sales have fallen to their slowest pace in nine months, with sales of existing homes tumbling 4.9 percent last month.

Relatively low mortgage rates and steady job growth have not yet spurred the kind of activity from buyers or sellers, raising the possibility of either a spring rush, or another year of slack Metro Atlanta home sales.

Metro Atlanta home sales have not picked up so far in 2015 like they were expected to

Nationwide, few properties are being listed for sale, would-be-buyers are holding off, and the harsh winter weather is taking its toll on attempts to hold open houses.

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Expectations Not Happening

Weaker Metro Atlanta home sales in 2014 had set up expectations of a strong rebound in 2015, but so far, that resurgence has yet to appear. Even the addition of more new jobs over the past three months has failed to make much of an impact on overall Metro Atlanta home sales.

Builders haven't started ramping up any new construction either. Confidence among builders in the market for single-family homes in February fell two points to a level of 55 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released recently. Any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good rather than poor.

Average mortgage rates have held well below 4 percent for weeks, which you would think bodes well for a rejuvenated housing market in the spring. But only time will tell.

Metro Atlanta home sales are not the only area where numbers are down. Sales slid in all four major geographical regions of the country last month: dropping 6 percent in the Northeast, 2.7 percent in the Midwest, 4.6 percent in the South and 7.1 percent in the West.

In the meantime, you can get more information about news that may affect the Metro Atlanta home sales market in our section on Atlanta Real Estate to your right under Metro Atlanta Real Estate Categories.

Remember, we post tips daily to Twitter, and also on our Facebook Page. We'd love you to check us out there too.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Existing Metro Atlanta Home Sales Increased in December

According to figures from the National Association of Realtors, existing Metro Atlanta home sales increased in December, reaching an annual pace nationally of more than 5 million sales for the sixth time in seven months. Median home prices for last year reached their highest level since 2007 but the total number of sales dropped 3.1% compared to the previous year.

Existing Metro Atlanta home sales ended the year strong after a sluggish start.

The total number of existing Metro Atlanta home sales includes completed transactions for condominiums, co-ops, townhomes and single-family homes. Nationwide, this increased 2.4% to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million last month compared to 4.92 million in November. When compared to a year earlier, sales for last month were 3.5% higher.

In total, there were 4.95 million sales for 2014 which is 3.1% less compared to 2013. The national median home price for existing homes was $208,500, the highest figure seen since 2007 when it reached $219,000. This figure is 5.8% higher than 2013 when the median price was $197,100.

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Close Strong for the Year

Metro Atlanta home sales picked up in December, closing out a year that began sluggishly but which showed signs of improvement during the second half. Metro Atlanta home sales began to improve over last summer as inventory levels increased, prices moderated and economic growth began to accelerate. According to real estate experts, sales were much better during the second half of last year, up by 8% compared to the first six months of the year.

We'll keep you informed on Metro Atlanta home sales as we move through 2015. In the meantime, you can get more information about news that may affect Metro Atlanta home sales in our section on Atlanta Real Estate News to your right under Atlanta Real Estate Categories.

Remember, we post tips daily to Twitter, and also on our Facebook Page. We'd love you to check us out there too.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Continue Strong Uptick

More people closed on a Metro Atlanta home or condo last month, with sales of existing Metro Atlanta homes rising to the highest level since September 2013.

Metro Atlanta home sales continue to see stronger numbers

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Mirror National Numbers

The same trend that Metro Atlanta home sales are seeing holds true across most of the rest of the country as well. The National Association of Realtors says existing home sales rose 1.5 percent to an annual pace of 5.26 million. Sales were also higher than year-ago levels for the first time in a year.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says, "Sales activity reached the highest annual pace of the year as buyers continue to be encouraged by interest rates at lows not seen since last summer, improving levels of inventory and stabilizing price growth."

The median price of an existing home that sold nationwide was up 5.5 percent from a year ago, the 32nd consecutive month of year-over-year price gains.

Foreclosure and short sales were down 9 percent from a year ago. Just 7 percent of all October sales were foreclosures and just 2 percent were short sales. Condo and co-op sales posted the biggest monthly gains, up 3.3 percent from September.

The median price for an existing home in October was $208,300, 5.5 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Get more timely information about Metro Atlanta home sales and news affecting mortgage rates and sales in our section on Atlanta Real Estate News to the right under Atlanta Real Estate Categories.

We post daily over on Twitter, and on Facebook as well.. We'd love you to check us out there too.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Existing Metro Atlanta Home Sales Hit One Year High

Previously owned Metro Atlanta home sales climbed in September to the highest level in a year, pointing to growing confidence in the U.S. economy as employment firms.

Nationwide, purchases advanced 2.4 percent to a 5.17 million annual rate. Demand was up 1.9 percent compared with the same month last year before adjusting for seasonal patterns.

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Of all Metro Atlanta home sales, cash transactions accounted for about 24 percent, down from 33 percent 12 months earlier, the report showed. Investors, 63 percent of whom paid cash, represented 14 percent of the market last month, down from 19 percent in September 2013.

Distressed sales, comprised of foreclosures and short sales, in which the lender agrees to take less than the balance of the mortgage, made up 10 percent of the total.

"The traditional Metro Atlanta home buyer — the person who takes out a mortgage loan to buy a Metro Atlanta home — seems to be growing in strength over the past year and we expect that to continue,” according to Robert Stein, deputy chief economist at First Trust Portfolios LP in Wheaton, Illinois, who is among the best forecasters of existing home sales over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To get more news on Metro Atlanta home sales, including more articles and news about Metro Atlanta real estate in general, check out our other articles by clicking on the Atlanta Real Estate News link to your right under Atlanta Real Estate Categories.

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Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

Surge in Metro Atlanta Home Sales Predicted

An unusual surge in Metro Atlanta home sales is predicted this fall due to a slowdown in home price growth and a shift in pricing power from sellers to one that more closely aligns with buyers' expectations. Home buyers who have been willing to wait for better deals are starting to be rewarded for their patience.

The number of Metro Atlanta home sales above list price in July was down nearly 7 percent from a year ago. These numbers would indicate that sellers are starting to realize that it's not really a seller's market any more.

A surge in Metro Atlanta home sales is predicted this fall due to a slowdown in home price growth and a shift in pricing power from sellers

Metro Atlanta Home Sales Vary By Area

Some areas have seen more moderate price growth year-over-year but have seen their "for sale" inventories also rise.

Areas with the fewest price drops tended to have smaller increases in median home prices and for-sale inventories.

Redfin analysts are predicting a surge in home sales in September and October. "We continue to see strong buyer demand as we head into fall," according to Redfin’s housing report, which shows the number of tours and offers picking up from July and into August.

"The buyer fatigue from competing against multiple offers, bidding wars. and tight inventory is diminishing. Additionally, the widespread increase in price drops is likely to give buyers even more confidence that they have regained some of the bargaining power lost last year."

You can read the full housing market report here.

For more Metro Atlanta home sales news, check out our Atlanta Real Estate News section of articles under Atlanta Real Estate Categories to your right.

Posted in: Atlanta Real Estate News Tagged: Metro Atlanta home sales

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