Forsyth County Foreclosure Trends, Are We Out of the Woods Yet?
Seems everyone is talking about how good the market is for buyers right now, but how good is the market for sellers?
Inventory in the Atlanta Metro is at an all time low of 42,000 houses on the market today from an all time high back in 2006 of over 100,000 homes on the market.
- Sellers are experiencing multiple offers on well-priced homes in great condition.
- Financing rules are starting to get a teeny bit more flexible.
- New Construction starts are really on the upswing.
- Average days on market is decreasing
- Job Growth is climbing
So what about the distressed homes we see and hear about all the time? In the metro area, fourth quarter distressed sales climbed 8.4 percent higher than the same quarter in 2010. Was that the top of the foreclosure market here in Atlanta....yet?
Last year Forsyth County had close to 600 properties close as foreclosures/lender owned with the highest being that famous mansion on Trammel Road for $9.5 million to an unfinished home on Freeman Road for $12,500. Average days on the market for these homes were 72 and average sales price was $194,109.
Currently there are 105 active foreclosure/lender owned homes on the market, out of a total of 1,276 overall homes on the market in Forsyth County.
A recent RealtyTrac chart shows that one out of every 297 housing units in the county is distressed. RealtyTrac is also showing a downward trend in current foreclosure listings in the country overall.
The chart for Forsyth County indicates that when the inventory of foreclosures tightens in an area the prices start trending upward as they have in Forsyth since the beginning of 2012, according to RealtyTrac.
So, Mr. or Ms. Seller in Forsyth County: Average sales prices are trending up, both for distressed and non-distressed properties. Inventory is low.
If you are priced correctly and your home is in great condition, you could be moving sooner rather than later!
Visit our Web site, Mary Anne Payne, for more information.
Editor's Note: Mary Anne Payne has been selling real estate in the North Atlanta marketplace, including Cumming and nearby communities since 1992. She also joins our "Local Voices" as a blogger for Cumming Patch.
William Evelyn Jr.
6:49 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Mary Anne - Realty Trac states that 1 in every 297 homeowners received foreclosure notices in Feb 2012. That is an increase now that banks are speeding up foreclosures. http://www.realtytrac.com/trendcenter/ga/forsyth-county-trend.html
Mary Anne Payne
9:11 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Yes Bill- but the average sales price of foreclosures is creeping up as is the average price of resales and that indicates a tightening of the market in Forsyth County. For some reason I cant find the chart here but i will post the link to it when I find it!
William Evelyn Jr.
9:32 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Mary Anne - 40% of homeowners in Georgia are near and in negative equity. Starts are up 3.25%, but refis are down 4.58% last week.
http://confoundedinterest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/negativeequityq42011-12.jpg
Home prices are down 3.8% and "Hot-lanta should be called Cold-lanta".
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/case-shiller-house-prices-fall-yoy-but-slowing-down/
The housing markets total losses are $7.99 trillion.
Mary Anne Payne
9:54 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
We have just experienced 5 years of overwhelming economic issues in our local market. Between the overbuilding in our area, the lax lending standards by banks and increasing job losses over that time it was the 'perfect storm' for this to happen. Locally our brokerages are seeing a dramatic increase in sales over last years numbers and multiple offer situations on over 50% of our inventory homes, including resales, REOs and short sales. We can chart each other to death but in real time we are seeing a shift in sales on the up side, not a complete re-bound, but consumer attitudes are slowly changing and job growth is up!
Mary Anne Payne
10:08 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Here is a good article from DSNews on pending drops in deliquencies this year http://www.dsnews.com/articles/lenders-risk-managers-expect-mortgage-delinquencies-to-drop-2012-04-03
William Evelyn Jr.
10:50 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Mary Anne - Quotes from this article; "As unemployment falls, even modestly, ... " This is not true. The civilian employment rate is back to 1980. Only 58% of the eligible workers are employed. Another statement in this article; "Lenders’ optimism doesn’t end with mortgages either. They anticipate the holistic picture of consumer and household debt to improve ..." This is a ridiculous assumption. REAL personal income fell 0.1% in February. So, personal spending increased 0.5% while personal income FELL 0.1%. That means that households … are boarding the Debt Train again!
William Evelyn Jr.
1:43 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mary Anne - "The Second Foreclosure Tsunami Is Coming, And Is About To Kill Any Hopes Of A Housing Bottom"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/second-foreclosure-tsunami-coming-and-about-kill-any-hopes-housing-bottom