The low inventory of homes in Forsyth County continues to be a major factor in our local market. I came across two factors contributing to this trend. 

First, I attended a Wells Fargo REO (real estate owned) conference in downtown Atlanta last week and they confirmed their REO inventory is down across the country. The host of the conference points to a significant increase in short sales at Wells Fargo. The staffing has shifted dramatically from their REO department to their short sale department. Now typically short sales are listed in the local MLS (multiple listing service), but I suspect that loan modifications are on the rise as well.

The second factor, which is more of a local impact, is the entrance of large institutional investors in the Atlanta market. One of my colleagues, Mark Midyette, attends the auction at the courthouse steps the first Tuesday of each month and he has not been able to buy any properties for his investor clients the last couple of months because these investors are buying hundreds of properties each month at market value or greater! They are using a "buy and hold" strategy, so a few thousand extra dollars doesn't impact them. They are renting these properties out over the next 5-7 years and then will look at selling them. Since these institutional investors are buying much of the auction homes, that means the local investors are not buying them and putting them back on the market within a few months. It also means there are significantly less properties going back to the bank that would also be back on the market within a few months.

The "takeaway" from this is - now is the time to put your home on the market if you are a traditional resale! You have less competition than any time in the past five years!