The Atlanta market continues to give signals that it’s full steam ahead.  What’s telling here is that despite new listings being higher then the 5 year average the active listings are so much lower then the 5 year average that there’s still a shortage, which means prices are rising.   In the lower price points tensions have eased a bit due to the absence of professional hedge fund investors.   The means that local investors have more choices and first time home buyers can now browse homes that need to fixed up.  This is great overall for metro Atlanta, basically until that “Active” listing increases by a large percentage you won’t see a huge shift in the market.  Thank goodness new construction hasn’t flooded the market just yet. 

 

So what about the big 4 counties?

Instead of our usual media price point review I thought it’d be useful to take a look at price per square foot.  We get asked all the time “how’s the market”  my response is … “where have you been?”  For the last 3 years the market has increased just take a look at this graph.  Some surprises are Forsyth almost leading the way with the highest median price and the highest price per square foot (Fulton will always be defacto leader usually).  If you take a look at what’s happening it’s the large new construction phases going on in Cumming and North Alpharetta.   Even properties that normally would sell for less than $100K are going for $150K if they are in South Forsyth School District. 

 

Cobb and Gwinnett finish off, showing that homes for sale in Gwinnett county are still just an outstanding value.  Overall they tend to be newer than their cobb county counter parts.