August 16, 2007

Fulton County Real Estate is probably the most diverse in every possible definition of the word in Georgia.  It contains the city of Atlanta, as well as cities like Alpharetta and Roswell which feature very high end homes, as well as areas like College Park where there is a bit of a depressed value.

This May (according to Tax Records) in Fulton County Real Estate, 1500 homes were sold, that's down from down from over 2000 a year ago.  However, as in other areas such as Gwinnett County, prices are up by 20K on average.

As in the rest of the state, condo sales are down by almost 50%, however, Fulton is still one few places that a condo or townhome hold its value.  There has been little to no dropoff in the $180K average price.

Currently there are 9,281 homes for sale in Fulton County.  Of those 10% will likely sell in 77 days or less and the rest will sit until they are in the top 10%.

Don't look now but BusinessWeek has put out another List.  BusinessWeek has the uneviable task of coming up with only 20 suburbs in the North and 20 in the south that are affordable.   I'm not entirely sure how Roswell made it into the top 20 or how other cities in Georgia missed the cut, but I certainly feel slighted here.  Roswell is a great community, don't get me wrong, but there are several communities in Georgia such as Duluth, Lawrenceville, Dacula, Suwanee, Alpharetta, Buford, Kennesaw, that have equal or better options than the ones the selected from NC, SC or AL.

Yes, I am bias, I have no qualms admitting that,  I guess I expected a more thorough analysis coming from a magazine that basically just wanted to publish a slide show, but come on, Tyler,TX - ?  Weston, FL?  How any city from Florida got listed on an affordability article is ridiculous.  However, if bestplaces.net paid for the spot, and they said it, it must be true.

It's also worth noting that the top 8 or so cities have crime indices in the 80's, while Roswell and other notables have them in the 30's.  No wonder, those cities are affordable. 

Here's a link to the article, read it for yourself and decide: BusinessWeek Article

Next week, I'll put out my own list of cities with high crime and low cost of living.  I'll be sure to hit martha up and some other sponsors as well.  

Undoubtedly if you have turned on the news in the past year you have heard that we are in a down market.  I'm not sure about "THEM" but I for one do not see it.  I see a slow down in some rural areas here, but the Atlanta Market has never been hotter.  

I recently had a discussion with a client where I explained the Atlanta market to him.  He seemed to think we were getting all the people from the other areas.  While that is certainly true, I finished up 06 with over $3 Million in agreements with folks to buy homes that weren't able to sell their home where they live.  So they at least will not be coming to Atlanta.

So what keeps Atlanta afloat?  Great Values, Job Opportunities and a constant rotations of new blood.

Our appreciation rates are relatively low in most areas, but you'll have a difficult time finding an area in decline.  Atlanta is like a train, it's just chugging very slowly.  You can still find a 3000 SQFT home for $250K in most metro areas.

Job Opportunities abound! New companies pop up every day and long standing companies are always looking for qualified people. The education and patient care fields are booming!

Atlanta is also a hub for training.  Walmart, Publix, Home Depot, Bellsouth and more will open stores or use profitable stores as training grounds for their "chosen."  They'll ship in the family to Atlanta to train or right a ship and then ship them back out.

Foreclosure rates have also been very high, but this is not new.  Many of those buyers, the ones who actually stay, move up to nicer homes.  While new home buyers have a vast assortment of affordable housing.

What's not to love about Atlanta, aside from the traffic.