Small positive signs in latest metro Atlanta housing report

By By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Some modestly encouraging signs for the metro Atlanta housing market emerged in the second quarter, according to a real estate firm’s report.

Housing inventory was still high but decreased, single-family home sale prices and volume rose from the previous quarter, and the percentage of foreclosure sales fell in the 15-county area, the report from Coldwell Banker NRT Development Advisors said.

The measures don’t suggest housing is roaring back -- far from it -- but they are positives in a depressed market.

“Foreclosures are what make ‘the bottom’ and uncertainty,” said Brad Horner, the firm’s president. “But we did better in the second quarter than the first and we expect to do better in the third.”

While housing inventory fell, reasons behind the trend include homes that didn’t sell not being re-listed, along with bulk lot sales by banks, he said.

By the end of June, there were 48,890 single-family homes on the market, compared to 53,537 at the end of March, and 70,072 one year earlier.

In the multi-family sector, there were 16,872 units for sale at the end of the quarter, compared to 18,327 at the end of June and 21,331 a year earlier.

Horner said supply will continue to dwindle as buyers seize opportunities in the market.

“The old real estate adage used to be location, location, location and now it is price, price, price,” he said.

All home sales rose 32 percent from the previous quarter, although part of that was seasonal, since spring and summer are usually the strongest times of the year. Year-over-year, sales fell 9 percent.

Foreclosures made up 40 percent of existing condo and townhome sales, down 6 percent from the previous quarter, and 38 percent of standalone home sales, down 13 percent from the previous quarter.