Homeowners in metro Atlanta got a small reprieve Wednesday from bad housing news: Sales of existing single-family homes were up 26.2 percent in August compared with August last year, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors.
The uptick isn't a miracle or a reflection of a real recovery, however. Home sales had slumped after June last year when a homebuyer tax credit expired.
And as is true to form in the still uncertain economy, there’s bad news with the good: Median home prices in metro Atlanta fell again, by 7 percent, to $103,300 in August, compared with $111,100 in August a year ago.
Steve Palm, president of SmartNumbers in Marietta, said that sets area home prices back to 1999. And the pace of sales still is down 35 percent from the 2005-2006 peak in metro Atlanta.
Homes selling at a faster clip, even for a lower price, is a good sign for homeowners because it means investors and others are depleting the inventory of distressed homes, said Wight Mixon, president of the Atlanta Board of Realtors and a Realtor with Beacham & Co.
“People seem to know if they don’t act now, there’s not going to be any good deals left,” Mixon said. “The other thing is that the good inventory goes very quickly.” She said Beacham & Co. listed a well-maintained, well-priced home last week in Garden Hills, an Atlanta neighborhood near Buckhead, and had two offers within several days.
Palm believes that with the low inventories of homes -- levels last seen in 2002 -- if demand increases, home prices will “pop back up.”
Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, said rising apartment rents are combining with low home prices and low interest rates to motivate buyers.
One factor that could bode well for an uptick in September home sales is the average fixed rate, 30-year mortgage fell to a record low of 4.09 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.
Nationally, sales of existing single-family homes increased 22.4 percent, though the median home price fell 5.4 percent to $168,400 in August, compared with August 2010.
