Home prices in metro Atlanta and Georgia continued to rise in October, making it more challenging for prospective buyers to find a home in their price range.
A tight supply of available homes for sale continues to be a driving force behind the rising prices, with few prospective sellers putting their homes on the market and fewer foreclosed homes part of the mix. Both situations are helping to keep the number of available homes for resell at low levels.
CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index shows prices in metro Atlanta were up 16.4 percent on average in October from the same period a year ago. Prices were up 16.7 percent in September.
Across the state, prices were up an average 14.2 percent in October compared with a year ago, and compared with 14.4 percent in September.
Georgia and metro Atlanta still ranked third nationally in price appreciation among states and metro areas, respectively. Georgia ranked behind Nevada and California, and Atlanta behind Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., and Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale, Calif.
The slight increase in prices from September to October is an indication that the housing markets both locally and nationally appear to be catching their breath, according to CoreLogic Chief Executive Officer Anand Nallathambi.
“The deceleration in month-on-month trends was anticipated as strong gains in home prices over the spring and summer slow in line with normal seasonal patterns and the impact of higher mortgage interest rates,” Nallathambi said in releasing the October report.
According to Bankrate.com, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in metro Atlanta rose to 4.39 percent last week from 4.28 percent the previous week. Nationally, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was a 4.44 percent. The average 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose slightly to 3.38 percent from 3.36 percent the previous week in metro Atlanta.
The CoreLogic report is the latest in a series indicating the housing recovery in metro Atlanta is well under way.
According to real estate data provided by SmartNumbers, the average price of a home for resale in the 22-county metro Atlanta is around $220,000, up from $155,000 in January, and only about $12,000 below its all-time high set in October 2006.
One benefit of the rising prices is the gradual return of home equity for many owners, which might prompt more sellers to put their homes on the market. According to the latest Zillow.com figures on underwater mortgages in metro Atlanta, 402,125 metro homeowners, or about 38 percent, were dealing with "negative equity" in the third quarter. The share is less than the 44 percent underwater in the second quarter and the all-time high of 55 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
Metro Atlanta, however, still ranked No. 2 (behind Las Vegas) among large metropolitan areas with the highest negative equity rates in the third quarter, due in large part to the flood of foreclosures in recent years.
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