Home sales in metro Atlanta slipped in July, the Atlanta Board of Realtors reported Monday.
There were 4,530 sales, a 2.5 percent decrease from June and a 4.9 percent decline from July of last year, according to the group’s monthly real estate assessment.
However, board president Todd Emerson noted that revisions could shift the numbers. He said June sales were initially reported as a decline and were later revised to show an increase.
“The summer was slow, no doubt,” said Collette McDonald, an agent with RE/MAX Greater Atlanta, though she said she’s seen a pick-up this month. “As soon as schools started to go back, people started to focus and things got crazy busy.”
Inquiries from companies that are considering relocating employees to Atlanta have also jumped, she said.
“I put a home on the market (in Brookhaven) Thursday and I had three offers, and we went several percentage points above what we had listed it at.”
The median sale price — or midpoint between highest and lowest — in metro Atlanta in July was $227,000, a dip of 1.3 percent from the previous month, according to the report, but up 7.1 percent from July of last year.
In contrast, the average sale price in July was $292,000. That was up slightly from June and up 7.7 percent from a year ago.
July saw 16,473 homes listed for sale in the 11-county metro region, representing about 4.4 months of sales – a ratio that has held generally steady for months. That ratio is considered “a seller’s market” and leads to many quick sales.
McDonald said that the buyer-seller balance has yet to even out.
While buyers have come into the market, the number of listings has not swelled as quickly, she said. “It is still pretty tight. Supply is still low.”
Nationally, applications for mortgages to buy new homes increased by 2 percent in July, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
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