Estately.com recently opened it’s ‘context’ based real estate search engine to the Atlanta Real Estate Market In their own words…. “Estately was created with the belief that home buyers need context when they’re looking for a home. At Estately you can learn about the surrounding area, the nearby shops, the character of the neighborhood and [...]
Roger Tutterow Ph.D. and Dean of Economics at Mercer University gave his opinion to Sally’s Roundtable on the Recession of 08’ as it relates to Real Estate in my home state. This is Post #3 from the exchange.
Credit Markets
As far back as July 2007, Wall Street began to question the true value of Mortgage Backed Securities. Interesting how it really became a household word in recent months. Either way, banks are continuing to search for ways to loan money to the masses. The original bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was probably the smartest move that Washington could have made. In essence, it allows lenders the ability to continue to bundle loans together and sell them to a company that is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.
Banks, mortgage brokers, etc are in the business to originate loans. Most do not have a true mechanism to keep them in house and actually hold for 30 years. Therefore, without the ability to bundle and sell, loans would not be written.
Good News!
We are at or past the bottom of the Real Estate curve in GA. Home prices have stabilized and inventories are no longer increasing. With the ability to actually borrow money at still all time low rates, the expectation is that the best deals will sell first which would include Pristine foreclosures, New deeply discounted homes from builders, and resales where the owner can take a loss to get a better deal on a more expensive home.
In 6 months or so, those of us with little to no equity will see a more stabilized and active market. Today, there is no place to go but up and do not let the Evening talking Heads tell you differently. Our problems are nothing like so many others.
In the metro Atlanta area, Existing home sales are down about 38% (units) and new sales are down 68%. In itself, these figures create an over inventory of homes which causes a longer time on market. However, this news is not all bad either.
Roger Tutterow Ph.D. and Dean of Economics at Mercer University gave his opinion to Sally’s Roundtable on the Recession of 08’ as it relates to Real Estate in my home state. It was great to hear that it seems we are now at or past the bottom of the curve and the expectation is that in late 2nd Qtr and Early 3rd Qtr 2009, we will see a noticeable improvement in some key statistics.
This is not another “Now is a Great Time to Buy” real estate article. It’s just some simple facts of the Atlanta real estate investor grade market. Investor grade is a starter-home property ready and suitable for renting or resale. The analysis was conducted by a third party company, PortReal, LLC. PortReal benchmarks investor grade [...]
The first paragraph of Wachovia‘s Report is a tough one, but I think a first real honest look at where we are in today’s market…. A Serious Recession Has Set In While the NBER will not likely get around to declaring when a recession began until late January or early February, there is little doubt [...]
I like to read Bloomberg.com. Their articles are more analytical than you will ever find at CNBC. However, while perusing an article on durable goods numbers, the typical doom and gloom from economists bemoaned the 1.1 percent September drop in orders. Of course, in August, the drop in orders was 4.1 percent. Why the long [...]
As real estate agents, we are constantly asked… how did the housing market collapse? why is taking so long to sell me house? is this the first time we’ve had a housing crash? when will it rebound? While we love to answer these questions and encourage everyone to ask more by contacting us here, I thought it may be worth having our readers watch this video produced by John Burns Consulting for the builder industry.
Home affordability took a slight hit this week after the Federal Reserve's release of its August 10 meeting minutes.
Mortgage rates would have been volatile this week. The presence of Labor Day just piles on. If you have a chance to lock something favorable ...
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, up to 30 percent of a home's energy costs can be cut just by reducing drafts. For example, ...
