The North Fulton Blog

I've just started writing this real estate blog.  As a mater of fact, this is the very first entry.  I want to ramble a bit about the current market in the Alpharetta/Milton area.  I also want to talk about the current buyer's market and what's going on with the listing side of the business.

The local market is very confused.  There seems to be a lot of buyers out there looking at homes.  The mortgage rates are very favorable for buying a new home.  Yet there seems to be a certain amount of sluggishness or reluctance to pull the trigger and get into a new home.  It's like everyone is waiting for something to happen that will help them make their decision to buy.  I hear over and over that "we're not in any hurry to buy."  It makes me wonder what they're waiting for.  The market currently favors the buyer because there is such a surplus of homes on the market.  Buyers can usually get a very good deal by having an agent assist them with their negotiations.  Yet they're not moving forward in the numbers I would have expected.  I suppose it has to do with being cautious.  The industry has gone thru some ups and downs, but that was in Florida and California.  The Atlanta market is not now, nor has it been, on the bubble, facing a declining market.  So I guess we'll continue to "muddle along" with no one anxious to get out of an apartment and into a home.  It makes me wonder what we should expect during the upcoming Spring buying season.

On the sellers side, they're seeing the effects of a buyer's market.  Home sale prices are declining from their double digit increases of a few years ago.  Don't get me wrong.  Homes are selling today, lots of them.  But those sales required the seller to be smart about pricing their homes.  We're not seeing multiple offers on properties, each one higher than the previous one.  Sellers must be more realistic about their asking price and their homes need to be in pristine condition.  The competition is too great to risk losing a possible sale because they didn't repaint or make some other repairs.  Sellers need to choose their real estate carefully, checking on their experience and pricing skills.  They also need to be realistic in their "comparisons" with other sold homes in their neighborhood.  We know that each seller's home is the best one on the block and therefore should command the highest price.  Things don't always work that way.  If you overprice your home, it will sit there until everyone wonders what's wrong with it.  Then you'll start lowering the price and finally receive a low ball offer.  That's not the smart way to sell your home.

I'm hopeful that we'll see the market picking up in the next month and a half.  As long as interest rates stay at their current levels, we have all the conditions necessary for a great Spring selling season.  I hope we do.

I'd appreciate hearing some of your comments on the views I've expressed.  I'll write again in a few days.