There is a light at the end of the tunnel and no, it’s not a train!

May 5, 2008

Spring has sprung, the weather is great. Interest rates are wobbling a little but they are still at all time lows. The endless droning of the bobbling head news guys who tell us how bad it is….and how many foreclosures and short sales there are, is having an interesting effect. People are starting to think that this may actually be a good time to buy a house. The market is really pretty active.

For the first time in decades in Atlanta there are homes that you can buy and rent out and actually make positive cash flow. There are neighborhoods that have been out of reach for lots of folks who would love to live there that suddenly are having some actually affordable homes on the market. It’s no longer true that you can’t get a decent home in a safe neighborhood under $300,000 any more. There are actually lots of homes for sale in safe areas closer to $200,000. And there are homes out there that I would live in myself or let my daughter live in under $100,000! …even inside the perimeter, in Atlanta Georgia today! You can own a decent home at an affordable price.

The Intown areas that were being renovated heavily and flipped a few years ago, like Reynoldstown, Kirkwood, Edgewood, East Atlanta and East Point had begun to get pretty pricey.  When the crunch started a lot of the investors/ house flippers with short term hard money loans were left holding the bag. A number of big builders went down because they were sitting on too much inventory. So a lot of these those houses are now on the market as foreclosures. They are in various stages of completion, some are done and move in ready and some have been gutted and have nothing put back. A house in the West End that I personally sold (as the listing agent) nearly 2 years ago to a first time homebuyer for $134,900, recently went on the market in exactly the same condition for $44,900. This was not a loan fraud deal, no money went back to the purchaser under the table. This was an educated buyer who bought a home to live in and lost it. What this means is that if you missed the boat ten years ago when prices were low, you have been given a second chance to own a home at an affordable price. There are a lot of people who get it. When a home goes on the market in these types of neighborhoods for $64,000 is sells, frequently in a bidding contest. 

 

Posted by danconnolly | Filed Under Market Conditions 

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