Pickens County Georgia Home Sales Market Report for July & August, 2010

The good news for home sales in and around Jasper, Georgia, is that the numbers seem to be holding, with no significant declines month-on-month or year-on-year, but, the pattern continues to be an erratic series of ups and downs within a set range.

When averaged over a longer period than the monthly snapshot given here, overall sales volume for 2010 is likely to be similar to 2009. Average home sale prices likewise bounce around from month to month, with some months better than others, which is to be expected in the face of low sales volume, but it makes identifying trends in average sale prices difficult. A little more consistent, and troubling, is the steady downward trend of median home sale prices.

As expected, July 2010 took a slight dip off June's numbers, coming in with 18 homes placed under contract. Average sale price for closed sales was a very weak $156,247, while the median sales price dropped to a new low of $130,000. By comparison, in July 2009, we saw 33 sales at an average close price of $229,033 and a median of $175,000.

Foreclosure homes accounted for roughly 33% of Pickens County house sales in July.

August numbers fared better than July, with 35 pending home sales, 24 of which have already closed. The average closed sale price was $195,277, with a median price of $138,250, (which numbers will likely come down slightly once the remaining pending sales actually close). Not only were these numbers an overall improvement over July 2010's numbers, but were also better in terms of volume against a prior year comparison, with only 26 homes being sold in August 2009. However, prices in August 2009 were higher, coming in at an average sale price of $212,491, with a median price of $179,208.

Bank-owned REO home sales accounted for a little over 30% of all August 2010, sales.

Four homes were listed as "pending lender approval", which are short sale properties for which no binding agreement date is available in the MLS data . While they should be accounted for as potential sales, they are not included in the above numbers, due to the uncertainty as to when they were actually placed under contract of sale, uncertainty as to when (if ever), lender approval will be received, and the length of time over which such a sale is likely to take place.

At the time of this writing, active inventory of homes for sale in Pickens County GA stood at 535 homes. This is lower than at the time of my last market report, but not an unusual drop for the late summer months, as fewer sellers choose to place their homes on the market at this time. Whatever the reason, any lowering of inventory and reduction in competition is a benefit to those sellers who are still trying to sell. The average list price for active homes on market was $330,087, and the median listing price was $265,000.

Almost 10% of the houses listed for sale were identified as either foreclosed properties, or some other form of distress sale, such as pre-foreclosures or short sales.

While not trying to paint an unrealistically rosy picture, it does appear at least for the moment that if nothing else, the declines in sales volume we were previously seeing in the Jasper area has leveled off. "Average" sale prices are still hard to pin down, as volatile as they are on a monthly basis, however, the past 3-4 months seem to suggest some support for a higher average price than we had been seeing, driven largely (in my opinion) by improved home sales of higher-priced houses in Big Canoe and Bent Tree, GA. The weakness in median price continues to be something worth watching as a possible indicator of whether the leveling off of sales volume we are encountering is having any positive impact on sales prices in general.

For more information about market data in your neigborhood, foreclosures, or homes for sale, feel free to shoot me an email or give me a call.

(All sales data obtained and compiled from First Multiple Listing Service records and is believed accurate, but is not warranted.)