The Nitty Gritty for the North Georgia Real Estate Market

North Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge Real Estate, Market Trends for Blue Ridge Mountains, Donna Yates

THE MARKET TREND ANALYSIS

"The Nitty Gritty"

September 29, 2010

Counties: Fannin, Gilmer, Union, Towns
Residential Single Family Homes

Source: Northeast Georgia Board of Realtors MLS

Basically, I wish my crystal ball was crystal clear, but the long and short of it is we expect a long recovery process which will be slow and home sales will remain soft. Homebuyers are getting fantastic deals over the past year with a large inventory on the market. Over supply and under demand. Buyers continue to look for bargains but are starting to realize that foreclosures are often times not the bargains the media tries to make them out to be. It may take a decade for sellers to fully recover lost equity. But it's very important to understand that real estate is local so what is being reported on a national level may be very different on a local level.

This year in the North Georgia market, we have seen very encouraging signs so far, and it has been better in terms of buyer activity equating to more sales than same time last year. We know that buyers want to be here because visitor traffic reported so far this year, proves they are coming to the area and more buyers are buying compared to last year.

The sentiment seems to be that homebuyers are growing tired of putting off their dreams. Those buyers are taking advantage of exceptional pricing and thirty year mortgage rates at a generational low.

The economy is growing albeit very slowly with the private sector finally creating some jobs. Still there is a lot of uncertainty in small business and we remain in a "wait and see" mode. When buyers come back, we expect to see a very nice run. We are seeing more stabilization in average price and underwriting restrictions are tighter but the upside is, it is stabilizing the housing market for the foreseeable future. Delinguincies remain high nationally and regionally. We expect another wave of foreclosures across the board including our local market area but overall, we have not seen nearly the number of foreclosures locally, compared to the metro markets.

If you are the owner of real estate and you are trying to sell right now, you are competing with the banks. They can drop their price much easier and faster than the private owner. The media has trained buyers to believe that foreclosures are the best value but buyers are starting to realize that the majority of the properties have been rejected by the market. It's my job to educate the buyer by showing them the difference between a foreclosure and a resale.

LAND Sales not shown in these charts but we have more than 7500 pieces of land (developed and undeveloped) currently for sale. Less than 1% of all the land on the market is selling in a month's time. We have a serious glut of land on the market.

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Coldwell Banker High Country Realty 706-632-7311 x252 Office 706-632-7313 Fax 274 West Main Street Blue Ridge, Georgia 30513 DRIVING DIRECTIONS	Donna Yates, Associate Broker, GRI 706-633-0644 Direct or 404-941-5152 Leave Message My Fax Toll Free: 866-859-5454 www.move2northgeorgia.net www.blueridgemountains.activerain.com EMAIL DONNA