Jackson County Ga 2010 Residential Real Estate Year in Review

What happenned in 2010? 2010 was a challenging year for real estate across the country. While Watkinsville Ga did not escape those challenges the presence of the University of Georgia in neighboring Athens and an unemployment rate that remained well below both the state and national averages kept the real estate market a little bit more stable than in many areas of the country as well as Georgia.

The numbers: Chart 1, below, shows how the 2010 residential real estate market faired against the 2009 market as far as total sales and Days on Market. In 2009, there were 169 residental units sold. In 2010 that number increased by over 20% to 203 units. During the same period the percentage of sales that were foreclosures remained relatively flat. In 2009 there were 109 foreclosures, or about 64.5% of the total sales volume. In 2010 there were 130 foreclosures or about 64% of the total sales volume. But keep in mind that over 1/2 of the volume were "organic" sales, or sales of homes by the owner or builder. In 2011 foreclosures and short sales will more than likely make up they same or higher percentage of the total sales volume.

The average time to sell a residential property (Days on Market, D.O.M.) , in Jackson County Ga increased about 3.4% from 171 in 2009 days to 177 days in 2010.

Chart 1

Chart 2 below shows the direction of both average and median sales prices in Jackson County Ga. The average sales price declined just over 4% from $151,041.00 to $144,979.00. The median price declined almost 5% from $147,000.00 in 2009 to $140,000.00 in 2010. The decline in both median and average prices were almost certainly driven by a combination of the increased percentage of foreclosures along with the number of first time buyers trying to take advantage of the federal income tax credit during the first six months of last year.

Chart 2

What does 2011 hold? 2011 will probably be almost as challenging as 2010 was. Foreclosures and short sales are expected to become a larger part of the market. Prices are expected to suffer some decrease, at least during the first 6 months of the year. The forecast is for prices to stabilize during the second half of the year. This will really be dependant upon how the economy fairs, especially in regard to unemployment.

For those that want, or need, to sell their homes for reasons other foreclosure, the good news is that, as the numbers for 2010 indicate, "organic" sales of homes are still happenning in the Jackson County GA market. However, they need to be both priced competitively and in a condition considerably better than foreclosure or short sale properties in order to get that higher price.

All chart information is derived from data in the Athens Area Association of Realtors® multiple listing service (MLS). The market data covers all of Jackson County GA, however, does not include data from any other MLS system that is used in Jackson County.