Jasper Georgia Real Estate: Home Sales First Quarter 2011

Jasper GA real estate data -- home sales stats for 1st quarter 2011.

Note: Due to the relatively low number of monthly home sales in Pickens County GA, I am switching my monthly sales reports to a quarterly format, which might hopefully provide a less volatile reading of what's going in terms of home sales volume and prices.

No real surprises for first-quarter 2011. Flat sales volume, with declines in median and average sale prices. While our number of houses sold came pretty close to matching that of 1st quarter 2010, with 53 home sales, just one shy of the prior year's 54, the median sale price dropped for that period from $164,900 to $130,000. The average sale price dropped from $184,430 to $162,182.

Foreclosures and short sales were a big factor in the pricing pressure. Again, no surprises there. The number of pre-foreclosures and bank-owned properties sold rose from a total of around 37% of sales, to 43% of total sales.

With 516 homes for sale in Jasper, GA, and surrounding Pickens County communities, as of this writing, we are faced with a challenging 22- to 24-months worth of inventory to liquidate. On the positive side, the fact that sales volume doesn't appear to be declining might help keep this inventory manageable. Unfortunately, the inventory level, and with the percentage of REO's and short sales climbing to almost 14% of total inventory, prices coiuld remain soft for the short term, at least.

There are some signs that the low prices and rates are starting to attract homebuyers, (and yes, even investors, particularly as rental demand increases), so perhaps we'll see begin to see some stronger buying to help offer price support, but expect that support to be concentrated more in the lower price points, where first time homebuyers and real estate investors are more likely to be focused.

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