Jasper GA Home Sales: Pickens County Real Estate Data for February 2009

To put it bluntly, the number of available homes for sale in Jasper GA actually placed under contract in the month of February, pretty much sucked! No way to sugarcoat it . . .

Out of 500+ homes for sale in all of Pickens County, only eight were identified as pending sales! Of those eight, three were in Big Canoe. The remaining five were all priced below $200,000 (in fact, in each of the last two months, only ONE of the homes placed under contract in each month has been priced above $300,000, and both of those were in the Big Canoe community).

By contrast, February 2008 saw a total of 30 homes in the Jasper GA area go under contract of sale . . . which for 2009, reflects a very substantial decline of more than 72%!

The average list price of pending sales was $232,228, in a range from $59,900 to $599,900. Actual sale price will remain to be seen once the transactions close, at which time it can be compared to last year's average, which came in at around $199K

511 homes currently for sale puts inventory slightly higher than over the past few months, but still sitting well below peak levels. This is likely to change as we move into the spring selling season.

One consistent trend is the foreclosure levels that continue to climb. While unfortunately not all homes that are bank / lender owned are accurately designated as such in the MLS, at least 35 of available homes for sale were labeled as REO foreclosures or distress sales of some sort . . . A number inching up toward 7% of total inventory of houses for sale!

I don't usually cover residential lots and land in my monthly Pickens County market data reports, but thought it worth noting that there are an increasing number of land foreclosures hitting the market as well.

Obviously the tax incentives, stimulus package, low interest rate and low home prices haven't been sufficient to motivate home buyers to this point. A large percentage of the homes that are selling however, are to first time home buyers taking advantage of some of the great opportunities available. This may account for the reduced average sales prices we've been seeing, and is a trend likely to continue.

March has shown some heightened levels of activity thus far, but will wait until the end of the month to see how that plays out . . .

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