About Pickens County, GA

I have posted a day like this before. But for those who have missed it I am posting sunrise today. No matter what you stop in the morning and say thank you for the day when it looks like this.

So as the sun comes over the mountains this is the view from our deck. The second photo is through one of the wholes in the canopy

This is Big Canoe and just one of the vistas. Homes start in the low 200's and work their way up. You can find some condos and "tree toppers " for under 200,000. So you know this view is from a house that today would be around 250 if you were to buy.

Big Canoe is a unique mountain community. It is now fall and activity slows. But if you are looking for mountain property NOW is a great time to see Big Canoe. You can see it with the leaves off the trees. So you will see the exactly out of things .

It is also a good time to buy as many folks who are here seasonally do not want to carry a home through the winter. So if you are looking for a mountain home with golf, tennis, hiking trails, theater, pools, boccie, fitness center, 1/3 set aside green space, in house fire and police, gated, , with deer, turkey ,bear, fox,eagles, and so much more consider Big Canoe. The pros here at All Mountain Realty are you community experts that will help you discover this great mountain treasure.

Fall has really roared in in our North Georgia Mountains. If you are thinking about a trip up this weekend to leaf peep bring some warm clothes. We expect temperature to start the day in the low 40's and not get much out of the low 60's.

If you are coming to leaf peep I think you are about a week away from full foliage. With the strange wet weather we have had it may be a wacky season. But I think in another week you will be fine.

The Ellijay Apple Festival is in it's last weekend. This is a must see. Also the Talking Rock Heritage festival will be going on this weekend. The fall in the mountains is a great time for festivals. I have posted about the Marble festival and Oktoberfest . Come up and enjoy but dress warmly .

I fouy fall in love with our mountains give the folks here at All Mountain Realty a call. We would love to work with you.

It appears that the positive trend we had been seeing in Jasper GA home sales in the early part of the summer took a turn for the worse in August.

The number of homes placed under contract or sold, 24*, was 20% lower than August 2008, and 33% below 2007's numbers. It also reflects a notable decline from the prior month's sales numbers. The average closed sale price of $219,072 for those transactions that have closed holds some promise on the pricing side of things, although still at a very low list-to-sale price ratio.

Of the 24 transactions, seven of the homes were located in either Bent Tree or Big Canoe. Eight were bank-owned foreclosures (33%). This is compared with only five foreclosures sold in August for each of the two previous years, or, 17% and 14% of all sales, respectively, for 2008 and 2007.

Inventory continues to hover at an unfavorable two-years plus, with 531 homes for sale in Pickens County GA at the time of this writing. Twenty-seven of these active listings were listed as bank-owned or foreclosures -- a slight drop as an overall percentage of inventory over prior months. With 30-40% of all homes that are selling being some form of distress sale, this drop is not surprising, but is also likely to be quickly replenished if the number of foreclosure notices being published is anything to go by.

This turnaround from the improvements we had been seeing is hard to explain, and makes predicting future trends almost impossible. September and October aren't showing significant signs of improvement, so the earlier gains may simply have been a release of pent up demand, and some bargain hunting by savvy buyers seeing great opportunities that met their needs. Even the anticipated surge of first-time home buyers racing to meet the tax credit deadline hasn't been as great as many expected.

Overall it seems the mood of uncertainty about job security, unemployment, housing prices and the economy, seems to be holding in check any sustained turnaround in the local Pickens County housing market.

*Some data used herein obtained via First Multiple Listing Service and is not warranted.