Joshua Jarvis

• First, there's a new trend occurring with buyers. Sales are up this year from last as far as inventory and I am finding that buyers are interested in buying foreclosures. However, either the condition of the home will scare them or the incompetence of the bank/reo company/listing agent will send them to the hills to look for resales.

• The second reason is that builders have gotten smart. They've stopped building. Centex only has 20 inventory homes in the 13 metro counties that make up Metro Atlanta. Other builders are following suit. This decrease in inventory is limiting the choices of todays buyers.
  

1. The banks wise up, streamline the process and/or improve the homes, in essence stealing the buyers from the "public."
2. Builders start building again even though there is no clear signal to start again.
   

Quantum Leap, Gary Keller's newest (soon to be book) seminar focuses on life and adjusting your life and your business. Keller's comments during Keller William's Family Reunion might as well been entitled, Counter Balance - Balancing Life & Real Estate. The basic premise is that life is cyclical and even more so is Real Estate.

With that being said, it's no surprise that our market is riding the roller coaster back down on prices. Had we all been watching the affordability numbers and compared them to home prices we'd have seen the huge gap here. In addition, when you have mortgage people messing with the formula, you can't expect no repercussions.

In Metro Atlanta, we dodged the first bullet. We've always had a buyer's market and still do. Homes are affordable and there are more of them then the incoming buyers. We could have continued to chug up the little slop that is our market. However, when you start messing with formula, sometimes you create things that might be a bit out of control.

Tuesday, 7400 Foreclosures hit the court house steps in Metro Atlanta. Although, this includes 13 different counties it's still far too many. Our prices are falling, not as a result of the market's cyclical trend, but due to the number of foreclosures. Many appraisers claim that foreclosures are making up the majority of comparables for their appraisals.

New Trends

I've noticed, ever so slightly, that non-foreclosure resales are starting to make a comeback. This trend was evident before the foreclosure boom, but died a bit during some of the mortgage meltdown. Now it's back. Buyers are starting to gravitate the "known" in a resale as opposed to the "unknown" in a foreclosure. Buyers are still offerring ridiculous offers to sellers that are not in a dire situation, but are starting to be more realistic.

With foreclosures, you get a bumpy process, less than stellar information about the home, and of course the only thing you can be sure of is what you find out on your own. Whereas with Resales, in most cases you'll get a disclosure and often a responsive listing agent to help the process along. It'll just feel smoother. Of course, you'll have the peace of mind that no one put concrete in the pipes!

Going forward, I think this year will be excellent for sales, but not necessarily for sellers, unless they are moving up. So I typed all of that to bring it all back to this point:

The market is cyclical, but in Atlanta, we've always been a buyers market. It will take us a will to get back to our natural equilibrium but we are making progress, every so slowly in the non REO department.

Who says, Walmart doesn't care. In an effort to minimize their impact on the environment, Walmart has converted thousands of sinks and toilets in the 109 Walmart and Sam's Club Stores to save water.

In an article in the Gwinnett Daily, Michael Mills, the regional director of Coporate Affairs for Walmart said he expected the changes will amount to a 17 to 20 percent reduction in water usage... or rather 53 MILLION gallons annually.

"We wanted to minimize our impact on the drought of Georgia." Mills said. "Hopefully, we'll set an example for other businesses."

Mills stated, also in the article that Walmart has been moving toward sustainable designs and systems for several years now.

Special Thanks to Arielle Kass who wrote the original article.

For those who live in the Hamilton Mill area, there has always been a curiosity as to what would go up in between the Home Depot and the Kohl's. With construction underway on several shopping areas, one project has piqued some interest.

Great Escape Theatres of New Albany, IND will open an ALL digital theatre in md to late May. For an area with over 45,000 family living in a 5 mile radius, this is a great need! The 52,000 Square foot facilility is being built next to Home Depot and will feature stadium seating with 18 to 24 inch risers, digital projection and 3D technology. Currently, the closest theatre is in the Mall of Georgia.

In an article in The Paper, Ragains the COO said, "The North side of Atlanta is very attractive because of all the growth."

He said that studies have shown that there is room for a successful theatre business in Dacula, GA.

This Realtor, says, "DUH!"

Search all the Dacula, Hamilton Mill and Georgia Homes For Sale at GAHomesDigest.com