Recent information from Standard and Poor’s Case – Shiller Price Index shows that the Atlanta/Gwinnett Market home prices MAY have bottomed out?
For three months now, resale prices of single-family homes in the metro area have been inching up, according to new data from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
“Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis and Tampa showed improvements in their annual and monthly returns, but all four are still too close to their recent lows to determine if the markets have stabilized,” S&P says.
Over a year’s time, prices in metro Atlanta are down 8.2 percent. This decline is considerably lesss than the 20-city composite average of 16.3 percent.
That index and S&P’s 10-city index both show record annual declines, but the month-to-month change has slowed which is probably good news for us in Gwinnett County and all of the Atlanta market. Now what we need is Buyers and Sellers to make the decision to move, price the homes accordingly and realize that not all homes are distressed sales. From May to June, home prices fell 2.2 percent, whereas from February to April the pace of decline was 6 percent.
“There are signs of a slowdown in the rate of decline across the metro areas, but no evidence of a bottom,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee. Personally I feel as though the “bottom” is either past us or we are in it currently. Maybe in December/January prices will decline slighty but that is a normal correction in my opinion.
Atlanta’s prices have increased 1.3 percent since April. The June to July change was an increase of 0.4 percent.
Home prices nationwide peaked in June 2006. Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami have been the worst performers over 12 months. Prices have fallen 28-30 percent in those cities.
Now is the time to start to look into buying or selling real estate. Do not wait until we are past the bottom.
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