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May 2003   America's Real Estate Superstore

Metro Atlanta's Real Estate Update for May 2003.

July 20, 2004

A lot of records were broken, milestones accomplished, and interesting trends were observed in June. First, the average sale for single family closings in June was $246,615, which is a record and also the first time above $240M. The average sale price for single family detached was $253,839, also a record and the first time above $250M. Through 2004, the average sale price for all single family is $231,837 and the first time above $230M.

Higher prices come from higher demand and we certainly have had that in 2004. Condos and townhomes had another double digit increase from the same year ago period. There were 705 condos and townhomes closed in June or an increase of 17.3% over June 2003. For the year, condos and townhomes are up 28% over the same time frame in 2003. For the year, there have been 3,724 closed condos and townhomes reported. This is more than what was closed for the entire year in 1998 and after lags are reported, probably more than what was reported in 1999.

Single family detached were up again too, as there were 5,349 closings in June or an increase of 2.7% over the same year ago period and this without taking into account any lagged closings being reported. We have closed more single family detached through the first half of 2004 than we did ten years ago in all of 1994!

Metro Atlanta’s post Olympic growth has been dramatic. We should close approximated 65,000 single family homes in 2004, which will be about 30,000 more than what we reported in all of 1996.
The strength of Atlanta’s real estate market is well illustrated by the days-on-market trending. The DOM in June for all single family closings was 73. This is down 5.3 days from June 2003, 1.5 days from the previous month, and 5.5 days from 2003. As demand has increased, DOM has been reduced significantly. The days-on-market for single family detached was 70.7 in June. This was 6.1 days less than the same year ago period and the fourth straight monthly reduction.

There were 935 closings that were identified as being previously listed. After accounting for the additional time on the market, days-on-market increased from 70.7 to 97.5 for single family detached and from 90.5 to 132.6 for condos and townhomes. If demand continues to be strong, then expect DOM to continue to decline.

There were 1,626 withdrawn single family listings in June. This the first time we have gone over 1,600 withdrawn listings for a given month and eclipsing the previous high of 1,581 in July 2003.
Interest rates have edged up over the past few months, but I believe this relatively small increase will not affect our real estate market enough to slow it down. If rates can stabilize, the second half of 2004 should continue to be strong.

Thank you,

Steve Palm
Smart Numbers