The Real Estate Agent Blog

By Craig Miller
Published on: July 16, 2008

Is the real estate market experiencing a shift? The charts provided by SmartNumbers gives a hint of a shift in the market. Below, an explanation of the SmartNumbers charts for the Atlanta real estate market. The information is on the data collected about single family homes from 2000 until May 2008.

LISTINGS CLOSED on all single family properties has NOT shown an increase as it usually does during the summer months. It actually decreased from March – May, putting the number of closed listings in May 2008 at just over 4,500 (equal to the closed listings in May 2000).

AVERAGE SALE PRICE has increased $20k in three months, making May 2008’s average $240k. That average sale price is between the May 2004 and May 2005 averages.

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET for May is still more than 2007’s average but has steadily declined since the beginning of 2008, from over 100 days in January to about 92 average days on the market. Getting the average days on market below that 90 day period is a very good thing, since a listing agreement usually is a minimum of three months.

To sum things up. The amount of listings closed for this time of year is not the usual up-swing for , but is declining (maybe due to the fact that a greater percentage of the inventory is expiring, because the difficulty real estate agents are experiencing pricing a home in this market). The average sales price has increased about the same as it usually does this time of year. The average days on market is declining, this means that buyer’s looking for a deal have less time to act on the deal they find. It’s still a buyer’s market out there, but with small changes in the market, means that the BIG DEALS you see now, will not last forever (the first 4 properties I pulled up and wanted to show an investor went under contract before we could visit them, only two days after seeing them online).