17 Feb 2012 Starts with Increased Sales and Stable Prices
If you’ve been thinking of buying a home but waiting for when prices hit the bottom, you may want to start your search now! More and more the real estate market is showing signs that the absolute worst may be over. As more of these signals begin to hit home with sellers, prices have been stabilizing.
One of the key signals that have been closely watched is the availability of homes on the market and across the country January was the 19th consecutive month that inventory levels dropped. The number of homes for sale last month was 24.1% lower than the number seen in January 2011. Although this is likely due in part to falling foreclosure numbers the result is still a ‘Months Supply’ being down to 7.3 months, which is a drop from the 7.8 ‘Months Supply’ in December 2011. More significantly, this is a 2.8 months drop from January 2011. (‘Months Supply’ is the number of months it would take to clear a market’s active inventory at the current rate of sales. A six-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers. )
Need more proof? January sales were the 7th straight month of increased sales compared to sales in the previous year. Averaging the 53 major metro areas, January 2012 sales were 3.4% greater than January 2011 sales. Twenty of these metro areas saw double-digit jumps from last year and that included Atlanta with an increase of 26.3%.
We here at The Anderson Group have had our own proof that the market is definitely improving – since the beginning of February we have put 4 of our properties under contract!!! One of those properties went from listing to contract in under 3 weeks.
So if you’ve been holding out, Buyer or Seller, wait no longer! The Anderson Group is waiting help you!
Looking for a new house or townhome? Check out these listings from The Anderson Group: