Here’s the latest scoop on our red-hot Atlanta market.
As June ends and July begins, our Atlanta real estate market is still pretty hot.
More than 50% of all homes being listed are seeing multiple offers, pretty much as soon as they’re listed. On top of that, those offers are coming in with no appraisal or financing contingencies and short due diligence periods. In these due diligence periods, buyers are more or less promising not to make any repairs—they just want to ensure things like the foundation aren’t falling apart.
We’re definitely in a strong seller’s market in pretty much every neighborhood and price point. There’s a lot of talk about record-low inventory, but it’s not so much about low inventory as it is an extraordinarily high rate of buyer activity. More houses are selling than ever before, and you can’t have low inventory and record-high sales at the same time. The math doesn’t work. We have about as much inventory now as we usually do, the only difference is that it’s flying off the market much quicker. In the Metro Atlanta area, the average days on market for single-family homes is just 15 days, and with that, prices continue to rise. Interest rates for 30-year mortgages in our area are hovering right around 3%. We’ve seen plenty of dips and rises, so theirs is more of a day-by-day situation.
If you’re a buyer, this means you need to be pre-approved and ready to move. Get your loan documents to your lender well in advance and make sure you’re underwritten before you even look at properties. Sellers don’t have to accept the same types of contingencies and risks that they used to. If you have a financing issue, for instance, sellers won’t take that on, so be sure to have those types of things squared away.
One thing I’ve noticed more and more among sellers is that they’re mailing it in when it comes to preparing their properties for the market. We Realtors used to be able to give sellers a list of things that needed to be done to get their homes staged and ready for sale, but I’m seeing an increasing number of listings that look like their sellers just threw them on the market whether they were ready or not. These sellers then still expect to attract the same buyer activity, but that’s not necessarily happening. Those properties tend to sit on the market.
The point is, if you’re a seller, don’t take your foot off the gas and think you can sell a property that’s not ready for the market. As prices rise, buyers will get pickier and demand that the homes they’re interested in are ready to move into.
If you have questions about our Atlanta market or there’s anything else I can assist you with, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you.
