Diving Into November’s Update
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. It’s Mid-November, which means it’s time to update you on the November Housing Market.
In this month’s housing market update, we’ll cover:
- The latest Atlanta market stats; inflation
- Mortgage Rates
- Housing Affordability
And if saving money is important to you, then you’ll want to stick around until the end because I’ll be sharing strategies Buyers can use right now, in today’s market, to save tens of thousands of dollars when buying a home.
How did we do compared to October 2022? Well, this year, we’re down in every category. In October 2023, there were fewer new listings, homes for sale, pending sales, closed sales, and showings. The one bright spot is failures, which are expired and withdrawn listings. There were 9.4% fewer of them this year. Most of these types of listings come back to market either with a new price, a new agent or sometimes both, and usually end up selling. There are no real surprises here; the higher interest rates can explain most of this.
On a month-to-month basis, we saw some positives in October relative to September. Pending sales were up 1.1%, and there’s more inventory. As a matter of fact, inventory has been on the rise every month since April, which is normal during the Spring and Summer selling months. But come October, we typically see active listings start to dip. This year is different. Again, no real surprises; in addition to interest rates, seasonality plays a bigger role at this time of the year.
Demand/Supply
How fast are properties moving in this market? Well, in the Greater Atlanta Area, it’s taking, on average, 36 days to find a buyer and move under contract. That’s up slightly from the 31 days a year earlier but down a smidge from the 37 days it took in September.
In terms of months of supply, we’re currently sitting at 2.6 months, up slightly from the 2.4 months a year earlier, but still outperforming the national average of 3.5 months. If you have seen my previous housing market updates, you’ll recognize this is still a Seller’s market. Several parts of Greater Atlanta are still in strong seller markets. For instance, Dunwoody has 1.3 months, Johns Creek 1.4 months, and both Kennesaw and Roswell have 1.6 months of supply. Meanwhile, Fayetteville is trending towards a balanced market with 4.5 months of supply. While East Point has officially crossed over into a Buyer’s Market with 6.3 months of supply,
Home Values
Let’s look at home values. In the Greater Atlanta area, the median sales price in October rose from $395,000 to $420,000 year-over-year, a 6.3% increase. The median asking price of listings meanwhile is $449,900. Home values in the city of Atlanta echo the Greater Atlanta Area at $420,000. Looking at the suburbs, Alpharetta jumped 13% to $664,000. Marietta rocketed 15.3% to $475,000. Fayetteville rose 8.9% to 410,000, and Lawrenceville increased 5.7% to $383,000. But not every area appreciated in value. Year-over-year, home values in Decatur dipped 6% to $315,000 while values in Stone Mountain decreased 3.1% to $286,000.
List-To-Sale/Price Reductions
Let’s move on to price reductions because there are a few interesting observations. This year, on average in the greater Atlanta area, sellers took home 97.6% of their asking price, up almost a full percent from the previous year’s 96.7%. Would it surprise you then to know that almost 1 out of every 4 houses is selling for more than their asking price? Of the 4,068 sales in the month of October, 960 sold above their asking price. These houses are selling at an average of value of $534,000 and are getting on average 4% above their asking price, in just 20 days on market. The City of Atlanta (150 sales), Marietta (64 sales) and Decatur (49 sales) lead the pack with above-asking sales in the metro area.
Also interesting… while most homes are still selling for less than their asking price (53.9%), that number is down compared to last year at 57.9%.
Concessions
Next, we’ll cover what it’s taking to get deals done, aka concessions. This year in October, in terms of seller concessions, we saw an increase in both the number of sellers agreeing to pay a concession, and the amount they paid. This year, 52% of all Sellers agreed to pay an average of $7,115 in concessions to their buyers. Last year, 49% agreed to pay $6,212 on average. An increase of 14.5% year-over-year.
So in spite of interest rates peaking and less inventory coming to market, Buyers and Sellers are working together to get transactions done. The market has been surprisingly resilient.
Inflation
Overall, inflation ticked down from 3.7% in September to 3.2% in October, thanks to lower gas prices and a decline in housing prices in other parts of the country. Core Inflation, which is the metric preferred by the Fed, has been trending down all year, it ticked down from 4.1% to 4% this last month. And, for the first time in nearly a year, CPI had a decrease. As a result, the Fed decided again this month to pause rate hikes. It’s looking more and more like they’re done raising rates.
And that’s great news for our next topic, mortgage rates.
After reaching their highest levels in 23 years, peaking at 8.03% in October, mortgage rates have been on a decline these last couple of weeks, offering some relief by ending this week at 7.37%. At this pace, industry experts forecast mortgage rates to reach the low 6% range by the end of 2024 and possibly dip into the mid-5% range by the end of 2025. Time will tell.
So, what does that do for home affordability?
For starters, it provides some relief. At its peak of 8.03%, the mortgage payment on a median-priced home was $3,060/mo. Today, at 7.37% interest rates, it’s home payment of $2,907/mo, a savings of $153/mo which is not insignificant. But, when you look back just one year, that payment was $2,598/mo, and back in 2020, it was $1,509/mo. In three years, it increased by 103%.
My name is Terence Richardson, your Atlanta Realtor with EXP Realty, and whether you’re curious about neighborhoods, market trends, your property’s value, or you’re planning a move to, or within the Greater Atlanta area, I want to be your go-to resource for everything Atlanta real estate. I’m never too busy to hear from my readers, many of whom become clients; so let me know how I can help you. Feel free to schedule a call, send me a text (678-785-5275) or an email (Info@RichardsonRealEstateGroup.com).
Don’t forget to check out our property tours in and around Atlanta. Here is one of our latest ones in Milton, GA.
