Ryan Ward's Blog: Atlanta, Georgia

The FMLS puts together statistical reports monthly from their data and this chart is something I meant to post about a week ago. Sorry to be a little late on the most recent numbers, but, here they are. This chart reflects closed sales over the past 6 years. It may illustrate the market better than just about anything I've done recently.

I apologize that this isn't the fanciest chart you may have seen, but, I didn't make it. The point here is that for all of the pontificating about the market not being as bad as the media says, the truth is that it is quite bad - for sellers.

Atlanta real estate is definitely not hurting as bad as many areas, but there can be no question that we are hurting. In economic terms, this would border on depression. Remember…

It's no secret that across the country, much of the problem with real estate markets is the supply of homes available for sale. This is the simple economic principle of supply and demand. Below is a chart of the Atlanta market dating back to 1994.

Homes for sale in Atlanta have been on a steady increase as has Metro Atlanta's population so an increase in available housing is to be expected. However, this type of increase is not something that the real estate market is capable of absorbing for long periods of time. When underwriting standards constrict combined with difficulties caused by the sub prime mortgage, affordability goes down. This furthers the trend of rising inventories.

Until prices come down, we will continue to see inventories rise.…

As a consumer there is no question - the market is down. But, what does that mean, how does it affect you and what is the most important indicator? Well, there are lots of long winded answers with plenty of nuance and different people might give slightly different answers. To me, and I think to most, the most important part of the market is what the value of homes are and where they are trending. Most of the other things like supply and demand, the amount of foreclosures, pending sales, absorption rates and the like all filter in to the bigger equation of value. So here in Atlanta, the value of homes are down. Way down. Here is a chart going back a year showing the value of Atlanta real estate which has been on a steady decline.

I think this chart…

Unbelievable would be what I thought when I first saw it. Poor business decision, if that's what it is would be the reality. You see, MSN has some very unusual search results here in Atlanta. Typically, the most frequently searched term by consumers looking for real estate will be "city real estate" and in Atlanta, MSN returns the same website something on the order of 498 out of the first 500 search results! Here's a screen shot:

O.K. So I guess it's not exactly the same result - they are all subdomains of the same website. Now if you were a consumer searching for Atlanta homes for sale using the most used keyword phrase, do you think it might be a good idea to serve up the same website over and over again like this? Seriously.

Here is the search…

In an effort to improve marketing for all of our listings, I've finally decided to add single property websites as an additional marketing tool. These single property sites have been around for a long time and agents have been using them during listing presentations to woo their prey into listings, but, the truth is that these sites do little more than garble up the internet with more junk as none of them (at least none that I have seen) do anything except inflate the agent and seller while not really performing well in the search engines. Now, before I get comments about this post to the contrary, let me say that this is a generalization. Of course there are agents around that know how to effectively market on the internet and many have been able to use…

I had a closing today where I represented the buyer. We asked for a home warranty to be included at no cost to the buyer and at a cost of no more than $500. So, we got to the closing table and as I looked over the settlement statement I saw that there was a warranty on the statement, but, it was for $319.

I always order my warranties the day of closing and had done so today just about 2 hours before the closing and I knew that the one that I had ordered for my buyer cost $469 and was more comprehensive than the one that was on the settlement statement. While the buyers, sellers, closing attorney and both of us agents were sitting at the table, I said:

"I believe that this is the wrong warranty. I ordered the comprehensive warranty which was $469…

A quick update to the goings on in the Atlanta real estate market are in order as we start heading in to spring. This is the time of year for tulips to peak their budding leaves out of the ground and even more of them to get pushed back down by an ever growing number of real estate for sale signs. This year expects to be no different than in years past from that perspective, but, there is the potential problem that much of the left over inventory from last year that remains on the market combined with new inventory may cause a continued oversupply of homes.

Time will tell if that happens. for now it does in fact seem that there are a growing number of interested buyers beginning to land on some homes with more interest and more are jumping in and kicking…

I am sooooo tired of harping on this, but, I don't know what else to do. Real estate agents and brokers continually link to websites like Trulia and the rest increasing their rankings at the expense of our own. In the last week, they have found themselves on the first page for more terms in the Atlanta area and it is out of ignorance that this is happening.

THEY DO NOT PROVIDE CONSUMERS WITH ACCURATE INFORMATION! - at least not completely as it appears they do. Nor do they provide consumers with accurate listings and still agents put their little widgets on their websites thinking that they are helping consumers.

Are you an agent with a Trulia widget? What's wrong with you?

Why on earth would you, a professional do that to yourself and to consumers? The…