Metro Atlanta Housing Market on the Upswing

The Metro Atlanta housing market is doing better than expected. According to recently-released Commerce Department statistics, new home sales across the country enjoyed a 25% percent increase in July, 2015 compared to the same month a year ago.

Metro Atlanta Housing: A Seller's Market

It's a seller's market, evidenced by these characteristics:

• Higher sales prices across the board for all single-family homes. In the classic definition of a seller’s market, home sellers have the upper hand in that there are more buyers in the market than sellers. Higher prices result result from the excess of housing demand versus housing supply.
• Sellers are receiving multiple bids for their properties. Home sellers and real estate agents report some homes are receiving “dozens” of offers as prospective buyers jockey for position to buy before somebody else does.
• Sellers are being offered added incentives by buyers to take their offer. Potential purchasers are offering enticements to home sellers in the hope they will accept their offer over others competing for the same home in the Metro Atlanta housing market. Reports of buyers offering round-trip vacations, timeshare weeks and other incentives aren't uncommon.

Another strong sign of the recovery is that roughly 1 in 5 homebuyers are paying in cash, down from a high of 40% in 2013. What this means to the Metro Atlanta housing market is that fewer investors are buying, leaving room in the market for serious homebuyers looking for primary residences.

Finally, industry experts say that the current uptick in the market seems to be fueled by buyers that can afford to buy homes, an indication that the Metro Atlanta housing market is enjoying a recovery that is real and tangible, not an artificial inflated boon as seen in other times.