Number of Atlanta homes for sale falls below 90,000

The number of homes for sale in metro Atlanta dipped below 90,000 on Sunday for the first time since June.

Even with the decline, Atlanta’s housing inventory is still higher than last year at this time - by about 10,000 homes. However, the year-over-year difference in housing inventory can be entirely attributed to a surplus of new homes, not resales.

The inventory of resales is actually down from a months supply of 7.4 to 7.3 for single family detached and 9.5 to 9.1 months for condo and townhomes.

On the other hand, the months supply of new home inventory has risen from 10 months to 10.5 months for single family detached and from 8.4 to 8.8 months for new condos and townhomes.

According to Dac Carver, Director of Marketing for Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate, the reason resales are doing so much better than new homes is that the price of resales is much more attractive to homebuyers right now.

Historically, resale prices run 8 to 10 percent less than new home prices, Carver said. This year, resale prices are running almost 20 percent less than new home prices, he reported.

The reason? Land prices have driven the cost of new homes so high that resales represent a much better value over new homes.

In fact, metro Atlanta resales should finish the year up 3 to 5 percent while new home sales will be down 5 to 7 percent.

Despite an overall sluggish market, metro Atlantans can expect the housing inventory displayed on the Metro Brokers’ billboards to continue on a downward trend – at least for the next couple of months. Many sellers prefer not to have their home on the market during the holidays and many listings expire at the end of the year and are not renewed right away.

At this same time period last year, the number of homes for sale slid from 80,000 to as low as 70,000 before rebounding to 80,000 on the first day of spring this year. During real estate’s busiest time of the year - the summer - housing inventory reached 90,000 and has remained steady throughout the fall.

Even though the holidays are busy times, Carver suggests that sellers get their home ready now to put on the market at the beginning of January.

“You have less competition because the fewest number of homes are on the market in January,” Carver said. “At the same time, homebuyer traffic on the internet is always at its highest in January.”

Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate, established in 1979, has 22 metro Atlanta offices and offers a wide range of real estate services including residential and commercial sales; pre- and post-license training; corporate relocation; new home sales and marketing; and insurance, mortgage and title/closing services.

The company is the largest GMAC Real Estate franchise in the world and the 33rd largest real brokerage company in the country in terms of units sold. The company has more than tripled in size over the last five years with more than 2,800 licensees, making the company the largest license holder in the state of Georgia.

To contact Metro Brokers, call 404.843.2500 or visit metrobrokers.com.