2/18/2010

The talk of the town right now is “Where is the North Atlanta High School going to relocate.”  A quick recap: Sutton is now overcrowded so they have proposed to convert North Atlanta High Schoolon Northside Parkway into the new Sutton Middle School and then relocate to High School to a new parcel of land.  But where in Buckhead can you find a 20 acre parcel for a school?  Read the below article from Roosters publication on the speculations.

The Inside Scoop on the People & Places that Shape Atlanta Real Estate Roosters Media
       
2/18/2010 School Daze:  Where Will New Buckhead High School Land?

Hear no evil!  Speak no evil!  See no evil!  Students mull over future Buckhead High School.

Atlanta Public Schools (APS) needs a new high school to serve the Buckhead area, but there are only so many suitable 20-acre tracts that both fit the school system’s needs and make financial sense.

Vacant tracts on Huff Road, Northside Parkway near the Chattahoochee River and the former West Paces Ferry Medical Center site at Howell Mill and Northside Parkway are reportedly in the mix, as are a couple of apartment sites, including Colonial Homes Apartments between Collier and Peachtree roads, the Peachtree Hills Apartments redevelopment site and The Paces Apartments at 77 East Andrews, according to our sources. Some of those sites probably won’t work for financial and topographical – read: floodplain – reasons.

“It’s hard to find 15 to 20 acres in Buckhead without paying $50 million,” said Carter’s Rob Adamson, who’s marketing the 38-acre Huff Road site on behalf of Brock Built. “There are all kinds of rumors out there about where it could land or if it will even get done.”

While there are a number of bureaucratic and permitting hurdles, APS wants to settle on a site and begin construction as soon as possible, district spokesperson Keith Bromery said. APS needs to build the new high school to relieve overcrowding at Sutton Middle School. The current North Atlanta High School site would be converted into a middle school, with the new high school serving the burgeoning area that’s seen a marked increase over the past decade in families with school-aged children who are interested in sending their kids to public schools. The new high school will have its own athletic facilities, Bromery said.

“Our schools are attracting more students, which is a good thing, but it creates heightened demand,” he said.

When we threw out The Streets of Buckhead as a possible location, former Atlanta Mayor and current Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell just laughed and said we should run that by Ben Carter, the site’s developer.

“I am guaranteeing there will be buildings built there,” Massell said of The Streets. “It’s a very positive sign that we need a second middle school. Being able to provide quality public education is an absolute necessity.”
       

1/11/2010

The National Association of Realtors has recently released some great reports of trend studies.  I thought this one was very interesting to see the growth of the Internet for marketing and the huge decline in print marketing for home sales.

12/8/09

The U.S. Treasury Department announced new guidelines last week designed to make short sales go more smoothly. To qualify under these new guidelines: The property must be the home owner’s principal residence; The home owner must be delinquent on their loan or close to defaulting; The loan must have been made before Jan. 1, 2009, and be for less than $729,750; and The borrowers’ total payment must exceed 31 percent of their before-tax income. Under the plan, borrowers will receive $1,500 from the government for selling homes for less than the amount of their loans. Loan-servicing companies will get $1,000 for each completed short sale. Second-lien holders can receive up to $3,000 of the sales proceeds in exchange for releasing their liens. Investors who hold the first lien can collect up to $1,000 from the government for allowing the payments. Borrowers who complete a short sale under the program must be “fully released” from future liability for the debt, according to the guidelines. Sources: Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal

Parents who are looking for a gift to give their kids this holiday season should consider a house. With prices in the cellar, this could be a terrific year to give a down payment or even the whole home. The Internal Revenue Service says a married couple can each give gifts of $13,000 of money or property without triggering taxes for the gift givers or the recipients. That means a married couple can give another married couple a total of $52,000 a year. To maximize that they can give $52,000 in December and another $52,000 in January for a total of $104,000 to be used on a property before the federal tax credit expires. This would buy a house in some parts of the country and be sufficient for a down payment in most others. Source: The Wall Street Journal

10/5/09

Harris Poll: ATL, GA among most popular places

Atlanta Business Chronicle

When polled where they would like to live, U.S. residents picked Atlanta as their 13th-most popular city to reside and Georgia as the 14th-most popular state.

New York City topped the Harris Poll this year as American’s No. 1 choice to live, followed by San Francisco, which tied with Denver at the No. 2 spot, San Diego was No. 4 and Seattle was No. 5. The other cities on the top 10 are Chicago (No. 6), Boston (No. 7), Las Vegas (No. 8), Washington, D.C. (No. 9), and Dallas (No. 10).  Click here to read more….

9/25/09

ATL home prices rise from June to July

Atlanta Business Chronicle

The rate of home-price declines improved in July in the top 20 U.S. cities, and Atlanta posted a rise.

The average price of a home in Atlanta rose 2.3 percent from June to July, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which are monthly reports that track home prices in 20 major U.S. cities. However, the average price of a home in Atlanta was down 11.8 percent year over year in July.

Click here to read more of this article.

9/16/09

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Use any metaphor you want: the ticking clock, sands running through the hourglass or pages falling away from the calendar. The fact is, time is running out to claim the $8,000 first-time homebuyers tax credit.

Passed earlier this year as part of the economic stimulus package, the credit is good for up to $8,000, or 10% of the purchase price, and applies to people who have not owned a home in the previous three years. (There are some income restrictions.) The best part: Unlike a similar program from 2008, the credit does not have to be repaid.

The bad part: It ends on Dec. 1.

Because it usually takes around 90 days to close on a house after a contract is signed, buyers have very little time left to act. As of Thurs., Aug. 27, there were only 96 days left before the credit ends.

“Buyers have to get a home under contract very, very soon,” said Tom Kunz, CEO of Century 21. “They probably should get out looking.”

What they will find may surprise them: Many of the prime properties have already been snapped up. Home sales have been on the upswing, and inventories are so depleted in hot markets that first-time buyers are struggling to find homes in their price range. (Check prices in your city.)

Chuck Whitehead, who runs the Coldwell Banker agency in Temecula, Calif., said one recent listing hit the market on a Friday and by Monday there were 57 bids.

The National Association of Realtors attributes much of this activity to the first-time buyer tax credit. It estimates that 1.8 million buyers will file for the credit, and 350,000 of them wouldn’t have been able to buy without it.

“It makes a big difference because most of these clients are in a lower price range,” said Michelle Edmunds, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Temecula, Calf., who has closed sales for six first-time buyers. “The houses they buy need work and normally they wouldn’t want to move in because of the [less than perfect] conditions the homes are in.”

That is true for Wesley Forsythe. This June, the 30-year-old computer consultant and his girlfriend bought a row house in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. Since he paid just $80,000 for the three-bedroom, two-bath place, the credit acted like a 10% discount.

“It allowed us to expand our price range and plan additional renovations,” he said. “My mortgage is several hundred dollars less than what my new rent would have been.”

Forsythe applied for the credit immediately after closing, filing an amended 2008 tax return. The IRS cut him a check in less than seven weeks. He’s spending it now on new hardwood floors, repainting most of the interior and renovating a bathroom. He’s stretching the cash by doing much of the work himself.

Of course, analysts worry that this frenzy will dry up once the tax credit expires. They argue that without the incentive, much of the pressure on homebuyers to act quickly will vanish, and the nascent housing recovery could slump.

In many ways the tax credit is similar to the Cash for Clunkers program that ended this week. Already, auto dealers are anticipating that car sales will evaporate after accelerating during the program.

“It’s just like Cash for Clunkers,” said Robert Dye, a senior economist for PNC Financial Services Group. “It runs the risk of a let-down as the program runs its course.”

Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who is a former real estate broker, is pushing legislation to extend the tax credit through next year, increase it to $15,000, include non-first-time homebuyers, and remove income restrictions.

The effort has drawn strong industry support.

“We need to stimulate the move-up buyer,” said Century 21’s Kunz, “so it works its way up the pricing food chain. That’s what we need to get inventory moving again.” 

8/21/09

BUCKHEAD SECOND QUARTER 2009 STATS COMPARED TO SECOND QUARTER 2008

TOTAL # OF SALES 138

DOWN 19.3% in SALES YEAR OF YEAR

9.4% of SALES WERE FORECLOSURES

AVERAGE SALES PRICE $642,500

Average SALES PRICE DOWN 13.8% COMPARED TO Q2 2008

DAYS ON MARKET 314

DAYS ON MARKET HAS INCREASED 118% Compared to Q2 2008

SALES PRICE TO ORIGINAL LIST PRICE is 81.1%

73.9% of Listings HAD A PRICE REDUCTION

19.3 MONTHS OF INVENTORY

70.2% of LISTINGS FAILED (TAKEN OFF THE MARKET OR EXPIRED)

BOTTOM LINE IS IF YOU PRICE YOUR HOUSE RIGHT YOU WILL SELL IF YOU OVERPRICE YOU WILL SIT FOR A LONG TIME!

7/28/09

With all the bad news surrounding real estate over the past few years, one might think that Americans have largely abandoned the idea of home ownership as part of the American dream.  Not so, according to the “2009 National Housing Pulse Survey,” an annual telephone survey of 1,250 adults living in the 25 largest metro areas. Atlanta was included in the survey.

Even though we are in the midst of a serious economic slowdown, and unemployment is at unusually high levels, 83 percent of Americans still believe that buying a home is a good financial decision. Three-fourths of those surveyed also believe that now is a good time to begin the process of buying a home. Importantly, that number has been rising steadily for the past two years and is up 16 points since 2007.

Concerns about job security and possible unemployment have grown dramatically in the past year. Some 83 percent agreed that “having enough confidence in their job security” was an obstacle to owning, while 51 percent went on to say that it was a “huge” obstacle, an increase of 23 points since 2007.

Respondents cited having enough cash for a downpayment and closing costs as the second primary obstacle to buying now. More than four in five stated that coming up with the needed funds would be a huge or medium roadblock to a home purchase. That percentage has remained unchanged over the past two years.

One scary statistic this year is the level of anxiety about “people falling behind on their mortgages.” More than four in five Americans say they have some level of concern, and 54 percent say they are very concerned about it. However, 92 percent said that foreclosure was not an issue for them or their immediate family in the past year. One positive conclusion from the survey is that Americans seem to believe that the housing market has stabilized.

That notion was reinforced last week, at least locally, by Genworth Mortgage Insurance, who removed the Atlanta MSA from its national list of “declining and distressed markets.” That’s important because mortgage insurance is used by many homebuyers to reduce the amount of cash needed at the closing table.

John Adams is a broker and investor. He answers real estate questions on radio station WGKA (920am) every Saturday at noon. For real estate information or to make a comment, visit www.money99.com.

7/21/09

I thought you would want to see the latest in a series of news reports on real estate trends.  It’s called “This Month in Real Estate.”

We understand how hard it is to escape the national media’s dire predictions for home buyers and sellers in today’s market. But there’s another side to the real estate story: this market offers amazing opportunities for buying and selling real estate right now — in your area!

Click here for a 5 minute video update on the market.  As always contact Anna and Claire for all of your specific real estate needs.

6.15/09

Claire and Anna are seeking Buyers who want to potentially be TV stars on HGTV’s hit show House Hunters.  The best part is there is a planned incentive CHECK for the homebuyers who are casted.

Here is the criteria from the casting crew:

We are looking for energetic, well-spoken, strongly opinionated homebuyers (of all types, not just first-timers) in the Atlanta Metro area. As far as timing goes, we prefer them to either be freshly under contract on a home or about to close. We will consider applications from buyers in all stages of  the process, however, they need to be prepared to purchase a home, with an end/closing date in sight. We will be taping this summer. With the buyers (and their agents), we will see on-camera the house they purchase and also two more houses to set up a decision between the three.

If you haven’t seen House Hunters, please check it out on HGTV, nightly at 9pm Eastern, or go to http://www.hgtv.com/house-hunters/show/index.html for full episodes and highlights.

They will be casting at least a half-dozen episodes in the next few months. Claire and Anna would love to work with you to make episode of this exciting show for HGTV and more importantly we want to work with you in finding your next home.

Contact Claire and Anna today for more information and to get your house search started bargainsinbuckhead@gmail.com

6/15/09

Economists: Recession to end in third quarter

Atlanta Business Chronicle

The economic recession will end during the third quarter of this year, but high unemployment and large federal deficits will continue, according to the You can watch up to ten companies at a time. of the You can watch up to ten companies at a time.” height=13 src=”http://buckheadbargains.wordpress.com/wp-admin/1_multipart/image001.gif?Security=2″ width=13 border=0>American Bankers Association.

The committee cited consumer spending stabilizing in the first half of this year, allowing businesses to reduce costs and inventories, as well as reducing layoffs and investment spending cutbacks. In combination with the stimulus and an improvement in the financial markets, it is likely the economy will expand in the second half of the year.

Bruce Kasman, committee chairman and chief economist for New York-based You can watch up to ten companies at a time. (NYSE: JPM), said the economy will return to growth, but not health.

“Growth in the coming quarters is likely to gather momentum but will not prove sufficiently robust to undo much of the severe damage done to our labor markets and public finances,” Kasman said in a news release.

For the third quarter, the committee forecasts inflation-adjusted gross domestic product will return to positive growth, picking up to a more than 3 percent pace by the second half of 2010.

Also, the committee is projecting an end to the three-year downturn in the housing market, with housing starts rising later this year and home values moving up modestly in 2010.

“Lower prices and low mortgage rates have greatly improved the affordability of homes,” Kasman said. “A recovery in the housing sector will be an important contributor to economic growth.”

However, credit will remain tight and bank economists said jobs will continue to be lost. Unemployment is expected to peak at 10 percent nationally and remain at or above 9.5 percent through next year.

Budget deficits are expected to remain well above $1 trillion this year and next year. The 13-member committee forecasts the 10-year Treasury bond yield will stay in the 3.75 percent to 4.25 percent range through next year because core inflation is forecast to fall towards 1 percent. However, the committee is concerned about the rising trend in federal debt and the implications for inflation risk beyond 2010.

Economists: Recession to end in third quarter

Atlanta Business Chronicle

The economic recession will end during the third quarter of this year, but high unemployment and large federal deficits will continue, according to the Economic Advisory Committee of the American Bankers Association.

The committee cited consumer spending stabilizing in the first half of this year, allowing businesses to reduce costs and inventories, as well as reducing layoffs and investment spending cutbacks. In combination with the stimulus and an improvement in the financial markets, it is likely the economy will expand in the second half of the year.

Bruce Kasman, committee chairman and chief economist for New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), said the economy will return to growth, but not health.

“Growth in the coming quarters is likely to gather momentum but will not prove sufficiently robust to undo much of the severe damage done to our labor markets and public finances,” Kasman said in a news release.

For the third quarter, the committee forecasts inflation-adjusted gross domestic product will return to positive growth, picking up to a more than 3 percent pace by the second half of 2010.

Also, the committee is projecting an end to the three-year downturn in the housing market, with housing starts rising later this year and home values moving up modestly in 2010.

“Lower prices and low mortgage rates have greatly improved the affordability of homes,” Kasman said. “A recovery in the housing sector will be an important contributor to economic growth.”

However, credit will remain tight and bank economists said jobs will continue to be lost. Unemployment is expected to peak at 10 percent nationally and remain at or above 9.5 percent through next year.

Budget deficits are expected to remain well above $1 trillion this year and next year. The 13-member committee forecasts the 10-year Treasury bond yield will stay in the 3.75 percent to 4.25 percent range through next year because core inflation is forecast to fall towards 1 percent. However, the committee is concerned about the rising trend in federal debt and the implications for inflation risk beyond 2010.

6.12/09   WHAT IS GOING ON WITH RATES?

I wish I had a crystal ball and could accurately predict what mortgage rates are going to do. We’re in this economic mess because people way smarter than I, thought they had a good grasp on the financial markets.

It is my opinion (only) that we’ll soon find out if this is all a bear market rally or not. If it is, we’ll see the stock market drop and rates will improve. I don’t think we’ll see the same recent lows though, unless there’s major bad news on the horizon.

On the other hand, if this is the end of the current recession, than better days are ahead for the economy and all of us. Higher interest rates won’t be that big of an issue when sanity returns to the housing market and unemployment drops.- Drew Sygit-President of The Lending Edge

6/4/09

Update: FHA backs away from no down payment loans