Surplus of Available Georgia Homes Not a Bad Sign, Experts Say
There are more homes on the market in the Atlanta housing market than ever before.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jed Moss on May 29 2007 under Georgia
Your Mortgage Search Ends Here
Apply for a free, no-obligation quote from Mortgage Foundation
Mortgage Foundation offers the best interest rates on mortgages
with outstanding customer service to give you a pleasant
experience with your refinance, home equity loan, or new home purchase.
That is the Mortgage Foundation difference.
Give us a chance to prove it to you by clicking "Get Started"
with outstanding customer service to give you a pleasant
experience with your refinance, home equity loan, or new home purchase.
That is the Mortgage Foundation difference.
Give us a chance to prove it to you by clicking "Get Started"
Archive for the 'Georgia' Category (Chronologically Listed)
Georgia Mortgage Defaults Rise; Development Continues
The number of home foreclosures around Atlanta has risen 200 percent since 2000, in part because of an increase in the use of high-interest, sub-prime Georgia mortgage loans, the Atlanta Regional Commission said this week.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jed Moss on May 28 2007 under Georgia
High-End Brokers Flock to Atlanta Housing Market
One of the world’s leading luxury-home brokers will stake its claim in the Atlanta housing market when real estate entrepreneur Jenny Pruitt opens the doors of her new brokerage in June.
Posted by Richard Barber on May 09 2007 under Georgia
Atlanta Home Sales Tumble as Georgia Mortgage Activity Wanes
Sales of new and existing homes in metro Atlanta took a tumble in the first quarter - and, for the first time in 15 years, the Atlanta housing market has its highest level of finished, but vacant, homes.
Posted by Jed Moss on May 08 2007 under Georgia
Georgia Mortgage Activity Slows in Northeast of State
The yellow frame house on Riverside Drive was Jody and Shelley Ray’s dream house. The couple remodeled the 1938 home by adding a few modern conveniences, including an in-laws suite in the basement.
Posted by Jed Moss on May 05 2007 under Georgia
Georgia Mortgage Fraud Problems Fixed; Utah Takes Over Top Spot
Georgia no longer leads the nation in cases of reported mortgage fraud. Read the rest of this entry »
Suburban Atlanta Housing Market Tilts in Buyers’ Favor
After several boom years for home builders, sales of new homes dropped 19 percent in Cobb County, Ga., and 8 percent in nearby Cherokee County last year. That stirs anxiety in people like with “For Sale” signs in the yard.
Posted by Richard Barber on Apr 19 2007 under Georgia
Guilty Plea Closes Book On Mortgage Scam
A man accused of stealing identities of children, the homeless and people in drug rehab as part of a massive mortgage scheme pleaded guilty to federal charges in three states Tuesday.
Posted by Richard Barber on Apr 12 2007 under Georgia, Mortgage Fraud
Rising Inventory Doesn’t Suggest Slump in Atlanta Housing Market
Last week, a sign high over Interstate 75 reported for the first time there were more than 100,000 homes for sale in the Atlanta housing market.
Sunday, it read 100,233. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jed Moss on Apr 10 2007 under Georgia
Atlanta Housing Market Remains Steady
The Atlanta housing market is a diverse, thriving mecca for home builders, even in the midst of a worrisome national slump in home sales.
New first-time home buyers arrive in the city every day, generating a big pool of potential new home sales. This and factors such as inexpensive land and affordable homes make the Atlanta housing market something of an anomaly.
But Atlanta is nevertheless prone to the same contractions that have slowed the national scene: foreclosures are putting more homes on the market, and houses are taking longer to sell as builders drop prices to generate more sales.
“Atlanta still has solid fundamentals,” said economist Patrick McPherron of Economy.com. “But I think Atlanta will be facing some problems as well. There is no market that is safe.”
Unlike most metro areas around the country, Atlanta supports a panoply of home builders who jockey aggressively for home loan applicants with houses under $250,000, which account for a majority of home sales here.
Real estate analyst Steve Palm of Smart Numbers, a database that provides information to builders, called Atlanta’s market “extremely fragmented.”
“The builder with the most market share has about 3 percent,” Palm said. “It’s not like that in other markets.”
David Ellis, executive V.P. of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, said the top 10 builders in metro Atlanta control about 18 percent of the new-home market. In other markets, the market share of top companies is much higher.
In Orlando, the top 10 builders command almost 50 percent of the market and the top builder controls almost 12 percent of the market, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Home Builders.
But in Atlanta, where 2,000 builders provide housing for would-be Georgia home loan applicants, small, local home builders can hold their own against the national companies like Pulte, D.R. Horton and Centex.
“There are lots of smaller builders taking up market share,” Ellis said.
Atlanta-based Beazer Homes, the nation’s ninth-largest home builder, doesn’t even appear in the list of the metro area’s top 10 builders, while regional companies such as John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods and McCar Homes do.
Nationally, the housing picture has been grim. Only stubbornly optimistic analysts say the worst is over. New home sales in February were down 18.3 percent from a year ago — the lowest pace since August 2000.
More ominously, the slide has been accelerating: In the past three months, sales have been plummeting at a 43 percent annual pace, inventory is up and housing starts in February were 33 percent below February 2006.
About 177,000 “housing-related” jobs evaporated in the past year, McPherron said. “And we are expecting to keep giving back jobs.”
Despite low Georgia mortgage costs, jobs will continue to be lost by the time housing bottoms out sometime in 2008. Still, Atlanta has reamined a popular destination with a growing economy.
Prices in places such as San Diego have put homes beyond the reach of ordinary home buyers, while Atlanta is still viewed as affordable.
Follow the link to continue reading in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution …
Posted by Richard Barber on Apr 03 2007 under Georgia