North Fulton West
There have been big changes for the first quarter of 2011 vs 2010 in both single family and condo / townhome numbers. For single family, the numbers look pretty good. Total transactions are down 15% which we can attribute to the tax credit last year, which pulled a large number of sales up earlier in the year, but the rest is good news.
Average sales price is up 3% and median sales price is up 10% over the first quarter of last year. I didn’t break down the price ranges that are selling, but part of this can be attributed to some high priced homes selling. Total Days on Market and Months of Inventory remain flat.
Condos and townhomes took a big hit with average sales price down 38% and median sales price down 40%. This are big drops and depressing news, however, there is one piece of very good news. Months of Inventory is down 27%. With prices down so much, buyers are taking advantage and consuming a lot of the inventory. If this continues, we’ll see a stable condo market by the middle of 2012.
North Fulton East
The numbers are somewhat reversed for the East side of North Fulton. Transactions are up 11% but sales prices are down; and for condos / townhomes, they are down in a big way. A 26% drop in average sales price for condos. But, again, these deals being consumed are helping to reduce inventory levels. Single family inventory is down 13% and condo inventory is down nearly 60% (I had to check this number 3 times to be sure!).
Thanks for the info Bob… It’s actually not much different than what I would have expected. The townhome ‘condo’ market numbers were a little worse than I expected. But, let’s remember that aside from a few choice townhome developments, most of what is present in N.Fulton is crummy design that offers nothing but a cheaper mortgage payment and a chance to live in a subdivision that some people wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. There isn’t really much of a true townhome or ‘condo’ experience and buyers recognize that. Providence in Historic Roswell is an example of a townhome development bucking the trend. I think that if we actually had townhomes and condos in locations that made sense we would see a story that’s similar (but still not as good as) the single family homes.
Thanks Michael. I couldn’t agree with you more about the condo experience. I think there would be a healthy market for that type of product and it wouldn’t contribute to the bad name like those other types of developments you mention.