The latest report from RealtyTrac stated that 1 in every 570 households nationally received a foreclosure notice. The State of Georgia is ranked number 4 with 1 in every 346 households receiving a foreclosure notice in August. When people hear this news it makes you sink back in your seat and think, "our market sucks right now!"
I wanted to see how our area, North Atlanta, compares to other parts of Metro Atlanta, so we have some perspective. I don’t have access to foreclosure filings by county in Georgia but I can look at the number of available bank owned properties in various areas. The thought being that at least we can have some idea of where most foreclosures in Metro Atlanta are concentrated.
I pulled data from FMLS which includes single family residences owned by the bank. I did not include short sale s. To that end, here is the list:
The point I’m trying to make is the only data that matters to us, if you’re buying or selling a home, is local data. The national and even metro Atlanta stats are interesting but keep in mind the nearly 700 foreclosures in Gwinnett County don’t effect us in North Fulton. Our market is improving. We have a ways to go, but we’re getting there.
I’m always dubious of such lists as the RealyTrac one cited above, as I know that NJ/NY (for example) is choc full of households overdue on their mortgages who are quite intentionally NOT being foreclosed on by banks (who rightfully realize that doing so would lead to a viscous downward cycle of lower prices and further foreclosures). So the data here isn’t trustworthy.
That said, while you’re overall point is well taken and correct, the numbers you cite above are somewhat misleading, as they do not account for the total number of households in a given county. Fulton county (which you split into 2 sections) totals 247 listings out of 321,242 households (for an excellent 1 in 1300 ratio), whereas Forsyth (which appears between the Fultons on your list) has a ratio of 110 out of 73,316 (1 in 667), which is much more in line with the national average.
Just my two cents. I enjoy the blog, keep up the good work.
~Barry
Good job of putting things in perspective Bob.