Every day the business media has more stories about improvement in the housing market. Locally we’re continuing to see the same trends for new residential construction in Atlanta. Bloomberg was the most recent to post an article about increased home sales activity.
According to Bloomberg’s Timothy R Homan, in a March 18, 2012 article, home sales in the U.S. probably climbed in February to the highest level in almost two years, another sign of stabilization in the real estate market. Combined sales of new and previously owned properties rose to 4.93 million at an annual rate, the strongest since May 2010, from 4.89 million in January, according to the median forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Job and income gains, cheaper homes and the lowest mortgage rates on record have combined to push affordability to an all- time high. With fewer new dwellings on the market, residential construction may be poised to contribute more to economic growth this year.
“The evidence is very clear that housing is beginning to improve,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit. “I do not expect housing to be a drag on GDP this year. It started to be a modest positive contributor last year. Now that it’s actually contributing again, that’s a significant turn of events.”
Sales of new homes in February climbed to a 325,000 annual rate, the fastest since December 2010, from 321,000 the prior month, the survey median showed. For all of 2011, builders sold 304,000 homes, down 5.9 percent from the previous year.
The anecdotal experience here at Epic Development is much the same where we receive emails from local realtors with headlines such as “Homes Are Flying Off The Shelf” and “The Atlanta New Home Market Lacks Adequate Supply.” While you may have not seen it in your neighborhood yet, we believe the market has now bottomed and we will continue to see improvement over the next five years.
For more information about home ownership or real estate investment in Atlanta call Jim LaVallee at 404-847-9080 or write Jim@EpicDevelopment.com. Get more information about all our current Atlanta real estate listings here. For more information about commercial real estate operations or investment visit www.EpiCity.com.