Winter home searching----best time to purchase?

Every year home buyers who begin their home search at the end of summer set goals to purchase before Thanksgiving or before Christmas. The goal of being settled in for the holidays becomes overwhelming with handling a house hunt, vacations, & holiday planning all bundled together. To top it off lenders are usually working with skeleton crews during the holidays so loans tend to take a bit longer to process. Even with all this in mind, Winter is the by far the best time to purchase a property, especially foreclosure property, for a number of reasons.

REASON ONE---LESS COMPETITION
Spring brings out all of the 'lookie-lou's' and the income tax refund buyers. Summertime brings out the relocating and families looking to find a new home before school starts. Fall is usually the left over crowd from summer and a few stragglers. With less buyers in the market you have less multiple offer situations and less showing activity on listings so sellers tend to get more motivated. Sellers who keep their homes on the market will see that buyers that are out in the winter are SERIOUS. They brave the elements in search of a new home and are more motivated to get things done by year end.

REASON TWO--YEAR END CLEARANCE
When it comes to short sales and foreclosures, the banks, asset managers, investors, and lenders have incentives to close out the books and every sale counts. Many lenders need to hit sales goals and will push some loans through, however, larger lenders seem to be the most affected by the holidays with shorter hours and vacations. Banks are looking to get stale assets off of their books and not carry these properties over into the new year. They can sense the slowing of the activity in the winter and don't want to hedge their bets on the next season's traffic increase.

REASON THREE--MOTIVATED SELLERS
As I mentioned earlier, sellers who still have homes on the market in the winter are not just testing the waters. They need to SELL! They too feel the pressure to close before year's end and will become more motivated as the activity decreases. All of the resales that were testing the market have taken their homes off the market for the holidays and will "see what happens in the Spring."

REASON FOUR--INDUSTRY SLOW DOWN UNCOVERS DEALS
As the housing market slows every winter, so do the home inspectors, interior designers, movers, & contractors. You can likely get discounts on these services due to the lack of work and get it done in a timely fashion!!!

REASON FIVE--INTEREST RATES
In four of the last years, interest rates have been lower in December than they were in the spring/summer months. Even with market crash of 07 and the bounce back of 2009 it has still been advantageous to purchase later in the year.

What drives property values in Metro Atlanta

Different things drive property values in an extremely populated city it may be parking, on the coast it may be water access, and in the mountains it may be views. But what about Atlanta? It has none of these characteristics, but has been a popular relocation since the 1996 Summer Olympics. Cost of living has played a huge part, but what are some of the key items that drive values here? Let's take a look:

Location, Location, Location
Inside the Perimeter of I-285 (ITP as its commonly called) is where you will find some very pricey real estate. Outside of the perimeter prices as a whole tend to drop the further away you travel from the city. Commute times in Georgia are some of the worst in the country so shaving minutes off the commute (and adding them to your life!) is definitely a reason to pay a premium.

Retail
An abundance or lack thereof can skew property values in the surrounding suburbs. Areas like Douglas and Clayton County, that enjoyed an increase of new construction when in-town prices started to rise in early 2002, found themselves stagnant when no substantial retail was added to cater to all of the new residents who found themselves traveling back from whence they came to shop and be entertained. Cities like Alpharetta, Lawrenceville, and Marietta offered it's new residents plenty (and still growing) of retail establishments like The Avenues that made it easier to stay put for what they wanted.

School Systems
While Georgia ranks low on the national scale for academics, when families look to relocate here school districts are priority #1. However, even if you don't have kids and you're looking to move to an Atlanta suburb, I suggest locating a property in one of the top school districts. The property values there have sustained since I've been in the business and always will due to the amount of tax dollars poured into the infrastructure surrounding them.

Inventory
Lack of supply of homes in an area will correlate to a high demand and therefore high price. Some affluent areas like Buckhead, outside of their popularity, are able to sustain values there because there is never a glut of homes on the market. So when they become available, they can command and often get top dollar. This also holds true to suburban areas as well.

Magazine Articles
Suwanee saw it's property values stay somewhat stable after the values began to decline in late 2006 when it was named #10 of the top 100 places to live in Money Magazine in 2007. Sandy Springs is up next after being identified as one of the most affluent communities in the US in 2010.

Demographics
While most counties are fairly ethnically diverse, similar income brackets tend to populate the same areas. With that being said buyers, like to seek neighborhoods with neighbors that are either in their income bracket or above. Age plays a big role as seniors tend to prefer more established areas like Virginia Highlands, Dunwoody,and North Atlanta. 30 somethings tend to split between family friendly areas and up & coming / revitalized / progressive areas like midtown, City of Decatur, Grant Park, and Washington Park. Here's a video tour of the latest of 3 listings I've had in Washington Park listing I have in Washington Park.