Like every other city in America, Atlanta’s real estate market took a major hit when the housing bubble burst in 2007 and during the Great Recession in the years that followed. It bottomed out sometime during 2012. However, by 2013, the city began to see some signs of a real estate recovery, even if they were not quite up to numbers produced by the rest of the country.
Different Recoveries for Different Areas
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the difference between before 2007 and the current recovery is that Metro Atlanta neighborhoods do not seem to appreciate at the same time. Desirable neighborhoods that were not hit hard by the recession are recovering at an unbelievable rate, while less desirable neighborhoods and suburbs are still falling behind, bringing down the city’s averages and totals.
Neighborhoods with good schools and that provide people who work outside of the home with shorter commutes also continue to do well.
According to Standard & Poor’s, overall, Atlanta housing prices were up 14 percent by August 2014, but many local zip codes led the country in the number of homes within their boundaries with negative equity, comparing Metro Atlanta to cities like Detroit and parts of Las Vegas and San Antonio. A few of these areas include Riverdale, Forest Park, Lithonia, Union City, Stone Mountain, Morrow and Austell. On the other hand, affluent areas like Dunwoody are leading the city for the opposite reasons.
Housing Production
David M. Blitzer, the Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s does not seem too worried. He points out that housing production has an effect on the numbers, claiming that existing homes are showing signs of increases in prices, but new construction sales fall behind. However, contractors in Southern cities are not yet building new homes at the same rates as the rest of the country.
The Future
In December 2014, CNN published a list of the hottest housing markets for 2015, and atop that list sat Atlanta. Experts are forecasting an 11 percent increase in prices in 2015 and a 6 percent increase in the number of people who own homes in the area for the next 5 years.
If you want to become one of the Atlanta area’s newest homeowners, contact Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty at 404.237.5000 to learn more about available real estate.