MarketNsight recently hosted its June MarketWatch Atlanta event virtually on ZOOM giving a state of the market and predictions for the remainder of the year. Over 800 signed up for the event. MarketNsight and ViaSearch President John Hunt reiterated the current unprecedented times and that it is difficult to forecast exactly what might happen the rest of the year; however, new pending home sales in the Atlanta market are up 20% for the first week of June 2020 versus June the year before.
In fact, according to Hunt, new pending home sales went positive year-to-year in the fourth week of April and have continued to improve. For January through May 2020, pending sales are up 6% over the same time period the year before.
“New pending home sales in Atlanta and throughout the Southeast started the year strong, experienced a six-week deficit due to the coronavirus, and now have had a six-week surplus (over last year) of following Georgia (and other states) lifting the sheltering in place order,” MarketNsight Principal John Hunt said. “During the shutdown, people shopped online and then bought once Georgia opened up.
“This is what we call pent-up demand! Builder concessions in May brought the average new home price down 5% year over year but that yielded an increased sales rate of 30% year over year.”
According to Hunt, not every county recovered April to May but, in terms of price, all price points have recovered with the exception of homes over $1 million.
Homes within high school districts priced at or below $300,000 performed well including Cherokee, East Coweta, Jackson County, North Forsyth, North Paulding, Lovejoy (Clayton), Westlake (South Fulton), Creekside (South Fulton), Archer and Langton Hughes (South Fulton).
As for the rest of 2020, Hunt predicts 2020 new home permits will be flat to up 3%. This is where Atlanta has been for the past 3 years.
“I’ll take flat to plus 3% in a pandemic any day,” Hunt said.
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