Athens GA Properties, Athens Georgia Homes, and Athens Real Estate

The following report shows websites for the industry ‘Business and Finance – Real Estate‘, ranked by Visits for the weekending 06/20/2009. Rank Website Visits 1. Realtor.com 7.44% 2. Yahoo! Real Estate 3.98% 3. Zillow 3.26% 4. ZipRealty 2.88% 5. Trulia.com 2.12% 6. Rent.com 1.95% 7. ServiceMagic 1.85% 8. HUD 1.72% 9. Homegain 1.69% 10. RE/MAX Real Estate 1.66% 11. Homes.com 1.61% 12. Coldwell Banker Real Estate 1.33% 13. Century 21 Real Estate 1.17% 14. Apartments.com 1.11% 15. RealtyTrac 0.96% 16. Listingbook Services 0.94% 17. MSN Real Estate 0.94% 18. MyNewPlace 0.93% 19. mlsfinder.com 0.88% 20. Apartment Guide 0.85%

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town! All Credits for Data to Hitwise.

Thought you might enjoy a “Walking Tour” of Kiplinger’s 2009 Best Cities List; Athens, GA  #5

GA Department of Economic Development

More accolades in this time of high unemployment towards Athens, GA as Forbes recognizes Athens as being a Top College Town for Jobs.

Finally, AmericanStyle Magazine places our “Classic City” in the top Mid-sized Cities in terms of being an Art Destination in America today!

If you have never been to The National, Counter Culture, Breakfast in Georgia, was a nice piece that mentioned both The National and the Five and Ten in Five Points.

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!

Zillow reports that the weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for 30-year fixed mortgages decreased last week to 5.58 percent, down from 5.72 percent the week prior, according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, compiled by leading real estate Web site Zillow.com. Meanwhile, rates for 15-year fixed mortgages fell to 5.01 percent from 5.18 percent, and 5-1 adjustable rate mortgages remained flat at 4.73 percent

For current rates, visit www.zillow.com/Mortgage_Rates/.

 
                      Average 30-yr.         Average 30-yr.
                        Fixed Rate            Fixed Rate
    State          Week ending 6/21/09    Week ending 6/14/09 
    Georgia                 5.52%                  5.67%

As stated by Zillow, “Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is a free, open, and transparent lending marketplace, where borrowers connect with lenders to find loans and get the best mortgage rates. Borrowers anonymously submit loan requests and receive an unlimited number of custom mortgage quotes with real rates directly from thousands of competing lenders. Zillow Mortgage Marketplace also provides mortgage calculators, mortgage advice, mortgage widgets, and lender directories.”

Zillow.com and Zillow are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

SOURCE: Zillow.com

Web site: http://www.zillow.com/

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!

At my link to the NewsVine I just posted a seed to a link from U.S. News and World Report entitled, Will the $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Expand to $15,000?.  Johnny Isakson is at it again.  Last February when the stimulus bill got stalled in Congress, Isakson took the opportunity to get his idea for a $15,000 break for every new home buyer passed through the Senate.  The House wouldn’t have it and the resulting $8,000 credit that did get passed was to many first time home buyers that I have spoken with, not enough motivation to take the plunge into home ownership. So now that you thought you knew what was going on, the rules may be changing, again.

In addition to increasing the credit from $8,000 to $15,000, additional details are as follows;

• Extending the tax credit deadline into the middle of 2010.

• Making the benefit available to all home buyers

• A tax credit to $3,000 for borrowers who refinance.

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!

Please check out your local market snapshot at www.AthensHomeTrends.com!

A general dissatisfaction regarding appraisals is seen across the landscape in America through the myriads of seething Real Estate agents, closing attorneys, and mortgage consultants. Minimal appraisals, often by a non-local appraiser, are killing contracts at the last moment.

Due to a rash of recent appraisals coming in lower than the contract price, real estate transactions are requiring either a renegotiation, thereby guaranteeing a delay to get to closing, or a backing-out on the deal. If the contract price does not match the appraisal, then the buyer has to come up with more cash to close the transaction to make up the amount that the lender will not fund.

According to the NAR, the problem has began to spike following the implementation of a new appraisal rule arising from the New York State Attorney General’s lawsuit against Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of Fannie and Freddie. If lenders want to sell the newly originated loans to Fannie or Freddie, then the loan must abide by the new rule that favors using Appraisal Management Companies (AMC), many owned directly by large banks

Many of the properties that we see, once under contract and in the closing process, are being appraised against non-comparable property sales. Homes that are not “distressed sales” are being compared to “distressed homes,” and improvements and upgrades to the subject home are not being considered. This is due to a lack of good comparables that exists today due to a reduction in the number of homes sold in the past year.

The NAR says the appraisal problem is serious. “Lenders are using appraisers who may not be familiar with a neighborhood, or who compare traditional homes with distressed and discounted sales,” he says. “In the past month, stories of appraisal problems have been snow balling from across the country with many contracts falling through at the last moment. There is danger of a delayed housing market recovery and a further rise in foreclosures if the appraisal problems are not quickly corrected.”

NAR President Charles McMillan says appraisals are one of the key issues. “To maximize the potential for a housing recovery and subsequent economic recovery, we need realistic appraisals that are based on proper comparisons and done by a local specialist,” he said.

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!

Could you tell?  Summer officially started yesterday.  Summer “selling season” has been in full bloom for the past month.  What’s moving out there?  Well over the past four weeks (through June 22nd) homes in the $200,000-$249,999 price range have been moving the fastest in Athens, up 33 percent over the previous month.  Also, investors are snapping up homes in the $80,000-$89,900 price range at the tune of a 400 percent increase in the last 30 days over the previous month!

According to Trulia.com in their most recent weekly market report for Athens, “There are currently 2,089 resale and new homes in Athens on Trulia, including 231 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. The average listing price for homes for sale in Athens GA was $229,357 for the week ending Jun 10, which represents a decrease of 0.3%, or $588, compared to the prior week.”

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!

This was a proud seller “friend” of mine who spouted the statement that has now become my title.  Not only was he overheard saying this once, but every Sunday when I saw him in Sunday School.  Not only that, but every time you pass him by you overhear him still proudly proclaiming his good fortune to another hapless listener who got cornered while also on guard duty at the church nursery.  Yes, that is correct.  We are not discussing worshipping God at the local Church these days.  We are proudly boastful of how through Craig’s List we did the impossible and sold our home FSBO with no help from anyone, including a dreaded Realtor.

What is interesting is that this week the paper listed the sale of his home.  He sold his lovely home in Athens for $305,000.  Did it on Craig’s List I have heard tell!

So I had to look into this.  Had to out of curiosity to see if this “friend” is correct.  Did he get an all time great deal on the sale of his home?  Is the profession where I feed my children, all four of their little mouths, at the expense of home owners who could, nay “should,” according to this “friend” find their buyer without the help of  a Realtor!

After look up his home, the one he sold on “Craig’s List,” at the Oconee Tax Assessor’s Office online, I found that his home was worth $342,500.  Now if you live in Athens-Clarke, I would say your personal tax appraisal is a bit high.  In Oconee, from my experience, it is pretty close to “fair market,” whatever that means now a days.  My next step was to do a Current Market Analysis on sold homes in this particular upscale Oconee subdivision.  Thanks to the local Athens MLS, I took listing and sales data going back a year from today.  What I found was the following;

Now,  if there was the traditional 6% commission for a listed property by a Realtor, the lowest selling price ($335,000) would be reduced to $314,900.  The highest and average selling prices would be, after commission, $376,000 and $335,266 respectively.  Now with that said, I don’t personally set up listings with my seller clients at a 6% commission.  I believe in a Win-Win scenario for all parties.  If you are selling, email me and we can talk.

In all, my “friend” got $305,000 for the sale of his home.  I think after looking at solds in his subdivision, our local Donald Trump left between $9,900 – $71,000 on the table by not hiring a real estate broker to represent him.  Let’s just be fair and take the average.  It cost him $25,266 to sell it himself, and we haven’t even touched how long it took him to get a buyer.  I have another “friend” who has held an Open House at his FSBO for the past year each and every weekend.  Yes, each weekend for a solid year, and is still doing it the old fashioned way with no success.

There are DIY’rs out there and that is fine.  I just think that too many times we start out incorrectly with the assumption that if we don’t pay someone to assist us, we make more or net more for ourselves.  Many times that is just not reality.   

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years!  If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today!  On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!