Lawrenceville, GA Market Report, January 2013

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Market stats for Lawrenceville, GA, January, 2013, indicate that there were 683 properties on the market, down 7 from last month. Overall, there was about a 3.5 month supply of properties. In 2012, sales for January were at 213, so 166 sales was a big decrease, year over year. Last month’s sales were at 215. Coupled with the decrease in inventory, things are still looking pretty good. Normally the market picks up from January-Feruary through about June-August. This month we are OK, but some are arguing that constrained inventories are still holding back sales or we could be looking even better.

For Lawrenceville, GA, Homes Under $200k, there are 543 listings, with about a 3.1 month supply of homes. Sales were down from January, 2012 (154 v 205), although sales may very well be off because of constrained inventories. Last year in this segment, there were almost 1000 listings v under 600 now. This segment is easily the lion’s share of sales for the area. With the 3.04 month A/R, it is solidly in Seller’s Market territory. The low Absorption Rate (AR) is due to very strong sales, coupled with dramatically lower listing inventories. Month over month sales were down from 191 in December.

Between $200k and $400k, there are 123 listings for sale, and about 7.5 months of supply. Oddly, this had one of the mid-pack segments in the county, now it’s on the weak side. The 11 sales for January, 2013 edged the 7 from last year, but was very weak compared to the 21 sales last month. But, we had been close in Buyer’s Market territory here, but have slipped back to Seller’s Market territory.

From $400k to $600k, there are 11 homes on the market. The absorption rate is around 6.6 months. However, with the level of sales in this segment, a couple of sales added or subtracted can have a HUGE impact. There was 1 sale for January, the Absorption Rate has dropped from 78 months June11, through good, but sporadic sales. This is acting like a luxury market and the A/R is jumping all over the place… with just a few sales (A/R was 34 nine months ago). While the long term trend was looking a little better, now it is still pretty choppy.

In the $600k to $800k arena, there are 4 listings, with about 12 months of supply. As with the next lower priced segment, a couple of sales makes a big difference and there were 0 sales in January. There were only 6 sales at this level in all of 2011, 2 of them were January. There was 1 sale in January 2012, 1 in May, 1 in October and 1 in December.

Between $800k and $1M, and Above $1M there are 2 homes listed (combined) and not enough sales data to give an accurate absorption rate. Until this month, there had only been one sale in this range in the last 3 years (Aug, 2010), according to FMLS. But, there was 1 sale in July, but none in August. It was over $1M, if that makes a difference…

Lawrenceville is in Gwinnett County, GA, just outside of Atlanta. As of the 2000 Census, there were 22,937 people in Lawrenceville, but that is only including people in the city limits, and there has been a lot of growth since 2000 in Gwinnett County (2008 estimates from the Census Bureau peg population around 29,000). It was incorporated in 1821. Lawrenceville is home to Central Gwinnett High School, and also has students that the Mountain View and Archer clusters. It is also home to Gwinnett Technical College and Georgia Gwinnett College. Another recent addition to Lawrenceville is that it is home to the Gwinnett Braves, playing at the Gwinnett Stadium on GA20 between I-85 and GA316. Possibly the most famous resident of Lawrenceville was Oliver Hardy. As a small boy he lived in Lawrenceville with his parents for a short time. Lawrenceville was also home to Junior Samples. Some of its other residents included Jeff Francouer, Brian McCann and Jennifer Ferrin.