Lawrenceville, GA Market Report, February 2013

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Market stats for Lawrenceville, GA, February, 2013, indicate that there were 633 properties on the market, down 50 from last month. Overall, there was about a 3.5 month supply of properties. In 2012, sales for February were at 196, so 170 sales was a big decrease, year over year. Last month’s sales were at 166. Coupled with the decrease in inventory, things are still looking pretty good. Normally the market picks up from January-February 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. In almost every market I follow in Gwinnett, there was an increase in listings… except here.

For Lawrenceville, GA, Homes Under $200k, there are 497 listings, with about a 3.0 month supply of homes. Sales were down from February, 2012 (154 v 181), although sales may very well be off because of constrained inventories. Last year in this segment, there were almost 1000 listings v under 500 now. This segment is easily the lion’s share of sales for the area. With the 2.99 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 flat from 154 last month. Again, there was a big drop in listed properties for this month.

Between $200k and $400k, there are 118 listings for sale, and about 7.4 months of supply. Oddly, this had one of the mid-pack segments in the county, now it’s on the weak side. The 16 sales for February, 2013 edged the 13 from last year, but killed the very weak 11 sales last month. But, we had been close but slipped back into Buyer’s Market territory here.

From $400k to $600k, there are 12 homes on the market. The absorption rate is around 12 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 but 0 sales for February, 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 10 months ago and 6.6 last month). 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 February. There were only 6 sales at this level in all of 2011. There was 4 sale in 2012.

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 12. 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.