Author Archives: Lane Bailey

Suwanee, GA, Market Report, May, 2013

Monday, 17 June 2013 08:53

Written by Lane Bailey

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Market stats for Suwanee, GA, May, 2013 indicate that there were 350 properties on the market (down from 353 last month). Overall, there was about a 3.8 month supply of properties (down from 4.8 last month). May had 118 sales. Compared to May, 2012 (99), this year was WAY up, but inventory was down compared to 2012 (439). There were 92 sales last month, so this month rocked last. The machine has really cranked up over the last couple of months.

In the Under $200k arena, there were 47 listings in Suwanee, GA, with about a 2.3 month supply (compared to 2.6 months supply last year). This May’s sales were 21 (42 last year, 24 last month). It used to be a county leader, though, for now it is moving back to one of the best price/locale segments again. The next level up is coming up fast, though. Last year at this time, there were 118 listings. Sales are being killed by last year’s, but the way the inventory has dropped, there is a pretty good chance that the low inventory is constricting sales.

Between $200k and $400k, there were 194 listings for sale (220 last year, 184 last month), and 3.6 months of supply. Sales in May, 2013 were 71 (54 in April), compared with 43 for the same period in 2012. Sales have rocked for the last few months. I’d like to see it stay up past 50 sales or so for the next couple of months. This shouldn’t be a “peaky” market/price segment. Unlike most of the county, this is the largest price segment in the area, and its direction plays a major part in how the area looks. Make no mistake, this is still basically in Seller’s Market territory.

From $400k to $600k, there were 56 homes on the market. The absorption rate was at 4.9 months (8.5 in April). There were 17 sales in May (11 last month)… up from 11 last year at this time. Looking at the three month average, there were 34 sales this year and 31 for the same period last year. This segment had become dramatically stronger in the last couple of months.

In the $600k to $800k arena, there are 26 listings, with about a 6.0 month supply. Sales at this level are not consistent, but there were 8 sales this month (2 last month). Looking at one month makes the numbers jump around. For the last three months, sales were 13… For the same time last year, the sales were 6. With the huge decrease in listings over the last couple of months, I was looking for this to become one of the strongest $600k-$800k area in the county. It is fairly strong right now… we’ll have to see if it holds.

The range from $800k to $1m, there are 10 homes listed and 30 months of inventory on the market. There were only 4 sales at this price level in 2011. There were 7 in 2012. This is a tough segment to try to sell in right now, but if inventory stays low, it won’t be quite as rough. But there still needs to be some more sales activity. There was 1 sale in March.

In Suwanee, GA, Above $1m, there are 17 properties listed. The current absorption rate indicated about 17 months of inventory, but because of the smaller numbers of sales, this could be significantly impacted by just a couple of sales. In this segment, we should be seeing reduced inventories… There were 25 homes listed in this segment at this time last year. There was 1 sale in May, but 3 in the Mar-May time frame, 4 the year before.

Suwanee, GA is a suburb of Atlanta in Gwinnett, Forsyth and (just a little bit) in Fulton Counties. The population is 2000 was 8,725, but that only included the area inside the city limits, and it had seen tremendous growth since that census. Money Magazine rated Suwanee in the “Top 10 Best Places to Live” in 2007, and it is one of the wealthiest parts of Georgia. Recently, the City of Suwanee has revamped their old town, adding a large park with a bandshell, condos, town homes and small businesses. It is also home to North Gwinnett High School, Peachtree Ridge and Collins Hill. I have a page dedicated to Suwanee Market Data.

Atlanta Metro Zillow Home Value Index

Atlanta Metro Home Values – Interactive chart

Global Power… LOCAL DOMINANCE

Friday, 14 June 2013 09:19

Written by Lane Bailey

2 Comments

Recently, I posted about how Century21.com is crushing the other major brokerage websites for unique visitors. Well… that isn’t the whole story.

What is going on in the world at large is good to know, when you list YOUR house, you need to know what is going to happen with YOUR house.

Will an agent that gets an inquiry on it know anything about it?
Will an agent that gets an inquiry on it be motivated to sell it?
How will it appear online?
Will buyers even see it?

That is the basis of our Lock Down/Lift Up strategy.

First, we lock down the listings, meaning that every listing we have has OUR contact information next to it. Each of MY listings has MY phone number next to it. It has MY email next to it. If they fill out the contact form, it gets sent to ME. Obviously that is great for me… but it is pretty good for you, too. I will know more about your home that some random agent that paid to be on any unrepresented listings, and I want it to sell as quickly as possible.

That is the Lock Down portion of the strategy.

The next thing we do is get premium locations for all of our listings. When people search, OUR listings are the ones at the top of the results. As buyers search, instead of going through pages and pages of homes, people generally only look at the first page. We want OUR listings to be there… and if you are selling YOUR home, you want it there, too.

That is the Lift Up part.

And it isn’t just one or two places… It’s

Zillow.com
Realtor.com
Trulia.com
Homefinder.com
Homes.com
RealEstateBook.com

The last post was about Global Power… but Local Dominance is where we are today.

When it’s time to sell, what do you want for YOUR house?

Century21.com is CRUSHING IT!!

Wednesday, 12 June 2013 08:28

Written by Lane Bailey

2 Comments

We just got a report in the office looking at website usage of the major brokerage sites… C21, RE/MAX, Keller Williams, etc. The results may be surprising to a lot of people.

For 2013, January through April, the number of unique visitors to the sites were as follows:

Century 21 – 10.6 million unique visitors
Coldwell Banker – 5.3 million unique visitors
RE/MAX – 4.6 million unique visitors
Weichert – 3.7 million unique visitors
Keller Williams – 3.0 million unique visitors
ERA – 700 thousand unique visitors
Prudential – 400 thousand unique visitors

It might be good to note that Century 21 Realty’s parent company is Realogy. They also own ERA… as well as Better Homes & Gardens Realty, Sotheby’s International and Coldwell Banker.

But there is another little tidbit that makes Century 21 a little more powerful for sellers. Realogy owns a company called Cartus. While most people may have never heard of them, they are one of the biggest corporate relocation partners in the world. They feed those relocations into the Realogy system… and since Century 21 is easily the biggest, that is where most of them go. And since Century 21 Results Realty Services is one of the biggest C21 franchises in this market, WE get a pretty good feed on those.

Normally I post about market stats and some news about real estate… sometimes views on things that can affect value or other tips for buyers or sellers. But one of the things that can REALLY affect value is marketing power.

What’s Going on in Ruby Forest

Monday, 10 June 2013 09:22

Written by Lane Bailey

1 Comment

Ruby Forest is a medium-sized subdivision on the northern edge of Suwanee, GA. There are around 400 homes in the development, built primarily between 1993 and 1998… although there were some homes built into the early 2000s. Most of the homes are 4-5 bedrooms, but there are some 3 bedroom homes and some with 6 bedrooms (generally including bedrooms in finished basements).

It is close to George Pierce Park, with access from parts of the subdivision to the walking/biking trails at the back of the park. There are numerous sports fields, in addition to the trail system which connects to the Suwanee Creek Greenway Trail System. It is also only a few minutes from Suwanee Town Center, which hosts all sorts of events, year round.

For sellers in Ruby Forest, things are looking better. Inventory is down. Prices have stabilized. Ruby Forest was hit pretty hard with foreclosures a few years ago. Prices crashed, with homes selling down into the low-mid $100k range. Now they are back into the low-mid $200k range.

As I write this, there is one listing that is pending lender approval (a short sale), that listed at $140k. There is one that is pending sale with a contingent contract (likely the buyers need to sell a home) that was listed at $250k. Finally, there is one listing that is active at $300k.

If you are interested in finding out more, give Lane a call.

Lilburn, GA Market Report, April, 2013

Friday, 07 June 2013 12:05

Written by Lane Bailey

3 Comments

Market stats for Lilburn, GA, April, 2013, indicate that there were 179 properties on the market, down 9 from last month. Overall, there was about an 3.5 month supply of properties and 50 properties that closed (sold) in April. It was a slight decrease from last year’s sales (65) and from March (58 sales). The Absorption Rate notched down slightly. Lilburn had been among the weakest of Gwinnett County, GA, cities I track. But, at 3.46 months of inventory, it is strong now. Six months is considered balanced, lower is a seller’s market and higher is a buyer’s market.

In the sub-$200k arena, there were 108 listings, with about an 2.7 month supply with 38 sales. This represents most of the sales in the market area. Sales were down a little from last month (44), and from last year (51). While the Absorption Rate isn’t as low as many other areas, sales are strong, and I’m think we are in a comeback for Lilburn. At 2.68 months of inventory, with a few months of stats getting better, we’re there.

Between $200k and $400k, there are 62 listings for sale, and about 5.6 months of supply. This segment had been quite weak for months, and had stalled a little, but came back with a vengeance… only to stall a bit again. There were 12 sales compared to 14 last month and 14 last year. Lilburn has never been seen as a luxury market. The decrease in listings has really helped. I’m still not as confident about this portion of the Lilburn market coming back quite yet… It is strengthening, just not as consistently as I’d like. July month was quite strong. April was strong… We are slightly in Seller’s Market territory.

From $400k to $600k, there are just 7 homes on the market. The absorption rate is 21 months. There were 0 sales in April. Poised for a comeback, but an increase in listings and weak sales don’t give the right ingredients for that to happen. To start with, we can’t have 7 month blank spots in sales (none from Aug11 through Mar12). If we can keep up a sale each month on average, this one will be back.

From $600k to $800k, $800k to $1M and Above $1M, there are 3 listings (combined), but too few sales to have any sort of reliable number of months of inventory. March posted the first sale since August, 2010. It was in the $600-$800k range. One of the listings is above $1M and one between $800k and $1M, and there is no market activity in the last 12 months for those ranges…

Lilburn is in Gwinnett County, GA, just outside of Atlanta. As of the 2000 Census, there were 11,307 people in Lilburn, but that is only including people in the city limits, and there has been a lot of growth since 2000 in Gwinnett County. It was incorporated in 1910. Lilburn is home to Parkview High School, and also has students in the Brookwood, Berkmar and Meadowcreek clusters. It is also home to Killian Hill Christian School, Providence Chrisian Academy, St. John Neumann Catholic School and Parkview Christian School. Possibly the most famous resident of Lilburn is General Beauregard Lee, a groundhog with a better winter prediction record that Puxatawnee Phil up in PA. Dominique Wilkins, formerly of the Atlanta Hawks also lives in Lilburn.