… on GarageHomesUSA. Wander over and take a look. Here is a direct link to the report.
I was hoping that we would be seeing stronger indicators of the housing recovery at this point… we’ll have to wait for the final April numbers.
Wander over and take a look at the report.
I try to sneak into the local MLS every few eeks and take a look at the overall picture of 4+car garage properties available in Gwinnett County, GA. There are generally a good selection, in fact there is generally a better selection than most of the other counties in Metro Atlanta. Please keep in mind that the MLS rules disallow me from specifically promoting listings belonging to other agents without their written permission, so I have to remain a bit vague. If you would like more info, I can send out the sheets on these and other properties that might interest you… just let me know.
So, what is out there?
There is a pretty good variety of 4+ car garage home properties available in Gwinnett. Let me start with a couple of overall stats.
Let’s talk about some homes.
If you are looking for a 4 car garage on a budget, the first property might fit the bill. It is in Snellville, and has a 2 car attached garage and a detached shop that is 30×30 (metal building with a concrete floor). The home is 3 bedroom and 2 baths and is described as totally renovated.
At the other end of the spectrum is an $8.5m home in Suwanee. It has a 6 car garage and is in a private community. Of course there is a pool and pool house, media room/home theater and just about every amenity you could imagine… and only the best finishes. It was originally priced at $10.5m, and has 6 bedrooms, 6 full and 4 half baths.
Of course, most people are somewhere in the middle. And, in the middle we find a home priced at $749k. Here we find a house that is about 2 miles from the Mall of Georgia, and has a 5 car garage, 7 bedrooms, 4 full and 2 half baths, full finished basement and 5 acres. It has a barn. This house also has two full kitchens and laundry rooms.
Halfway between the median and the top is a home with a 4 car garage in the Sugarloaf Country Club priced at $1,798,000. This house is a 5/5/2 (bedrooms/full baths/half baths) with a full basement. The neighborhood has a pool, tennis and a great golf course.
Halfway between the median and the entry level is a brand new home in Lawrenceville. It is priced at $449,900, and has 5 bedrooms and 4 full baths. The 4th garage is actually a boat door in the basement, but I have found that those can be great places to assemble or display a highlight from the collection. In fact, I know of a few people that have built the “boat bay” into an incredible featuring the car as art. this builder also features a trade-in program so that a potential buyer may be able to skip having to sell their home first.
Wrap up…
Usually when I start talking about 4+ car garages people assume that the homes will be out of this world expensive. But, there might very well be one that fits your price range. Here is a little breakdown:
So, while there is a good representation at the higher end of the spectrum, there is a pretty good distribution of homes across the full spectrum.
To get more info about a particular home, please feel free to contact me.
I just posted up the January/February Market Report for Gwinnett County on Garage Homes USA. I wish I could say that the market has turned, but I can’t.
But I can say that there are some killer deals…
How about an for an investor looking for a cash flowing property…
The seller is retiring… has several to sell over the next couple of years.
So, the market gives with one hand…
*** This is re-posted from my blog on Active Rain***
I heard voices…
And they were smart voices.
Wandering around in the Rain, there have been scores of bloggers pointing out that the federal government trying to “fix” the foreclosure crisis. Now, Inman News is saying the same thing. (the link will only be good until it goes behind the curtain)
Most families facing foreclosure today were on weak financial ground, he says, and “will defy every effort” at workouts. “Even extraordinary rewrites will beget re-default, the poorly maintained house creating deeper loss in the ultimate foreclosure, the troubled inventory overhanging the marketplace and preventing recovery,” Barnes writes.
And goes on to say…
In an effort to prevent foreclosures, consumer groups and Senate Democrats want to give bankruptcy judges the power to cram down mortgage loan modifications over the objections of lenders. (see recent blog post, and watch Inman News headlines Monday for details on how the cram down provisions in S 2136 have been rolled into a more sweeping foreclosure prevention bill, S 2636).
Supporters of cram downs say voluntary efforts by loan servicers to engage in workouts with borrowers haven’t done much to slow the pace of foreclosures, and that any increase in mortgage rates won’t be as drastic as the industry predicts.
Although Barnes didn’t address cram downs in his latest column, I thought it was interesting that he raised foreclosures and mortgage market liquidity in the same breath, and concluded that it’s the credit crunch, not foreclosures, that pose the biggest threat to a recovery.
They also point out…
Pavlov and Wachter’s December 2006 paper, “Aggressive Lending and Real Estate Markets,” looked at the use of ARM loans in 22 Los Angeles neighborhoods where prices fell more than 21 percent between 1990 and 1995. Perhaps not surprisingly, prices fell harder in neighborhoods where ARM loans were more prevalent. But the study’s most surprising finding was that it wasn’t the higher default rates on ARM loans that sent home prices plummeting, but their lack of availability during the downturn.
So, a lot of people that study these things are saying that the government, trying to provide relief is doing EXACTLY the wrong thing. Of course, it is populist to go after the banks and talk about corporate greed and not personal responsibility. (BTW, remember that those ideas are coming from both sides of the aisle). Instead of helping people and getting us past this, it will only delay and increase the severity.
The cry of all of the people that aren’t being foreclosed are losing value is a valid one… but, is it not worse to drag the problem out and make it take a decade for price recovery than to let the market find its bottom and work through it in just two or three years? Would those responsible borrowers and homeowners not be better served by the restoration of their equity sooner, rather than later?
Feel free to post links back to other blogs with arguments on both sides of this issue. (Note: I did not post links to A/R blogs that echoed this sentiment. There are a lot. I have read a bunch of them. Feel free to post links to your blog. I didn’t want to miss a good one… and there are many.)
Game on…
I just ran some numbers for my business coach. The numbers were absorption rates for 3+ car garage homes in Gwinnett.
I have been running these for a few months for homes in Gwinnett County, GA, in general, but I hadn’t run the numbers for 3+car garage homes… and they aren’t good numbers. This is going to get a little wonky, but please bear with me.
Absorption rate is this: If no more homes came on the market, and the sales pace continued at the same level, it would take ___ months to sell off the inventory. If the numbers get bigger as the time gets shorter, the market is still showing signs of slowing. They are. The only little bright spot is that they aren’t as bad as the last couple of months.
So, let’s get to some garage home numbers… I ran with several different price points.
Gwinnett 3+ Car Garage Absorption Rate
| Under $400k | 11.70 | 14.70 | 18.90 | |
| $400k to $500k | 18.20 | 23.60 | 32.50 | |
| $500k to $650k | 27.20 | 36.00 | 42.30 | |
| $650k to $1m | 25.90 | 34.50 | 40.50 | |
| Above $1m | 34.70 | 48.70 | 57.50 | |
| All SFR | 11.00 | 14.10 | 17.60 |
So, there are the numbers. There are a few things that I found interesting. Some good, some bad.
I think that what I am going to find is that when I break out the “All SFR (Single Family Residential)” by price range, that the numbers are going to be a little better for the lower prices, and unchanged for the higher prices. This is because at the lower prices, the garages push the price up in comparison to otherwise similar properties. But, when the prices got up, 3 or more car garages are average.
So, Lane, I’m getting bored…
Ok, give me a moment. I’m going to cover this a little more on the next Gwinnett County Market Report. But, there are a few things I want to leave you with… regardless of where you are located:
I am developing a marketing plan that will knock the socks off of 94.3%* of the agents out there… but, there is only one way to find out more about it. I can sit down and tell you. Hit the Contact Lane button at the top of the page.
*94.3% is a totally made up and bogus stat… :^ )