Not Found buyers | Garage with a Detached Home | Gwinnett County GA

LaneBailey.com

Garage with a Detached Home

Contact Lane

  • What's YOUR Home Worth?

    Get a free Maximum Price Analysis to find out the current market value of your home.

    Read More

  • Custom Listings

    Sign up to get notified when new listingscome on the market that meet your specs.

    Read More

  • Browse Listings

    Take a look at what is currently on the market in the areas that interest you.

    Read More
  • 1

Follow Me on Pinterest

Tag Archives: buyers

Is $1,000,000 Burning a Hole in Your Pocket?

Thursday, 17 February 2011 08:45
Written by
0 Comments
A Penske Porsche RS Spyder leading a Dyson Por...

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s just assume for a minute that you are sitting there in your office or at home and you have $1,000,000 just dying to be invested in a new (to you) home.  And then let’s assume for a few minutes that you’d love to do that here in Gwinnett County, GA.  What can you get for a million bucks here in Gwinnett?

There are a few homes listed for around $1,000,000 in Gwinnett County, GA.  I limited it to homes that were priced within $1,000 of the magic number.  The six houses all came in between $999,000 and $999,900.

Three of the homes are located in Chateau Elan, in Braselton, GA.  You can’t really get much further north in the county, but it is a truly magnificent area.  Chateau Elan is built around the winery of the same name started by Donald Panoz.  That would be the same Donald Panoz that owns Road Atlanta, just a little north of the winery, and the American Le Mans Series in sports car racing.  There is also an Inn, event facility and several golf courses.

main exterior

Image by lane.bailey via Flickr

The other three homes are a little more spread out around the county, but all are near the I-85 corridor.  They are in Buford, Duluth and Suwanee.  This particular Buford home isn’t in a subdivision, but could have easily been a home on Lake Lanier.  The homes in Buford that are on the lake are on what is called “South Lake”, which is the biggest area of the lake.  There are some exceptional homes in this area.  Duluth is home to the Sugarloaf Country Club, where many of Atlanta’s sports stars and celebrities live.  The home that is currently in that narrow price range is in another neighborhood called Sweet Bottom Plantation.  Sweet Bottom Plantation is nestled on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, with many homes having styling reminiscent of New Orleans, LA, or Charleston, SC.  Our Suwanee home is located in Belmore Estates.  Suwanee is also home to The River Club and Bear’s Best Estates.  It also bleeds over into Forsyth County and a little bit in Fulton County.

Here in Gwinnett County, GA, homes priced at $1,000,000 are pretty cool. That buys a LOT of house; 6,000 to 9,000 square feet.  They have terrace level rooms, finished to very high standards.  Three car garages are a minimum, with 4+ being more common.  Most of the homes have 5 or 6 bedrooms, but every once in a while, a 4 bedroom home will sneak in.  Most of the homes have swimming pools on the property, as well.  Only the home not in a subdivision had a significant amount of land, 14 acres.  The others were all generally under one acre.  Hardwood floors, central vacs, stone and brick, updated kitchens and high end cabinetry and appliances are pretty standard.

Right now, in Gwinnett County, the luxury market is pretty much buyer driven, too.  We do see some foreclosures and short sales, but a larger percentage of buyers at this level paid cash than at lower price points.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t deals, though. Homes that are selling in this price range are often homes that would have sold for upwards of $1.5M just a few years ago.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Local? Hyper-Local? National? What IS the Market?

Thursday, 10 February 2011 08:20
Written by
0 Comments

old photo of peachtree street, atlanta, GA

Image via Wikipedia

I love watching the news… but when they talk about the real estate market, I cringe.  I like to hear the national numbers, but I also know that they are just a framework for a smaller discussion.  Yep… a smaller discussion.

It matters what the overall market is doing, but it’s not nearly as important as what is happening in your neighborhood.  It matters what is happening in Georgia, and the Atlanta Metro market, but not nearly as much as what is happening in your specific city.  Real estate prices and demand react to specific local issues much more than to national trends.  In fact, the national trend is just a compilation of local and hyper-local trends.  What the national market does is create a headwind or a tailwind.  That’s about it.

Here locally, we look at things like…

  • changing employment statistics
  • companies relocating into or out of the area
  • school performance and trends
  • tax burdens
  • quality of local governmental services
  • proximity to recreation and entertainment
  • ease of movement (commuting, shopping, etc)

As we see these things change, we see the market move in one direction or another.  A prime example at the moment is the City of Atlanta schools issue.  It is possible that the Atlanta City Schools could lose their accreditation.  If that were to happen, it would drive down the price of most of the homes served by those schools.  The price would be driven down because there would be a lack of demand on the part of buyers, combined with an increase in supply as sellers seek to move to districts without the same problems.

Gwinnett County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Georgia, below the national average.  But there is also a tremendous overhead of foreclosure action.  We also have one of the highest performance school systems in the region… and reasonably low tax rates.

The market in Miami or Las Vegas doesn’t have an effect on what is happening in Georiga, much less what is going on with real estate in Gwinnett County.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Terra Sol by Pulte near Lilburn

Monday, 07 February 2011 08:56
Written by
0 Comments
Pulte Homes logo

Image via Wikipedia

A few years ago this property was started.  One home was built, along with the future clubhouse.  The tennis courts were installed and the swimming pool was roughed in.  Some of the streets had been laid, and many of the homesites had been prepped.

And that is how the property had sat for the last several years.  It just wasn’t worth building out during the worst of the real estate meltdown.

Apparently that has changed now…  Pulte has begun construction on the project again.  The actually tore down the house that had been built onsite, cleaned up the entrance and begun building in more infrastructure.

It’s really nice to see activity on this project again.

Related articles

Enhanced by Zemanta

Gwinnett Homestretch Program

Thursday, 03 February 2011 08:05
Written by
1 Comment

Ken Cook and I are working with Gwinnett Homstretch Down Payment Assistance.  As a buyer, you need to have $1000 going into the purchase, but Gwinnett Homestretch may contribute up to $7,500, if you qualify.  There are a few things to keep in mind:

  • It is paid as a 0% loan, which will be forgiven after 5 years of using the property as your principal residence.  In effect, that makes it a grant… there are no payments due during the 5 years.
  • You will be required to complete an 8-hour counseling class from a HUD approved Housing Counseling Agency.
  • Total household income must not exceed HUD lmits, based on household size.  Households range from 1-8 people.
    • 2 people – HUD max is $46,000
    • 4 people – HUD max is $57,450
    • There are different income maximums for other household sizes.
  • Investors are NOT eligible for this program.
  • The home MUST pass an inspection by Gwinnett County PRIOR to closing.
  • Purchase Price may NOT exceed $200,000.

There are other requirements, such as being able to qualify for a mortgage.  Contact Ken and I for details.

First Name *
Last Name *
Email *
Phone *
Comments

We’d love to help you buy a home. There are great deals on the market right now, and interest rates are exceptional.

For more info, click here.  There are other Down Payment Assistance programs available around the Metro Atlanta area.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Norcross, GA, Market Report, December 2010

Thursday, 27 January 2011 08:33
Written by
0 Comments
Chattahoochee River in Norcross, Georgia
Image via Wikipedia

Market stats for Norcross GA, November, 2010 indicate that there were 365 properties on the market. Overall, there is about a 10.2 month supply of properties. November was a thrashing… 30 v 47 in 2009.  December was better, but still only 35 sales for Dec 2010 compared to 41 the year prior.

In the sub-$200k arena, there were 219 listings, with about 7.4 month supply.  Sales are down slightly from a year ago in this segment, which is the main driver of sales in this area (25 v 28).  But the segment is still looking pretty strong, despite the weakness in July and September and relative weakness of sales in October, November and even December.

Between $200k and $400k, there were 111 listings for sale, and about 27.8 months of supply.  Sales have been down and slowing for the last few months.  November was a really bad month (1 v 11)… but December was still down, 7 v 10 sales.

From $400k to $600k, there were 31 homes on the market. The absorption rate is around 18.6 months. Much of the perception of strong Absorption Rates is from shrinking inventories.  Actual sales have been mostly decelerating.  I expect to see the numbers move the other way in the next few months.  But, for the record, Sales for December were at 3 for both 2009 and 2010.

This map shows the incorporated and unincorpor...
Image via Wikipedia

In the $600k to $800k arena, there were 2 listings on the market.  Inventories have decreased as sales have increased compared to last year.  The absorption rate (6 month average) is at 12 months of inventory… but with only 4 sales this year, obviously it is easy to bump one way or the other. The ONLY reason for the strong looking Absorption Rate is that there are only 2 listings.

The range from $800k to $1m, there were no homes listed on the market and no sales… seemingly forever.

Above $1m, there were 2 properties listed.  But because of the smaller numbers of sales, the absorption rate could be significantly impacted by just a couple of sales.  There have been two sales in the last year (Apr 10 and Oct 10).

Norcross, GA is a suburb of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. The population is 2000 was 8,41, but that only included the area inside the city limits, and it has seen tremendous growth since that census. The City of Norcross revamped their old town a long time ago, and it has served as a model for other towns in the area. It is also home to Meadow Creek and Norcross High Schools. One of the things that Norcross is known for locally is the beautiful older homes in the downtown area. They have maintained their historic flair quite successfully.

I have a page dedicated to Norcross Market Data.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Copyright © 2009 - 2019 Garage with a Detached Home | Gwinnett County GA. All Rights Reserved. Created by Blog Copyright.