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Community Corner

Existing Home Sales Soar in August

Single-family home starts also were strong, according to the latest figures.

There’s more bright news to report this week and we couldn’t be happier that the statisticians are finally reporting what we’ve been telling you for months—the market is on a definite upswing.

Existing home sales were up in August year over year to 7.2 percent, the highest levels in nearly three years. That definitely falls in line with what we’ve been seeing at street level from one year ago. It’s also great to have the national media backing us up.

All of the talk about a shadow inventory has been just that, a lot of talk. The banks have been warning of a massive wave of foreclosures that’s due to hit the market any day. Some say just after the presidential election in November. Some say in the early months of 2013. To quote the tag line from mid-20th century radio serial, “Only the Shadow knows.”

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Frankly, we would welcome new inventory, as there is barely anything to sell. What is available is either well suited for investors, in need of major repair, or there is so much competition for the few good properties that buyers are losing out and becoming frustrated. In the last month, we submitted three near- or at full-price offers for one set of buyers before we got lucky. And that story is the same all around.

While we all sit and wait for that supposed shadow inventory, distressed sales were just 22 percent of the total sales and that’s down from 31 percent in August 2011.

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Another economic home run comes from the new construction bullpen as new single-family home starts were up 2.1 percent in August and that’s up 29 percent year over year.

With the Federal Reserve rollout of the third round of Quantitative Easing promising to keep interest rates low until mid-2015, if you haven’t booked passage to catch this excellent market wave, you’re really missing the boat.

Have you ever wanted to meet the iDeal REP team? Come join us for an evening open house on Thursday Sept.27, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. You can meet us and tour one of our stunningly beautiful listings at 480 Pool Road in Hiram. We hope to see you there. Coffee, tea and light dessert will be served.

iDeal Real Estate Professionals LLC is owned and operated by Brandon Bramlett and C. Mark Willix and is affiliated with Maximum One Realty Greater Atlanta. For personalized service, visit us at www.idealrealestateprofessionals.com. You can also email us at info@idealrealestateprofessionals.com.

 

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