My New Blog

A lot of clients called me this week to get my view point on the article printed in the AJC this past week.  I thought I would go ahead and share my thoughts with you as well.

Attached is the front-page article from this Wednesday's Atlanta Journal Constitution. (Email Chrissy@CastlesByChrissy.com for the article)  If you did not see it, I'm sure your friends, family and coworkers have all been talking about it!  Truly, how does the media expect us to rebound from this shifting market if all they do is interpret data negatively?

Once again, I feel compelled to be your "local economist of choice" and portray the stats accurately and unbiased!

In this article concerning the most recent real estate stats the media is misinterpreting the data.   The story is focusing on the median point of sales prices for homes that sold.  The median is simply the number at which half the data points in a given sample (in this case, all homes sold in the given time period) are above the median number, and half the sample points are lower than the median number.

Now, for many reasons (including foreclosures, new lending requirements, unemployment issues) homes under $200k represent a slightly larger portion of all homes sold.  In fact, they now represent 52% of sales in 2008 up from 42% in 2007.  So OF COURSE the median number is lower!   This DOES NOT mean the price of any particular home is down by 11.2%, as indicated and easily (mis)interpreted from the AJC article.

At least the article, in it's sub-headline, notes that "Atlanta's housing bubble didn't burst as soon or as badly as elsewhere."  Which interpreted accurately means that our recovery will be MUCH faster and has already started.  

Homes still rose in value in this survey by 16.79% from 2000 through 2008.  Your housing costs still are an investment in an appreciating asset over time, while living in a rental home or apartment are not!   All the while, you are still paying down principle and therefore further increasing your equity generating a nice tax deduction every April 15th, and enjoying a much higher credit rating for making timely mortgage payments.    

What the media should be portraying is a sense of urgency if you live in metro Atlanta.  An urgency that you are about to miss out on one of the BEST times to buy in our history - given prices and interest rates.  Don't be that person that reads the AJC a couple months from now and realizes you missed the bottom.

Let us help you decide what is best for your situation.  Give me a call anytime. I live to talk about this stuff!

Have a great weekend.