Good time to sell Decatur home -- if you need to sell one

By Elliott Robinson, Elliott on Real Estate

In the first part of our study on the City of Decatur, we did an analysis of the 1st six months of 2007, 2008 and 2009. The analysis confirmed what most people have felt which is that sales of single family homes in Decatur are down considerably over the past two year (down 53% from 2007).

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The positive impact of this posture is that there is a pent up demand in the buyer pool for high quality single-family homes.  The City of Decatur and other highly desirable locales within the Atlanta Metro Area (Candler Park, Inman Park, Ansley Park, Druid Hills, etc.) still have the intangibles that serious buyers look for: great schools, proximity to Downtown/Midtown, family activities, great restaurants, etc. 

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With the start of school less than 1 month away (August 10th), this would be a great time for sellers who have held back to test the marketplace.

He's the expert, but I'd think it's a bad time to sell a home unless you need to sell it, as prices are still depressed.

Comments

[JohnRose]

Wow, I agree with you Dave. It's amazing what loopy tricks of logic people in the real estate business can force themselves into. You will never hear a real estate agent telling you that it is a bad time to buy or a bad time to sell.

I gather that you think this depression of prices is temporary, though. I'm not sure I agree with that. Prices jumped like 80-90% from the long-term norms established before the 1990's. If they've only come down ~50% from their peak, I think they still have a ways to go before they get back to normal. And with the economy in such bad shape, they'll probably over-shoot that level temporarily.

There's only one thing that an increased inventory and increased numbers of people "waiting for a good time to sell" can mean- the prices haven't reached a bottom yet.