Athens GA Foreclosures are Rampant

Well okay I know it was a cheap trick, but my title was intended to get you attention. Then number of national sales at the first of the year that were distressed sales (foreclosures, short sales, etc..) was at 41 percent. This figure peaked in March with almost one out of every two homes nationally selling as a distressed property. Last month the NAR reports that this figure has dropped to a low of 31 percent.

Locally we saw 94 residential sales in Athens, GA last month. Roughly 10 of these, or 10.6 percent were foreclosure or bank owned resales. That's right, only about 10 percent.

Statistics of Foreclosure Sales in Athens in July 2009 (10 listings)
	Low	High	Average	Median	Total
List Price	$26,900	$117,810	$86,076	$108,225	$860,760
Selling Price	$23,000	$115,000	$82,580	$108,750	$825,800
List/Sold(%)	80.50%	103.90%	94.10%	96.15%	--
Price/SqFt ($)	$0.00	$57.39	$12.23	$0.00	--
Days on Market	18	286	100	65.5	--

What else did we learn from these figures? For starters it looks as if the average list to sales price is about what "non-distressed" property is selling for in the 94-96 percent of list price range. I have also seen that due to depressed prices on non-distressed property for sale that the ratio of discount in buying a foreclosure has gone from about 20 percent down to 15 percent of late on a national level. Locally this figure is much less.

Statistics "non-distressed sales" in Athens July 2009 (84 listings)
	Low	High	Average	Median	Total
List Price	$12,000	$525,000	$161,228	$138,950	$13,543,150
Selling Price	$8,000	$452,000	$153,244	$136,500	$12,872,507
List/Sold(%)	62.58%	105.10%	95.05%	96.43%	--
Price/SqFt ($)	$0.00	$162.56	$64.55	$81.50	--
Days on Market	22	999	200	130.5	--

Looking at non-distressed sales, the average days on market is much longer at 200 days, but sales are still again in that 95-96 percent of sales to list price. Average and median prices are higher, but the bulk of foreclosure or bank owned property sales this past month were not single family residential housing, but condos and town homes that are valued at less.

How does Athens compare to the competition in neighboring counties?

Oconee County, GA had 17.5 percent of all sales in the past month which were from distressed sales. Barrow County, GA had a foreclosure sales rate of 45 percent as well while Jackson County, GA was at 41.7 percent.

At the end of the day, or week, if you own real estate in Athens, GA you should be glad. Due to our economy and the standard that is kept up by the University of Georgia being located here for the past two hundred plus years, we have had a relatively easy time through this trough.

This is not to say that prices have not come down in certain price points, but on the average the "Classic City" is doing just fine.