Home Inspections in Athens, GA; Now go Infrared!

Recently I had a home inspection needed on a property a Buyer Client of mine was buying in the Greater Athens area. This was a 4300 square foot bank owned property that had been sitting for awhile so the client decided to not only do a home inspection on this "as-is" purchase, but they took my advice to use HomePro Home Inspections and had them do their "Infrared" Home Inspection service. I have blogged about infrared home inspections in the past, but I thought the results of this inspection was substantial enough to do a follow up post.

HomePro, in Watkinsville, is the only area home inspector that is certified to do infrared home inspections.

This particular home has heart pine on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the main living area as you walk in the front door. What was ultimately impressive was that the attached photo shows heat coming in from outside due to missing and loose insulation in multiple locations. The bottom photo is amazing. The caption is "heat bleeding through from attic area due to loose insulation." It really does look like it is "bleeding" too.

What is pretty impressive about the technology is that you can more accurately nail a leak in a roof, condensation in a wall due to duct work that is loose or seeping, and even find those old bottles and nails left inside a wall from when it was constructed!

Is this for everybody? Maybe not this level of service. If I were buying a distressed or foreclosed property in this day and time I would get one of these services done.

HomePro does do the same basic inspections that any home inspector might do in addition to infrared. They have their patented "Blue Book" that goes through a soothing color coded section of warm to hot to help you as a home owner, home buyer, or Realtor see what problem areas exist in a property and which one's are no big deal.

Would use HomePro and Mark Lotane again in a heartbeat to help identify potential issues. Other than Mark, no one in town can "see through walls." He is my resident Superman in terms of getting my clients answers on area homes. Not sure if he can leap tall buildings though...

Foreclosures in the Greater Athens GA area

Foreclosures in the Greater Athens GA area now linked via the Athens MLS and GA MLS to the Blog Roll. Make your foreclosure searches even easier!

Greater Athens area Sales Trends and Market Data

Through August 20, 2009, performance in different sectors of our market;

		Homes Sold	$ Volume
Year To Date		% Change	% Change
Oglethorpe		5.08%	-21.60%
Barrow		-35.73%	-47.55%
Jackson		-14.75%	-29.40%
Oconee		-28.98%	-36.99%
Athens-Clarke		-36.25%	-42.52%

Keep in mind that a decrease in sales volume doesn’t necessarily mean that prices have decreased. It does show that lower priced homes have been the norm to sell this year as opposed to last. Areas of the Athens market beating the norm are homes priced between $30,000-$69,999. Sales of homes in this price range have actually increased this year in terms of the number of homes sold. Hardest hit price points are from $180,000+ which have had a reduction in the number of homes sold within higher price ranges of anywhere from 50 to 81 percent during 2009. In Oconee County are seeing an increase for the year in sales up to $120,000 over last year and then decreases in sales figures as we start climbing over $200,000.

Areas we have seen life in during these summer months are between $200,000-$299,999. In this range we have seen an increase in the number of homes sold, as compared to last summer, of 19 homes sold versus 7 a year ago which is almost a 300% increase year over year. Also 3 out of 5 homes sold in Athens in the last two months were sold between $120,000-$180,000.

Athens GA Homes, Market, and Trends

Home Sales statistics in Athens, GA over the past week;

Statistics (22 listings)
	Low	High	Average	Median	Total
List Price	$28,500	$670,000	$192,549	$144,500	$4,236,074
Selling Price	$28,500	$610,000	$179,591	$136,000	$3,951,000
List/Sold(%)	78.35%	101.35%	93.97%	94.75%	--
Days on Market	19	906	227	121	--

While days on market were a little higher than had been the norm of late, the average priced sale was also a bit higher thanks to a full 21 percent of sales being in excess of $300,000. 63 percent of these sales were in East Athens, which remains a hot spot in town due to lower than the overall median home price for the area.

On sales over $300,000 this week we saw an average List/Sold percentage of "only" 91.77 percent with the low at 88 percent of List/Sales price. Compare this to sales price below $215,000, and we see at List/Sold percentage or ratio of almost 95 percent of list price.

As far as foreclosure sales are concerned, only 3 out of these 22 home sales were bank owned sales. Compared to the most recent figures from the NAR where in July 31 percent of homes sold nationwide are foreclosure sales, our 13.63 percent of foreclosure sales is thankfully low in comparison. In fact, if you go back over the past six months in Athens, GA you will find 71 bank owned foreclosure sales out of 468 total homes sold. Foreclosures nationwide have made up anywhere from a high of 49 percent of the market down to a recent 31 percent in recent months. At 15.3 percent over this time frame, we have had a relatively consistent market on distressed property this year. Consistently low as compared to non-distressed sales.

This is a great deal to be thankful for in our marketplace!

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.