I was going to post some amazing photos this morning I took at 1010 Midtown yesterday, but this deserves way more attention. 

Every Friday morning I pour myself a cup of coffee and download the latest e-dition of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Imagine my shock when I saw the news… “Jenny Pruitt to Market High-Rise Condos.” Big deal right? The real news is they are using the name “Skyrise Group.” What? 

They couldn’t have thought of anything original? Were they were doing some research and came across my website and information? Who else would have come up with the name skyrise here in Atlanta? I pretty much have the Atlanta market covered with atlantaSKYrise.com and atlantaSKYriseblog.com. This really makes me very upset that Jenny Pruitt and David Boehmig are trying to capitalize on what I have already built up. But isn’t that always the way things go? Someone works really hard to build something, and then someone else tries to step on them? Now it is true that I can’t stop them from using a similar name, but I do have some other tricks up my sleeve. 

While imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery, it can also demonstrate a total lack of imagination and inept marketing. So, no – I’m not affiliated with Jenny Pruitt in any way, shape or form. Skyrise Group isn’t part of what I am doing, nor should you get confused when you see their marketing. 

By Amanda Gengler, Money Magazine
Last Updated: May 12, 2008: 1:06 PM EDT
(Money Magazine)

There’s no guarantee that prices have hit bottom yet – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get a great deal now. To win, you’ve got to learn a new playbook.

And there’s no telling how long the housing crisis will drag on. Here’s what you need to know before you start shopping in a rocky market.

Face it: The house you buy today will more than likely be worth less next year. That could get you thinking about trying to time the bottom. Resist. It’s harder to do than you think, and this is the best buyers have had it in two decades, with inventories up and mortgage rates low.

Pace yourself, find the perfect place and drive a hard bargain: Ignore the seller’s asking price and bid 10% below what comparable homes are selling for. If the seller balks, move on. Remember that if you’re trading up, your home could sit. So sell before you buy.

Homes are plentiful and will remain so, but financing will be getting more expensive. True, the Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates, but fixed mortgages don’t directly follow the Fed. They reflect the bond market’s expectations about inflation, which remains a concern. The 30-year, now at 6.1%, will likely reach mid-6% by December and 7% in 2009, says Celia Chen of Moody’s Economy.com.

That means there could be a penalty for waiting to buy even if prices fall more. Today a $250,000 loan would set you back $1,500 a month. At 7%, a $1,500 payment gets you only a $225,000 mortgage. As for variable-rate loans, the spread between conforming ARMs and fixed loans is too narrow to do you much good.

Mortgages in amounts greater than $417,000 – the limit for buying by federally sponsored mortgage agencies – usually run a fifth of a percentage point above conventional products. But investors are shunning jumbos, which now average 7.2% and are unlikely to drop much this year, according to HSH Associates.

Certain jumbo borrowers could get relief, however. A new law allows Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to buy loans as large as $729,750 in 71 high-priced areas. So far “jumbo conforming” loans average 6.6%. The program has gotten off to a slow start; you’ll need to shop around. And unless Congress acts, this bargain will disappear at year-end.

By now you’ve heard from somebody who knows somebody who got a great deal on a foreclosed property. But when you buy a house, you’re also buying into a neighborhood. And foreclosures tend to be bunched in areas where residents and speculators alike took out exotic mortgages to get into homes they subsequently found they couldn’t afford. That’s not a recipe for stability. Prices and quality of life could both decline further.

Similarly, avoid developments that popped up in the past few years. They too likely have a lot of owners with risky loans and little equity, says Mike Larson of Weiss Research. Instead, go for areas with highly rated schools. They generally fare better during downturns, and that pattern is holding today, according to a recent study by real estate site Trulia.com.

The real estate game has a built-in conflict of interest, since the listing agent and your agent both get paid by the seller. And these days more sellers are offering extra cash to buyer’s agents.

So make sure you’re not being steered to a house that’s better for your agent than for you. Agree up front on his commission (typically 3%) and that any extra payments will go to you, says Jon Boyd, past president of a buyer’s agent trade group.

By Amanda Gengler, Money Magazine
Last Updated: May 12, 2008: 12:39 PM EDT
(Money Magazine)

Whether you’re buying or selling, the real estate game has changed. To win, you’ve got to learn a new playbook.

Selling a home is a lot trickier than it used to be – here’s how to be smart about pricing, presentation and incentives.

Rule 1: Get real about price
Too many sellers set their price based on yesterday’s market. Big mistake. “The first buyers in tend to pay the best price, so you need to price it right at the start,” says Pamela Liebman, CEO of the Corcoran Group brokerage.

Have three area brokers prepare what’s called a comparable market analysis. It will list asking and selling prices of similar homes, as well as amenities and sizes. If there’s little inventory in your price range, list for what others are asking. If a lot of homes like yours are on the market, then look to generate buzz, says Liebman.

Set an asking price 10% below what homes like yours have been selling for. That raises the odds of your getting multiple offers. If your market is really frozen and you need to drop the price, make one large cut. No baby steps.

Rule 2: Vet your agent – especially if it’s you
Selling on your own in an unprecedented slowdown means you’ll have to work awfully hard marketing your home. If you aren’t prepared for that, hire a broker. Avoid newbies. You want an agent who has been through good times and bad and who has a track record that you can verify with clients.

Rule 3: Pimp your house – hire a home stager
To sell today, you’ve got to glam up your home. A stager will help get rid of clutter (especially clutter you don’t see); rearrange furniture to create attractive focal points; repurpose underused rooms, turning, say, that makeshift bedroom in the basement into a rec room; and pick paint and curtains that make rooms appear spacious. A consultation may run $200. Completing the plan could cost $1,000 or more. It’s worth it.

Rule 4: Cash will make your home look even better
Given the number of listings out there, you want to throw in a little something extra to make your house catch the eye of buyers and their agents. Rather than hand out a cruise or a car – skeptics might wonder why you’re so desperate -offer something that will make your home more affordable, such as paying part of the buyer’s closing costs.

In the multiple-listing service description of your house that agents can see, let them know you’re offering a $1,000 bounty or a 4% commission to the one who brings in the purchaser. It will mean more knocks on your door.

Rule 5: Underwater? Learn to swim
If you’re a recent buyer, your mortgage may well top what your home would go for today. About a third of those who bought last year or in 2006 now have negative equity, according to Zillow.com. If a job or family issue compels you to move, your options aren’t great, but you have a few.

First, you may be able to persuade your new employer to make you whole on the loan. Second, if the rental market in your area is strong (as is the case in many spots that were healthy but not overly bubbly during the boom), you can become a landlord and wait out the slump. Third, of course, is to sell for as much as you can (see Rule No. 1) and raid your savings for the difference.

Short sales, in which the bank agrees to take less than it’s owed and release you from your debt, get a lot of media attention. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to come by. A bank usually will consider one only if you’re at risk for foreclosure. Even then it may say, “No, thanks.”

Another article stating Atlanta is bucking the national housing trend. This was published by cnnmoney.com. I did not include any information for the other cities included in the article, just their name. There is a link to the full article at the end of this post.

Ten Cities Ready To Bounce Back

By Paul Kaihla, CNNMoney.com

The horror show of America’s residential real estate market just keeps getting scarier, what with the sub-prime mortgage crisis threatening to slash demand for homes while the inventory of unsold properties continues to pile up. It’s enough to send any prudent investor fleeing to the relative sanity of, say, the stock market.

Don’t. Instead, get ready for the bounce-back. The oldest rule of investing dictates that you buy low and sell high. Real-estate buyers aren’t at the gate, however, because most local markets have yet to hit bottom. In fact, most cities won’t do so for another year.

But Business 2.0, working with Moody’s Economy.com, has unearthed 10 major metropolitan areas that are bucking the national housing trend. By the beginning of next year, these markets should be coming back to life — and in our exclusive rankings, we’ve projected the house-price appreciation these cities will enjoy during 2008 and 2009. The gains may seem modest — they range from about 4 to 7 percent — but remember, in the midst of the current housing meltdown, any gain at all constitutes a minor miracle.

What our 10 cities have in common is that they’re relatively affordable. They missed out on the housing bubble, yet they still enjoy steady employment and income growth. Not surprisingly, five of the 10 are state capitals with hefty public payrolls. Even more telling, with the exception of the three Texas metros ( Austin, Dallas, and Houston), the big national builders didn’t make significant incursions into these markets.

“These cities didn’t draw in speculators or investment the way the coastal markets did,. says Celia Chen, the Economy.com economist who crunched our numbers.” “House prices in these places weren’t untethered from the underlying fundamentals.” These underappreciated — but soon-to appreciate — housing markets offer real opportunities to the savvy investor.

1. Dallas- Fort Worth
2. Indianapolis
3. New Orleans
4. Atlanta

   Projected median sales prices for single-family homes:
   Q1 2008: $177,750
   Q4 2009: $187,640
   Growth: 5.6 percentHalf a million dollars probably won’t buy you a home in one of Atlanta’s Martha Stewart-style neighborhoods. And that’s a good thing, argues Dan Forsman, CEO of Prudential Atlanta. Forsman says the smart money here will move upmarket, in exactly the opposite direction of where it will go in New Orleans. A contrarian by nature, he sees the biggest arbitrage in properties priced at $750,000 in high-end communities northeast of the city — suburbs like Druid Hills, Duluth, Johns Creek, and Suwanee. The construction cost of a home in those pockets is $260 a square foot; right now, you can pick one off for $180.Boding well for the local economy, “Hotlanta” boasts one of the highest rates of job growth in so-called creative-class occupations in the country. Why? It’s the top destination in America for young professionals, a transportation hub ( Atlanta’s airport is the busiest in the world), and a place where most Fortune 500 companies maintain a regional presence. Projections by researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau and Virginia Tech place Atlanta at the center of a “megapolitan” cluster of urban sprawl that will develop over the next quarter-century, encompassing 7 million people.

   This points to another niche real estate play: As buildable land around the city disappears, downtown neighborhoods on the brink of transformation are ripe for investment.

5. Montgomery
6. Memphis
7. Mobile
8. Austin
9. Houston
10. St. Louis

The original article can be found here.

This is a great article from the AJC – Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta’s market is still strong and is better than most markets. In the coming weeks, I’ll post some statistics which will surprise many people.

Georgia home prices remain stable despite perceptions

By John Adams
Published on: 11/18/07

Believe it or not, your home is likely worth more today than it was a year ago.

Two recent studies have highlighted the strength of metro Atlanta housing prices, even as most other parts of the nation have seen price declines of up to 10 percent over last year.

The first study is the widely followed S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index, which claims to be the leading measure of U.S. home prices. It covers data through August of this year and shows declines in the prices of existing single family homes in 15 of the 20 metro areas surveyed. The area with the largest decline was metro Tampa, with a double-digit drop of 10.1 percent since August of 2006.

Atlanta was among the five gainers, but claimed less than a 1 percent increase over the period.

Areas reporting the biggest price gains were Seattle at 5.7 percent, followed by Charlotte at 5.6 percent. Portland showed a 2.8 percent increase, while Dallas squeaked out a gain of half a percent for the past year.

The Case-Schiller team of economists recognized in the 1980s that home prices tended to be “inflexible” downward. That’s because many owners will refuse to sell at a price less than what they paid for a property.

This inflexibility is observed most strongly in residential real estate and has been shown to have a strong stabilizing effect on home prices.

In addition to Tampa’s weak performance, home price drops were seen in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and New York. In addition, both San Diego and San Francisco made the list of losers, leading to the conclusion that those areas hardest hit were the same ones that had experienced rapid price run-ups in recent years.

I suspect part of Atlanta’s ability to retain even a minimum level of price appreciation is that our price gains over the past decade were modest compared with many parts of the nation. It seems that Atlanta’s housing prices were fueled more by job growth and relocation than by the frenzy and speculation that drove some areas.

This conclusion is supported by a recently released study of America’s metropolitan areas by the Brookings Institution, called Blueprint for American Prosperity. This study concludes that America stands in a position of economic strength, but that we need to leverage key assets such as innovation, human capital and infrastructure. The study suggests that these assets tend to concentrate principally in our nation’s major metropolitan areas.

This study produced what it calls MetroNation Profiles, a sort of state-by-state review of the top 100 metropolitan areas, and gives statistics associated with those areas, highlighting the importance of these economic engines. In this study, metro areas often cross state boundaries.

For example, Georgia contains all or part of three of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Augusta and Chattanooga — which alone account for 60 percent of the state’s population, 62 percent of the state’s jobs, and 71 percent of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). All 15 of Georgia’s metros constitute 81 percent of the state’s population, 84 percent of the state’s jobs, and 89 percent of the state’s GDP.

It is a widely established fact that home prices tend to follow job growth, and if an area’s prices are holding up well in the current real estate market, there should be a correlation with job growth. The good news is that the study found metro Atlanta to be ranked 10th in job growth among all metro areas nationwide, with some 67 percent of all jobs in the state being Atlanta-based.

Yet, the fact that home prices in metro Atlanta are up will come as a surprise to most Atlantans.

I conducted a completely unscientific poll over the past couple of weeks, asking everyone I talked with whether they believed home prices were up, stable, or down over the past year. Almost everyone was convinced that real estate prices were down significantly.

Stay tuned for the release of the Federal House Price Index coming up on Nov. 29. This report is a study of price movements based on a much larger sample of homes than the Case-Schiller Index, and includes both resales and refinancings through the end of September.

The original article can be found here.