Atlanta Housing Market Updates--2013 (for sale, real estate, foreclosures)

[K-SawDude]

To keep too many housing threads from proliferating in the forum, I thought I'd start an ongoing thread for Atlanta-specific housing news for this year.

First up, some mostly good news--Atlanta has become perhaps the top market for investors looking to scoop up single-family homes. More here:

As prices rise, rental home investors seek new markets | Pensacola News Journal | pnj.com

Like many of the big investors, Blackstone started investing in Phoenix. It next moved into California, then Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Chicago, Las Vegas and Charlotte. . . .
Colony, for instance, has slowed purchases in Phoenix. Consultant Burns says Atlanta is perhaps the hottest investor market now. Local real estate experts are seeing the impact.
Investors "are a significant force in the market right now," says Mike Prewett, president of Southern REO Associates, Atlanta.
Prewett estimates that investors are buying 40% of foreclosed homes in the Atlanta area, triple the level of a year ago. Almost all foreclosures for sale draw multiple offers, often 10 or more, Prewett says. . . .
While investor buyers have helped prop up prices, they're making it tougher for regular home shoppers to compete.
Tom and Cyndi Vander Ven have been shopping for a home in Atlanta since September. The retired couple, both teachers, want to downsize. They've lost out on three bids so far, even though they offered more than the asking price. All of the homes got multiple offers. After bidding on one, they found out it was being considered as part of a bulk sale to investors.
They would have made more offers by now but other homes they see listed are sold "before we can even move on them," he says.

[ATLTJL]

I don't necessarily know if I would say having a ton of housing inventory snatched up by investors to become rental properties is good news for the market.

[ChefRamsey]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I don't necessarily know if I would say having a ton of housing inventory snatched up by investors to become rental properties is good news for the market.

[K-SawDude]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I don't necessarily know if I would say having a ton of housing inventory snatched up by investors to become rental properties is good news for the market.

I'll leave that point open for debate. But for purpose of discussion, would you prefer to have those foreclosures continuing to sit on the market for 3-5 more years? It's arguably a good thing, at least from the perspective of property values and city revenues, to dry up this excess inventory soon.

My personal opinion is that it's probably better than current conditions to have anyone buying these properties. But I also think the quality of landlord largely determines housing/neighborhood conditions, so a lot depends on *who* will be renting these properties out and *whom* they'll be renting to.

[ATLTJL]

I'll leave that point open for debate. But for purpose of discussion, would you prefer to have those foreclosures continuing to sit on the market for 3-5 more years?

To answer this question, yes.

Yes, I would rather have pain for 3-5 more years and let individual owners purchase these homes than to let investors buy them. Once investors snatch them up, they are unlikely to ever sell them. So long as the properties generate profit, they have little motivation to keep up and/or improve the properties.

Everyone knows a lot of rentals aren't good for the neighborhood. That's why HOAs cap them.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by K-SawDude

To keep too many housing threads from proliferating in the forum, I thought I'd start an ongoing thread for Atlanta-specific housing news for this year.

First up, some mostly good news--Atlanta has become perhaps the top market for investors looking to scoop up single-family homes. More here:

As prices rise, rental home investors seek new markets | Pensacola News Journal | pnj.com

This is not good, because the investors are just renting, and keeping real buyers from getting these homes. This will simply keep people renting longer.

[tonygeorgia]

Aren't the investors still paying taxes on the homes?

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by tonygeorgia

Aren't the investors still paying taxes on the homes?

The real question: are the investors providing the same level of upkeep on those homes that an individual owner would, or are they letting the properties deteriorate over time?

Paying taxes provides nice benefits for the schools, etc., but that by itself doesn't do squat to help maintain property values in the immediate area. Renters who don't care, and/or landlords who don't care are a much larger potential problem... IMO, obviously.

[K-SawDude]

Not sure economists agree with the anti-renting sentiments expressed in this thread. One recent example:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/bu...thousands.html

Economists say that these investors could help stabilize home prices. “If you have a lot of foreclosures in one community you will improve everybody’s home values if you take them off the market,” said Diane Swonk, the chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “If those homes are renovated and even rented, it is a lot better than having them stand empty.”

But the article also notes that some are concerned about how investing firms will manage such large housing portfolios.

This investor-purchase-foreclosure process isn't specific to Atlanta, btw. And as the article mentions, Atlanta is a hot market now because investors also see job growth prospects here (i.e., there will be renters who can pay $$$ to rent these places).

[K-SawDude]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

The real question: are the investors providing the same level of upkeep on those homes that an individual owner would, or are they letting the properties deteriorate over time?

Paying taxes provides nice benefits for the schools, etc., but that by itself doesn't do squat to help maintain property values in the immediate area. Renters who don't care, and/or landlords who don't care are a much larger potential problem... IMO, obviously.

Aren't there examples of crappy homeowners who let their properties go down the toilet, too? I sometimes think we overrate homeowners while underacknowledging the fact that our economy has a much larger range of renters than it did even a few years ago, thanks to the recession. (Some of these new renters WERE former homeowners, btw, and they aren't any worse at upkeep now than they were previously.)

And it's arguable that renters might be more likely to upkeep a house than an unoccupied foreclosure just sitting there doing nothing for years.