Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Atlanta Re-Busting!

Continuing the “RE-Busting” series let’s take a look at the latest sorry inductee, Atlanta as seen by the Radar Logic home price data.

The spring and early summer of 2009 was an optimistic period for home buyers in Atlanta… The weather was described by some to be “fantastic”, the worst of the economic/housing decline was said to be over and the Feds were doling out cash for first time home “buyers” like casino bucks.

Home prices boomed increasing 14% between just April and late July but little did these unwitting “buyers” know that the government’s tax-carrot was dangled over an abyss of asset price deflation.

The trend topped out in early August and slid back to the lows by mid-September.

Worse yet, even the first expiration of the first time home buyer tax gimmick couldn’t prevent a further decline as home prices continued to slide to where they sit today at a low for the series (lower than at any point in over 10 years) some 36.66% below the peak level seen in June 2007 and 21% below the level seen at the mini-peak of the summer of 2009.