However, B. Steal does have a jaded opinion of the love affair with home values. Unbalanced tax policy that favors owners over renters and a real estate industry that over-romances the benefits of ownership has created financial bad behavior and contributed significantly to our current pickle. Real estate values can be very volitile and the “American Dream” notion can really only be experienced via mowing the lawn and opening a tax bill.

For example, if you bought in Q3 2008 with a reasonable 20% down payment, the 11% value decrease means that you have lost more than half of your equity – that 20% down. Compare that to renting. It will be interesting to see if B. Steal can carry the same sober tune in Q2 2009.
B. Steal

Given the limited space available in the city of Decatur, the supply of single family homes is naturally limited (as is the ability to build new ones). Meanwhile, population is increasing.

Lastly, most of our homes are very close in value to what it actually costs to build the home in the first place. In a good area like Decatur, when the construction cost is close to the value of a home, depreciation is going to be temporary and confined to specific cases that don’t have the luxury of time.

For these reasons, it would be unlikely for any property value loss in Decatur to extend beyond the recession. If I had a house on the market, I would pull it off and wait for Spring. If I needed to buy a house, I would do it now.

Obviously, as goes Atlanta goes Decatur…though I agree with many of the commenters above who believe that Decatur is in the right side of the anti “oh my god I live in the middle of nowhere subdivision” trend, and therefore is in a pretty good position considering.

Couple that with the fact that Atlanta never saw the bubble that many other cities did (and thus is seeing a smaller 11% decline), and I still don’t think we’ll get “creamed” comparatively.