From Michelle Cavaliere of 4 Walls Realty – Keller Williams Intown Atlanta

Fourth quarter sales in the City of Decatur remained very strong, showing less of the often-observed end of year slowdown frequently associated with not wanting to buy/sell during the holidays.

Here’s a look the Q4 2015 data vs. previous quarters and Q4 2014.

Again we have two standouts here – the 12% increase in average sales price vs. Q4 2014, and the 38% increase in the number of homes sold vs. Q4 2014.

Sales price to list price jumped back above 98% in Q4 and was just shy of the Q4 2014 SP/LP.

Additionally, there was a 15% increase in the number of sales greater than $500,000 over the number sold last quarter and over the fourth quarter of 2014.

Days on market improved slightly from Q3 to an average of 36 days in Q4, and overall in 2015 properties were on the market a short 37 days.

Elementary School Districts

The quarterly home sales distribution by elementary school zone for 2015 is shown below.

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Map courtesy of United Van Lines.

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What a difference a few months and peak selling season make in the trends! Here’s a look at 2^nd Quarter 2015 data for several of Decatur’s direct neighbors. Our analysis of Q1 2015 can be found here.

The spring market delivered improvements over Q1 in all categories – the total number of homes sold doubled or tripled, days on market decreased, average sales price increased, and sales price to list price increased for the most part across all neighboring areas. Avondale Estates saw the most dramatic change over Q1 with triple the number of homes sold, days on market cut in half, a 4% gain in SP/LP, and a 41% rise in average sales price versus Q1.

The number of homes sold increased for all neighborhoods during the spring selling season. Of the adjoining neighborhoods, Druid Hills leads the pack with just over half the number sold in Decatur. Kirkwood comes in right behind Druid Hills, swapping places from Q1. Avondale, East Lake, and Medlock Park were nearly equal, hovering around 30 sales in Q2.

East Lake, Kirkwood and Medlock Park homes boasted the shortest time on the market at 31 days and just edging out Decatur at 36 days. Avondale Estates homes were on the market a bit longer, selling in approximately 1½ months. Homes in Druid Hills took the longest to sell averaging just less than 2 months, which is not unexpected since homes at the higher price points typically take longer to sell.

Sales Price to List Price remained strong in all neighboring areas. Kirkwood came in with the highest SP/LP at 99.5% and took over the top spot from East Lake in Q1. Medlock Park tied Decatur for the #2 spot at 98.8%.

Druid Hills held onto the highest average sales price, but only saw a 7% increase over Q1. Decatur posted the 2^nd highest average sales price and increased approximately 15% over Q1. Avondale ranked 3^rd in average sales price and had the biggest jump increasing 41% over Q1. Kirkwood and East Lake were 4^th and 5^th with 12% and 14% increases over Q1 respectively. Medlock Park rounded out the group hovering just above $250,000 and was the only neighborhood to show a drop over Q1 of approximately 3%.
The 3^rd Quarter numbers are likely to be interesting, since they combine the final two months of peak selling season with back to school.

Click over to our website to search for homes currently for sale.

Photo courtesy of Avondale Estates website

 

From Michelle Cavaliere of 4 Walls Realty – Keller Williams Intown Atlanta

Have several houses sold in your neighborhood this summer? Have you watched them sell in what seems like an instant? The second quarter numbers for City of Decatur are in and there are some eye-catching statistics to support those observations.

The table below compares Q2 vs. Q1 this year, as well as vs. second quarter 2014.

There are two obvious standouts here. The first is the increase in average sales price, which is up 15% over first quarter 2015 and a huge 24% over Q2 2014.  Additionally, the number of sales greater than $500,000 is approximately triple the number sold last quarter and almost 2.5 times the number sold in the second quarter of 2014. Days on market dropped again, falling to an average of 36 days.

Some of you expressed interest in the home sales distribution by school zone last quarter, so here’s the 2015 breakdown so far.

The Oakhurst Elementary district saw the largest jump in Q2, increasing to 2.5 times its Q1 number. The remaining gains over Q1 were fairly evenly distributed over the other elementary schools and consistent with the increase in total properties sold in Q2.

Finally, looking closer at residential detached vs. attached we again see some definitive trends.

Residential Attached

Although the proportion of condo and townhome sales held steady at approximately 1/3 of the total sales for Q2, the total number of residential attached sales almost doubled over Q1 2015. This was accompanied by a 20% increase in the average sales price vs. Q1, and a 38% increase over the average sales price compared to the same time period last year. A jump was also seen in the most popular number of bedrooms for condo and townhome properties from 2 to 3 bedrooms.

Residential Detached

The total number of single-family homes sold was 32% higher than the same time period last year. This was accompanied by a 12% increase in the average sales price vs. Q1, and an 18% increase over the average sales price over Q2 2014. The most popular number of bedrooms increased to 4 bedrooms from 3 bedrooms in Q1.

Obviously the Decatur real estate market is very active so far this year with two months still remaining of peak selling season.

If you are interested in finding out the market value of your home, click here. To see all homes currently for sale in Decatur, visit my website.

School System Composition Change: Percentage-Point Change in Enrollment, by Race/Ethnicity, 2000-2014

 

The Atlanta Regional Commission has an interesting new post on their Tumblr site “33°N” which charts the current and changing diversity of local school districts in the Atlanta region, Decatur city included.   Here’s a blurb…

As the 2014-2015 school year comes to a close, we thought it would be a good time to revisit the dramatic changes in the racial and ethnic compositions of local school systems. Naturally, these trends mirror general population trends, but, in many cases, the changes experienced in local school districts are even more dramatic than the overall population trends. In short, most school districts have seen large decreases in the share of White students enrolled, while experiencing concomitant increases in Asian, Black and Hispanic enrollment shares.

…Interestingly, the only two school districts that are bucking the overall trend are Atlanta Public Schools and the City Schools of Decatur. Both systems have experienced a decline in the share of Black enrollment while seeing an increase in the share of White enrollment.

Click over to their site to check out other charts that show the current breakdown of diversity in these districts as well as overall district-level of growth seen in the past 14 years.

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We’ve recently taken a close look at overall real estate trends in both Decatur and Druid Hills, how do the overall metrics in these areas compare to their neighbors?

Here’s a look at 1^st Quarter 2015 data for Decatur and several of its direct neighbors.

One interesting metric here is the number of homes sold. Obviously this number is influenced by the size of the area, but regardless, more homes were sold in Decatur than any other neighboring area.  Kirkwood leads the pack of adjoining neighborhoods with just over half the number sold in Decatur. Druid Hills comes in right behind Kirkwood. Avondale, East Lake, and Medlock Park only had a handful of sales in comparison.

Days on market were basically equal for Decatur, East Lake and Kirkwood and averaged just over a month. Druid Hills homes were on the market a bit longer, at approximately 1 ½ months.   Homes in Avondale took the longest to sell averaging 3 months.

Sales Price to List Price was strong in all neighboring areas. East Lake came in with the highest SP/LP, surpassing Decatur at 99.8%! Decatur and Kirkwood were tied for second at 98.4% SP/LP.

Not surprisingly, the highest average sales price was in Druid Hills, closely followed by Decatur. Kirkwood and East Lake came in 3^rd and 4^th, respectively and were very close in Average Sales Price. Medlock and Avondale rounded out the group hovering just above and just below $250,000, respectively.

While these numbers give us an interesting look at neighboring markets, keep in mind the small number of homes sold in some areas can lead skewed numbers if there is an outlier in the category (i.e. days on market, sales price).  We’ll take another look at the data after the 2^nd Quarter numbers are in.

Click over to our website to search for homes currently for sale.

Photo courtesy of Historic Kirkwood website

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A few weeks ago we looked at real estate trends for 1^st Quarter 2015 in City of Decatur. Now let’s take a look at the 1^st Quarter real estate market for our Druid Hills neighbors compared to the same time period last year.   We are specifically looking at the area defined as Druid Hills by the Druid Hills Civic Association.

Average sales price is down 2.5% vs. 1^st quarter last year and Days on Market increased slightly compared to the same period in 2014. While the sales of homes under $500,000 declined by 25% year over year, they still hold a small edge over the above $500,000 price point. Incidentally, only 2 sales in Q1 2015 and 2 sales in Q1 2014 were over $1M.

Breaking out sales by single-family homes vs. condos and townhomes yields some noteworthy trends.

The standout here is the 12.5% increase in the price of single-family homes vs. Q1 last year. This was accompanied by an increase in the most popular number of bedrooms from 3 to 4. Single-family homes spent a few extra days on the market and contributed to the overall increase seen in Q1 2015 over Q1 2014.

In comparison, there was only a 1.75% price increase for condos and townhomes. However, ½ of sales in Q1 2015 were condos and townhomes vs. only ⅓ during the same period in 2014.

Click over to our website to see homes currently for sale in Druid Hills.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia