Hey look, its everyone’s favorite home sales chart, updated through the first quarter!

While Decatur home sales aren’t what they used to be, the median home price in 30030 is still nearly on par with its year-ago average.  Pretty good considering that Atlanta home prices are down 25% from last year.

Also, after a single quarter decline, the average price continues to show an upward trend over the last 5 years.

As always, for comparison here’s 30306, 30307, 30308, 30316 and DeKalb County.  Everyone’s sales counts are at a stand-still, but it seems that Decatur is the only zip around with anything resembling upward momentum anymore.  The trendier zips to the west seem to have topped out in ’06-’07.

Oh and for the sadists, here’s poor 30032.

Graph Courtesy of city-data.com

As you can see above, 4th quarter home sales in the city of Decatur fell to their lowest level since Q1’03 (if that ’03 number can be believed).   As for the median home price, its down around its Q1’07 level – though the sample size is obviously much smaller than usual.

Looks like the trend is pretty consistant across the area – 30306, 30307, 30308, 30316, and DeKalb County.  Meanwhile, things in 30032 continue to just get worse.

Anyone know how many Decatur houses on average sold per quarter prior to the housing bubble?  That might give a better indication of the new normal.

I found these interesting charts over on the city-data, that lists homes sales by quarter (instead of year like the AJC). While every single one of the following charts shows the total number of homes sold plummet, Decatur saw the average home price rise the past two quarters after a bit of a drop in Q4’07. Also note the steady upward trend.

To compare to neighboring zip codes, click the continuation… Read the rest of this entry »

Worried about the real estate market? Well you probably should be.

But if you live in Decatur, you can breathe a little easier.

Despite a 19% drop in new home prices (a very volatile measure in an entirely built out area like Decatur – see orange line in the chart below), the steadier median resale price of existing homes in the city grew 6.57% in 2007 vs. 2006, according to the AJC’s Home Sale Report for 2007.

Only 14 other zip codes in the entire metro area had larger growth than that. (See the second chart on this page for that ranking) In DeKalb, only 30306 (Morningside) and 30324 (LaVista Park area) experienced larger growth.

Not too shabby. We must be doin’ something right.