Real Estate has been pretty busy last week. Our MLS had 8853 new listings come onto the market. 6775 went under contract and 4396 have closed this week. 11,100 active listings took price reductions this week. All the price reductions would make me think that possibly prices are dropping but the stats say that the average price in Metro Atlanta is up $900 over last month. Its not a lot but it is an increase. Interest rates today are right at 7%
Back in November the Federal Housing Finance Agency FHFA announced that conforming loan limits for metro Atlanta were raised to $806,500. This means that if a buyer is buying a home and the loan amount is at or less than $806,500 then they will not have to get a jumbo mortgage. Jumbo mortgages carry different loan conditions and definitely have different interest rates. Areas in other parts of the US with a higher average price point will have higher conforming loan limits. For instance Beverly Hills California the loan limit $1,209,750. Prices continue to rise and this change will make getting a normal conventional mortgage more inline with pricing today.
