Metro Atlanta’s housing market in October was solid and steady

October was a positive month for Metro Atlanta’s housing market, with sales, prices and inventory all in positive territory, according to the newest report from the Atlanta Board of Realtors.

The specific numbers offer telling insights into the state of the ATL’s market, and below, we have gathered the four most notable stats from ABR’s report.

1. -11 Percent – That is the amount that home sales declined from September to October, dropping from 4,413 to 3,926. Although sales were still up from Oct. 2014, it was only a slight 0.5 percent increase. Such stats are not necessarily bad news for Atlanta’s market; rather, they indicate that fundamentals are balanced enough that the market is experiencing a natural, autumnal slowdown, one that will likely reverse when the market picks up in 2016.

2. 3.8 – That is the months supply inventory currently in Metro Atlanta. Far below historical norms, Atlanta’s housing inventory has struggled all of 2015, and unfortunately, October did not offer much relief, with inventory rising just 0.2 percent from Oct. 2014 and new listings falling 1.7 percent. There are numerous reasons for inventory’s current state, from new construction imbalances to the persistent problem of negative equity, and it will likely take housing several more months to work through those issues.

3. 274,000 – That is the average sales price for Metro Atlanta in October, and it represents a 5.4 percent increase from a year ago. Median sales price, meanwhile, was $219,000, a 6.8 percent increase year-over-year. Atlanta is still among the most affordable metro areas in the country, but as we recently documented, recent construction activity and other housing trends have put a serious dent in Atlanta’s affordability, and we’ll be closely tracking home prices to see how the market develops.

4. 70.8% – That is the share of home sales in Metro Atlanta that came from the area’s four most populous counties of Cobb (701 sales), DeKalb (522 sales), Fulton (718 sales) and Gwinnett (838 sales). Interestingly, the sales prices for the counties differed considerably. At $193,000, Gwinnett median sales price was the lowest, followed by DeKalb’s $212,000 and Cobb’s $225,000; at $335,000, Fulton was on top, which is not surprising given the county’s prominence in the city of Atlanta.