Atlanta REALTORS® released its latest Market Brief report on home sales and prices for single-family residential properties last week. Annual differences were promising, whereas changes between December 2016 and January 2017 reflected losses rather than gains: sale prices suffered comparatively little damage, with changes not surpassing a six percent decrease, though the number of home sales saw a decline of more than 30 percent.

On an annual level, Metro Atlanta has had a lucrative year. Home sales have risen to 2,927 in January 2017 from 2,914 in January 2016, marking a 0.40 percent increase. The median sales price rose by 7.7 percent to $225,000 in January compared to $209,000 the previous year. The average sales price also increased by 2.5 percent, inching up to $282,000 from $275,000.

However, sales in January 2017 marked a substantial month-over-month decrease of 33.6 percent, dropping from 4,411 homes in December to 2,927. Median prices decreased 5.1 percent from $237,000 in December 2016 to $225,000 in January 2017.

Housing inventory slowly regains momentum 

“Low inventory continued to be an issue for Metro Atlanta throughout 2016 with inventory still hovering at just over three months of supply.  As a result, Median Home prices continued to rise over 2015 and overall, 2016 sales were also up from 2015.  This continues a trend of steady positive growth each month for the past five years.  With the economy overall showing signs of growth and consumer confidence on the rise, we remain bullish about the real estate market outlook for 2017,” Bill Rawlings, president of ARA, was quoted in a statement accompanying the report.

Affirming Rawlings’ conclusions, Atlanta’s area housing inventory totaled at 14,705 units in January, increasing by 11.0 percent from January, 2016. The most significant change was seen in new listings, which increased by 0.7 percent from January 2016 and by a whopping 45.4 percent from the previous month. The month’s supply over a 12-month period remained at 3.1 months.

Atlanta home sales at the county level

ARA also spotlighted the housing markets of Metro Atlanta’s largest counties, and we have organized those statistics in our chart below: