Pickens County Real Estate Summary from 2008
by Don Martin ~ January 29th, 2009
The sky did not fall in 2008, but we did have a pretty low ceiling for most of the year.
Pickens County Georgia
According to REALIST, a national tax and real estate information service, overall sales in the county fell from 688 units in 2007 to 394 units in 2007. That amounts to a decline of almost 43% year to year. On the other hand the average sale only fell about 13%. That includes foreclosure sales so the value of resale homes actually held up pretty well. According to the First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS) one of the two major real estate services in this area and the one that most properties in PIckens County are listed on there were 257 listed single family homes sold in 2008 with lowest listing price of $49,999 and a highest of $2,295,000. The average list price was $219,008 and the average sold price was $205,964. That means that homes sold for about 94% of their final asking price. Of course, some homes had price reductions after their initial listings and these numbers also include a number of bank owned properties; those two factors would tend to offset each other, so by this measure the value of the homes also held up pretty well. The average time on the market was 118 days with 1 home selling the day it was listed and one being on the market for 523 days.
Buyers continue to make offers as there are currently 20 sales pending. It is interesting to note that the average list price on those 20 is about $50,000 below the average for last year so many of these are the “necessary” moves caused by relocation and job transfer.
Sales in the large gated communities in Pickens County (Big Canoe and Bent Tree) were off about 1/3 and prices there held at about 94% of asking price, so prices held pretty well, but the days on the market was about 50 days longer on average. If you would like to see a more detailed discussion of Bent Tree sales please visit my Bent Tree Blog.
The current active FMLS listings for the county total 498 and the average list price is approximately $333,000 or over a $100,000 over the average of the sold homes. That further re-inforces that there is more activity on the lower end of the range as opposed to the upper end. One final note on the county wide stats, REALIST reports that there are currently 156 homes in some stage of the foreclosure process. Some of those are showing up in the listings, but obviously we still have quite a few to work through.
If you have particular questions about the market please contact me directly or feel free to leave a comment on the blog and we’ll all discuss it.
See you round the mountains,
Don
