Recently much news has been made about the increasing house values around the country. Apparently the depths of the Great Recession are behind us and real estate is in full recovery mode. According to the Case-Shiller Atlanta home price index, housing values increased 18.44% year-over-year as of August 2013.
This is, of course, an average increase in house values for Atlanta real estate as a whole. I have found wide disparities from this average as I analyze values by neighborhood throughout the metro area. If we dig into the Case-Shiller Atlanta home price index a little further we can see where some of the variation is coming from.
The Case-Shiller Atlanta data can also be viewed as raw price tier data. They have segmented the sales data into three price tiers. The lowest tier is properties that are worth less than $131,936. The middle tier are properties between $131,936 and $249,761. The highest tier is properties worth more than $249,761.
The lowest tier was hit the hardest during the recession. Lower valued property values dropped over 60% from the market peak in the summer of 2007 to the bottom early in 2012. These properties have also rebounded the most over the year ended in August 2013. The lowest tier has increased approximately 34% over the year ended August.
The middle tier of Atlanta real estate values lost approximately 44% of their value from the top of the market to the bottom. These properties have increased nearly 28% over the year ended August. They didn’t fall as much as the lowest tier and their bounce-back hasn’t been as strong.
The top tier of Atlanta real estate values declined the least during the Great Recession. The top tier lost just over 31% of value from the top of the market to the bottom. Over the year ended August 2013 the top tier has gained nearly 13% in value.
Of course these three tiers of values are for the entire Atlanta metro area. As a result, we can expect to find wide variation in average increase from neighborhood to neighborhood within the same price tier. For an independent estimate of your Atlanta real estate value contact an Atlanta appraiser. For help in getting your property tax reduced contact Fair Assessments.
