Atlantic Beach Real Estate Up and Down - Both Good News!

By that headline, I mean that the number of property sales in Atlantic Beach is up, higher than in almost a year, with 19 sales during the month of April (vs. 10 in March) . The last time there were more than 19 property sales in Atlantic Beach was June, 2007 with 20 sales...hooray!

What's down is the "months of inventory," which was a little over 16 months in April. That's still higher than what we're used to but a lot better than 30+ months' inventory in March. May, 2007 was the last time we had fewer months' inventory than we had in April, 2008.

You can check out this analysis for more details, and I'll be posting some volume, average and median price analysis soon.

Now don't rush right out and put your home on the market...my advice is still to keep your home off the market unless you absolutely have to sell. Remember the law of supply and demand. If we want to see price increase, we need less supply that demand. That's still not the case, but we're moving in the right direction.

If you do need to sell your home, pricing it right is the key. This is no time to be playing the games we used to play "back in the day." The market will not support over-priced homes at this time. It's really not a good idea to price higher than what you want with the thinking that a buyer will offer less than what you're asking. The buyer might offer less than asking price, but a good agent will be able to help you defend the list price of your home and negotiate a close-to-full-price contract. If we get the real estate market more in balance, neither buyers nor sellers will be in a position to have a "take it or leave it" attitude. It will be better for everyone.

If you or someone you know is in the unfortunate circumstance of preforeclosure, you might want to (have them) get in touch with me. I've been working as a Certified Loss Mitigation Consultant with a foreclosure prevention company and also as a Short Sale Specialist.

If you can afford your home but got behind in your payments and are having trouble catching up, foreclosure prevention is a very real possibility. If you can't afford your home any longer due to a change in income, expenses or interest rate, then a short sale is probably the way to go. Your credit score will suffer some (it may have already), but handled properly you could settle with the mortgage lender for less than you owe and avoid having a foreclosure or a deficiency judgment.

While I'm adept in handling a successful foreclosure prevention or short sale, if you're considering bankruptcy you need to talk to your attorney. Often times bankruptcy only postpones the foreclosure, doesn't protect your credit score, and results in a situation that's worse than before. To find out any tax consequences that a short sale may have for you, please consult with a tax adviser. What I know about possible tax ramifications is all second hand and definitely not official, so I wouldn't dare advise you!

Keep smiling! Things are looking up! "On the fence" investors and/or buyers should start making decisions before significant price increases come along.

Now if we could do something about those gas prices...