Atlanta’s Realtors Discuss Recent Market Trends

The information surrounding the real estate market in Atlanta might be getting a little hyperbolic. 
We’ve been hearing it for months: A saturated market. Thousands of foreclosures. A stalled economy.
The root of the issue, according to realtors and economic experts, points toward property that was sold to people who couldn’t afford it. Banks issued large loans. Builders developed property at a record pace. And the real estate market boomed.
But when new homeowners started missing their payments, when new houses sat on the market for months, and when foreclosures piled up, the real estate market plummeted into a downward spiral out of which it has yet to climb. 
The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran an article about the current state of the city’s market. Journalist Kevin Duffy interviewed Jim Crawford, a real estate agent with ReMAx Greater Atlanta.
Crawford got into real estate 16 years ago. The market was struggling then, too. He says that today’s unfortunate situation is due to a lack of common sense.
Crawford said builders, lenders, agents and buyers all created a fantasy world where anyone could get a loan to buy a house, and now the reckoning has arrived.
“What we have to acknowledge as a society is we got really stupid in the last couple years,” he said.
On top of that, rising joblessness and more foreclosures threaten to worsen the problem before the market makes a turnaround. 
Crawford champions Internet marketing, blogs on the real estate network ActiveRain (which led to the quick sale of his own home last year) and speaks at seminars and retreats.
The problem now is that the Atlanta marketplace is saturated. People are hesitant to buy; they are worried about their jobs and their savings. Realtors, sellers and buyers must employ a certain amount of risk taking, as well as common sense.
Duffy asked Crawford what the key was to selling in today’s environment.
I started listing houses here [in 1992] that sat for 2 1/2 years. Pricing has to be dead on in this market. We are shooting a moving target. Maybe some granite. Maybe it needs a whole new paint job, starting with the ceilings. Sellers resist. My answer to them is, the same way you’re resisting is the same way buyers will resist.