Good News Report: April 2010 - Cobb County Acworth Real Estate

OK, I planned on posting a monthly Good News Report where I would give you the stats of the local house market to show homes are selling, even if less than before; but due to work demands, illnesses and life in general, I fell behind and I apologize! Here I hope to begin again and this time, keep it up!

For all of Cobb County, the tax site Realist.com gives the following numbers:

Single Family Residence
Time Period	Number of Sales	Median Sale Price
Feb 2010	283	$179,900
Feb 2009	313	$195,000
Jan 2010	315	$205,000
Jan 2009	357	$209,900
2010 YTD	1,149	$196,000
2009	6,191	$196,500

Condominium
Time Period	Number of Sales	Median Sale Price
Feb 2010	53	$170,000
Feb 2009	46	$174,500
Jan 2010	52	$143,950
Jan 2009	50	$155,700
2010 YTD	180	$149,950
2009	1,015	$152,000

After researching the numbers for just the city of Acworth, I found out the following:

TOTAL LISTINGS: 400 New,  183 Pending, and 115 Sold

AVG LIST PRICES: $271, 501 New, $215,365 Pending, $200,545 Sold

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET: 87

So there is a silver lining after all!  If  115  homes sold in Acworth alone in the month of April, that means there are buyers out there buying them! Obviously the market is not what it used to be, but that doesn't mean it is hopeless! If you are debating a big move, check out this post to see one perspective as to why it may not be so bad to lose a little bit on the sale of your current home. ; ) Now that's thinking outside the box!

Last time, I also figured the statistics for each neighborhood where a home sold, but this took forever and since that's part of the reason I fell behind on the Good News Report, I decided to just list below the neighborhoods that had the most sales and then figure the individual stats upon request:

Allatoona Bay

Arbor Walk

Baker Plantation

Brookstone

Camden Pointe

Centennial Commons

Chestnut Hill

Governors Towne Club

Hickory Forest

Huddlestone

Lake Park

McPherson Estates

Paces Club

Parkwood Commons

Proctor Landing Estates

Quail Pointe

Rivers Run

Summer Place

Summerfield

Thornwood

Wade Green Forest

Windcroft

If you would like to know your neighborhood's specific sales stats, (whether it's listed here or not!) let me know either via email or a comment below and I would be more than happy to figure those numbers for you!

Still to come: Paulding County/Acworth and Dallas Good News Reports. See you soon!

Yum! BBQ on the Lake!

Break out your secret family BBQ recipes and come enter it at the 1st Annual Smoke on the Lake Backyard BBQ Festival! It will be co-hosted by the Rotary Club of North Cobb, the City of Acworth and the Mountain Lake Boy Scout District on Saturday, May 8, 2010 at Cauble Park from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The festival is a charity fund raiser by Rotary Club of North Cobb that is designed to raise money for local North Cobb area charities and Rotary International charities and is free to the public!

The primary attraction will be a large backyard (amateur) BBQ competition with cash prizes, trophies and bragging rights,  but the festival will also feature a Boy Scout Dutch Oven Desert Competition, Live Music all day, BBQ Ally Food Court with plenty of great barbeque, pizza, fair food and Johnny's Sweetwater Beer Garden.

Click here for the day's schedule and more information about this fun, new event!

School Zone Blues

The #1 criteria buyers ask me search for is a particular school zone. So it baffles me when I search the local MLS for that school zone and  find a home listed that I know is NOT in that school district!

However, I cannot understand WHY homes are being listed with incorrect information when it is not that difficult to find the correct school district for any particular home. In fact, both Cobb and Paulding counties make it easy for you to find out exactly what school a particular address is zoned for! You can do a Cobb County school district address search just by typing in a street address! And Paulding county school zone maps can be found here. I am sure other counties in Georgia have similar resources.

I hope this information helps with the purchase of your next home! Since most people are beginning their home searches online, we wanted to help you be able resolve the mystery of school zone districting. When you find a home you like, look it up and make sure the listings are correctly noting the appropriate schools. Using a buyer's agent familiar with the are would help, too, of course! And remember, buyer's agency is free to you! To hear about the benefits of using a Buyer's Agent, take a a few minutes to watch our Home Buyer Video.