The influence of the high number of distressed houses and foreclosed homes on residential prices in the U.S. was highly evident in the latest Standard & Poor/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report, with majority of big-city markets in the U.S. showing declining prices in February 2011. Atlanta joined other cities in posting year-over-year and monthly price declines in February.

According to local housing industry analysts, the drop in prices was partly due to the huge amount of distressed homes in Atlanta, foreclosures in Milledgeville GA and in the rest of the state. February 2011 residential prices in Atlanta went below their 2000 level and recorded their lowest point for the third month running. Compared with February 2010, prices in the region dipped by 5.8%. When compared with January of this year, prices were down by 0.5%.

Meanwhile, a separate report from the Atlanta Board of Realtors showed that a lot more people did buy Georgia foreclosures and newly-built dwellings during February as sales improved from last year. For the region of Atlanta, sales in February totaled 1,584 residential units, representing a jump of 5%. The realtor group also presented housing price data for March of this year. According to the group, median selling rate in the metro region for March was at $184,450, up by 7.3% compared with one year ago.

Meanwhile, foreclosed homes and other distressed properties in the metropolitan market dipped in March 2011, reaching a total of 507. Local realtors are hopeful that the declining amount of foreclosures will lead to improvements in selling prices in the housing industry. However, persistent price declines at the national market are putting a damper on local price outlooks.

Based on the Standard & Poor report, foreclosures for sale are still dragging prices down nationwide. For the whole U.S., the report showed that prices have plummeted by 3.3% in February compared with year-ago levels. When compared with January 2011, the price decline was 1.1%. The average selling price of houses across the U.S. during February was at the same level as prices recorded in the summer of 2003. With prices this low, most analysts claimed that a recovery in the housing industry is highly unlikely within this year.

They reported that foreclosed homes are still dominating sales transactions and both sales and prices have remained weak. Housing starts and construction activities have also remained tepid during February. Majority of analysts expect the rest of 2011 to be much the same, with the housing sector struggling for the most part.

Homebuyers are now interested in Georgia foreclosures, as they offer some of the best deals when it comes to real estate properties in the state. Many new buyers tend to be too optimistic and hope that they can buy foreclosed homes at a fraction of the actual price in Georgia. While savings in money is inevitable while buying foreclosed homes in Georgia, experts warn new buyers to understand how to deal with such homes. With the count of foreclosed properties being high (more than 300,000 as per collected figures from February 2009), decision should be taken after considering all the points. The points include the location of the property, its actual market value and the repairing cost.

Importance of research and inspection

When a home is available for foreclosure sales in Georgia, buyers need to question themselves in order to do a complete research on homes. If the homes are not inspected, repairs, which have to be done to make the home livable, may be ignored. Tax liens, which are unpaid by the previous owner, have to be paid by the new owner. This information can be obtained after doing a thorough inspection of the foreclosed property.

Buying foreclosures in Georgia

There are three different ways to buy homes available for foreclosures.

• Pre foreclosures require you to deal with the homeowners directly. You can buy the home for a price, which is less than the market value. The homeowner can then safely settle his loan without having much adverse effects on his credit rating. When it comes to pre foreclosure in Georgia, you will have time to inspect the house and the homeowner also provides you with more information about the home.
• Foreclosure auctions in Georgia are comparatively riskier, as the houses (in most cases) cannot be inspected prior to the auction according to your convenience. When you win the property, you have to pay for it in cash.
• Buying foreclosure homes from real estate owned houses is less risky, as you will have time to inspect the house. However, you cannot get affordable deals like in the above two ways.

So, choose from the available options for buying Georgia foreclosures and see yourself making a name in the real estate market of the nation.