Home and Land Buying Market Conditions

Purchasing property or buying homes in the right location is better in some places than others. It seems as if it is almost daily we are asked, “How’s the property market up there on Lookout Mountain; slow like every where else?”, and we answer, “Actually, no.  We’re still seeing good interest and contracts for purchasing land and homes alike”.  As a matter of fact, we have significantly experienced more closings this January, 2008 than we had the entire first quarter of 2007.

Daily everyone is hearing about all the difficulties, the  real estate market is experiencing;

• High inventories of unsold homes
• Declining home prices
• Sub-prime mortgage problems, etc.

Home and Land Buyers need to be aware that real estate markets vary considerably from one location to another.  There is no denying the problems many markets are currently experiencing; however, our market is considerably different than those we’re hearing about in the media.

One of the principle reasons our real estate opportunities are different has to do with the fact we, fortunately, do not have a large inventory of unsold homes that has been so prominent in the news media concerning other markets.  The reason for this is that there has been very little, almost insignificant, spec home building (contractors building homes speculating they will have buyers when the homes are completed).  Frequently these homes are for first-time home buyers, which is not the buyer looking for homes in our market.  Our buyers are usually looking to buy land to build their own custom retirement or second home or to buy a previously built custom home that might be on the market.

Another big difference about our real estate market, compared to many other mountainous/recreational areas or beach property, is that this area of North West Georgia has not had the rapid price escalation that many of these other areas experienced over the past several years.

We have all heard about certain areas having accelerating appreciation due to the fact that people were purchasing property with the expectation of “flipping” the property to someone at a higher price.  This has not happened in our market and because of our unique demographic, this type of speculation would be un-likely.  Frequently the people looking at property here are comparing our prices with comparable property in other mountain areas and find our prices to be considerably more affordable.

However, we are seeing real estate price appreciation for properties in our market as this area is being discovered because of its natural beauty, recreational opportunities, and its proximity to Chattanooga and the excitement-taking place around the Tennessee River.  Contributing to the desirability of this area is the fact that we have many second home buyers looking to purchase homes and land on Lookout Mountain because of the per capita population surrounding this area. In fact, Lookout Mountain is within two hours of over 12,000,000 people, many of whom are looking for a second home location.

The “credit crunch” caused by the sub-prime mortgage problems is not affecting our buyers because of our target market, baby boomers looking for a second home and/or retirement mountain property.  Those in our target market have the resources to purchase their property without having to obtain a mortgage loan for their home or land purchase. As a general estimate, over 80% of our buyers are all cash buyers.  As Conor Dougherty said in his January 19, 2008 The Wall Street Journal article, The New American Gentry, “Many people are buying retirement property while they’re still employed.  Millions of soon-to-retire baby boomers, say demographers, will propel this trend for years to come”.

This is exactly what we are seeing in the Lookout Mountain Real Estate Market, and we know we are very fortunate and blessed to be in a market such as this.  Please contact us for more information and come for a visit to see for yourself.