Clayton Living & Real Estate

Clayton does not have a lack of beautiful homes and this one falls in the nicer category. It’s in the Oakhurst Peacock Creek area, 5 beds, 5 baths, 4,100 square feet, all the upgrades with wonderful views of our rolling hills. Here’s the challenge though: the neighborhood average home value (these days) is around $1.1 Million, and this one is listed for $2.15 Million. It may even be the nicest home in the neighborhood, but in this market I am concerned about their ability to find a buyer willing to pay double than the value of their neighbors’ home. You are essentially getting the same view, street, neighborhood, lot size and construction type as the guy next door, but paying twice as much in property tax and mortgage payment. I’ll watch this one closely for you, but I’m predicting one of the larger price drops for the area…

It looks like most everyone involved in the real estate industry has experienced a lot of pain over the past year. The Sellers, the Real Estate Agents, the Homebuilders, the Mortgage Brokers, the Speculators, the Lenders, and many Investors. What is becoming increasingly annoying is the never ending overly optimistic outlook for real estate given by many industry spokespeople. Statements like “the worst is over” and “we are projecting profitability next quarter” are constantly being disproven as we move forward in time. In addition, their unrealistic predictions are no longer giving consumers confidence and resulting in activity. They are making people suspicious and less likely to generate activity because of the contrasting arguements and countless “moving parts” of the real estate economy. I vote we all say it like it is, review the actual sales numbers and determine how we can best react to the situation. They say that nothing gets better quicker than from the moment we all know and understand the truth.