Pickens County Georgia Foreclosures and Short Sales: Lots and Land Feeling the Pinch.

Foreclosures and Short Sales in Jasper GA Spreading to Land & Lots . . .

There has been plenty of discussion already about the decline in the sales volume and prices of homes for sale in Pickens County GA, and the rest of the country. And lately, the subject has been turning more to the possibility of a significant downturn in the commercial real estate sector. Less has been said however, about a key element in both residential and commercial real estate sales . . . the land beneath.

As housing sales have slowed and new home construction has dwindled, so too has the demand for residential building lots and larger tracts of land for development. In the Jasper area, including Big Canoe, there are, as of this writing, 530 residential lots for sale. Within the last year however, out of all the lots listed in real estate, there were only 22 sales. A rate of sales that equates to almost 25-years worth of inventory!

For larger, undeveloped tracts of land, the numbers are somewhat better, but still daunting. 109 parcels of land listed, with only 8 sales or pending sales in the past year --or, just under 14-years of inventory.

Aside from the obvious softening in price as a consequence of high supply and low demand, the foreclosure and short sale trend that hit housing so hard now appears to be trickling over into the lot and land segment as well, further impacting prices. What used to be a relatively rare phenomenon -- foreclosed land available for sale -- is becoming increasingly common.

At this writing, of the 530 land lots for sale in Pickens County, 52 are listed as lender owned, foreclosure or short sale. Nearly 10% of all active listings! For undeveloped land, 4 of the 109 available parcels are listed as bank owned, and 1 of the 8 sales in the past year is on a foreclosed property.

Many of the lots are in higher priced neighborhoods, such as Big Canoe, Georgian Highlands, and The Preserve at Sharp Mountain (which has a large number of bank owned lots for sale, several at very aggressive prices), as well as other mid-range neighborhoods like Wild Timber, Hunter's Ridge, and Arbor Hills. And that doesn't account for all the lots that have been foreclosed on and which aren't individually listed for sale in real estate at this time -- neighborhoods such as Dogwood Trace and Madison Ridge.

Overall, as with the impact of lender owned homes for sale in Pickens County, the drag on prices of bank owned land is likely to be felt by those trying to sell in a non-distress position. With many of the REO's offered at less than original purchase price, competing is difficult.

Tracking sales that have actually closed in the past year, and their closed sale price to list price ratio, lends support to this idea. Sale prices are often 20% or more lower than the list price (and in some cases substantially less so, 30-40% or more lower). On top of this, in the present economic climate, more land owners are finding themselves in a "must sell" situation, more so than discretionary, and are being forced to accept less than in better times.

All of which points to a burgeoning opportunity for land buyers.

With high inventory and many great options available, I expect to see (and have already started to see) growing interest in some of these land bargains in and around Jasper, Georgia.


For more information on land deals currently available in and around Pickens County, GA, or specifics on any of the neighborhoods mentioned, feel free to contact me with your questions!