- Two big Georgia sales today
- Two more tomorrow too
The auction sale at Georgia International Convention Center on Saturday was a busy affair that kept the auctioneers smiling. The 335 interested parties present, together with an undisclosed number of on-line and mobile phone bidders, purchased 128 repossessed properties at an average price of $46,095, spending $5.9 million in total in the process. This brings the total spend for 2010 at Georgia foreclosure auctions to $70 million.
There are of the landmark deals of Saturday:
- 1506 South West Dodson Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30311 – sold for $18,000 (down 92% from previous high value of $210,000)
- 8 Iron Bound Place, Atlanta, Georgia 30318 – sold for $78,750
(53% below previous value) - 2123 Wisteria Way, Atlanta, Georgia 30317 – sold for 168,000
(57% off previous high of $385,000 - 132 Winsley Court, , Atlanta, Georgia 30064 – sold for $107,625
(42% down from previous best value)
“We’re much chuffed with the results from this session,” the auctioneer’s Chief Executive Officer told me. “First-time homeowners and speculators walked off with some truly amazing bargains. The sale was also a huge boost to the Atlanta economy. While a house is empty, nobody is paying gas, electric and water bills or other property taxes, and this is bad for all levels of government. When is becomes a home again this changes around. They start making mortgage payments, hire in landscapers, electricians, plumbers, painters – you name it. This creates work, and puts petrol back into the economy.
The auction reported on was the first of six in Georgia. The one at Charlotte Convention Centre took place yesterday. Today further auctions follow today at Raleigh’s Holiday Inn, and simultaneously at Knoxville Convention Centre, both starting at 6:30 pm sharp. Tomorrow’s opportunities, which will hopefully fire similar interest and benefit the economy, take place at a similar time and will be held at Hyatt Regency Savannah and at Renaissance, Nashville.
I spoke to a number of well-positioned realtors and mortgage financiers yesterday while I was attending the auction at Georgia International Convention Center. They all confirmed that interest in local real estate auctions was booming, as is the case in many other cities across the States. The auctioneer boasted that they had sold almost 20,000 homes for a total value of $900 million thus far in 2010 – that is an average price of $45,000, which confirms yesterday’s trend.
While the low prices being achieved at foreclosure auctions may be good news for homebuyers and speculators, they are also a sad reflection of the flood of foreclosure notices still streaming in, and the even larger torrent of repossessions already queuing up at auction rooms. As long as this trend continues, underwater and especially unemployed borrowers will continue to forgo their hard-won nest eggs in the face of harsh economic reality.
More auction news at www.foreclosuredatabank.com.
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