Home sales jump 41% in March

Prices grow 8.7 percent over last year as market prepares for strong spring showing in metro area.

Home sales and prices jumped last month in metro Atlanta as the market kicked into higher gear with the arrival of the spring selling season.

The number of sales rose 41 percent in March from the month before, the Atlanta Realtors Association reported Thursday.

That median price gained 9.6 percent from February, to $250,000.

Prices typically dip during the winter and rebound in spring. But compared to a year earlier, the median price was up a solid 8.7 percent.

The strong start to the spring gives the market momentum, according to Bill Rawlings, president of the association.

“We feel we are poised for a very strong spring market despite the shortage of inventory in many local areas.”

Among core counties, Gwinnett continued to be the hottest for transactions. Fulton, as usual, was the priciest.

Inventory — that is, the supply of homes listed for sales — has been a longstanding problem in the Atlanta market. When there is a relative scarcity of homes for sale, that imbalance means an advantage to sellers as buyers sometimes find themselves bidding against each other for desirable homes.

And for several years in metro Atlanta — with jobs and paychecks growing — a group of buyers has been jostling each other as they work their wear through the slim pickings of homes for sale.

That did not dramatically improve in March.

Although inventory last month was modestly higher than it was during the same month a year ago, it still represented just 3.3 months of sales, slightly less than half the ratio of a healthy market.