The Atlanta Closing Attorney's Perspective

Home prices continue to fall throughout the country, according to the May report of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. In the 22nd straight month of declining home values, the 20-city index slipped 0.9 percent to a new record year-over-year low of 15.8 percent. The 10-city index dropped 1.0 ...

Georgia dropped to the state with the eighth-highest foreclosure rates in the second quarter of 2008, according to the Realtytrac second-quarter foreclosure report which was published on Friday. Last quarter, the state ranked sixth in the nation. Additionally, metro Atlanta measured twentieth ov...

Sales of existing homes slowed more than expected, according to the latest monthly report by the National Association of Realtors. In June, the pace of home sales nationwide dropped 2.6 percent from May to a seasonally-adjusted annual pace of 4.86 million. Economists had predicted that sales wou...

Homevestors, the national real estate investment company known for its ubiquitous "We Buy Ugly Houses" billboards, recently selected Atlanta as the third best market for residential real estate investing. The only cities better were Dallas and Houston. Homevestors, which has over 230 franchises a...

With the number of vacant properties on the rise, the City of Atlanta has found a way to fight back against run-down and seemingly-abandoned homes: they're being issued fines. As the AJC reported earlier this week, city code inspectors have recently been citing real estate agents for code violati...

Indymac, the nation's largest independent mortgage company after the recent purchase of Countrywide by Bank of America, stated today that it was slashing its workforce by over half and ceasing almost all forward-looking mortgage lending. In a statement issued by the company, Indymac revealed that...

Sales of existing single-family residential properties edged up higher across the country in May according to the latest report by the National Association of Realtors. It was only the second time in ten months that sales have increased. The pace of home sales rose 2 percent in May from April, th...

Home prices are continuing to fall, according to the latest report of the S&P/Case-Shiller indices. The data, good through April, show that prices in the 10-city index fell 16.3 percent from last year. The 20-city index fell 15.3 percent, also a new record low. Home prices in Atlanta continued th...

On Friday, the Bush administration announced that FHA was reducing title seasoning requirements for some properties in order to reduce the impact of foreclosures across the country. The previous policy, enacted in an effort to prevent property flipping, prohibited FHA in most circumstances from i...

According to a government report released this morning, privately-owned housing starts dropped in May to a new 17-year low. U.S. Department of Commerce stated that privately-owned housing starts slipped 3.3 percent from April to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 975,000. Economists had expected housi...