Economic uncertainty could benefit Atlanta's housing market

Economic uncertainty could benefit housing market

According to Redfin, more than 61% of Atlanta sellers are offering concessions to buyers. Redfin characterizes concessions as something the seller provides to bring down the buyer's total cost -- like money toward repairs, closing costs or mortgage rate buydowns. FOX 5 Atlanta's Alli Levine has more.

ATLANTA - Uncertainty around the economy could be filtering down to metro Atlanta's real estate market.

A new report from real estate company Redfin has nearly two-thirds of Atlanta sellers offering concessions to buyers in 2025.

What we know:

According to the company, more than 61% of Atlanta sellers are offering concessions - putting the Peach State's capital behind only Seattle and Portland.

Redfin characterizes concessions as something the seller provided to bring down the buyer's total cost.

That could mean money toward repairs, closing costs, or mortgage rate buydowns. The company's numbers don't include when the seller lowered the list price or negotiated with buyers.

Nationwide, the number was 44.4% of home sales - an increase of more than 5% from last year and close to the record figure of 45.1% at the start of 2023.

What they're saying:

David Johnson, a realtor with Compass, doesn't go so far as to say this is a buyer's market, but he says it looks a lot more balanced than it has in years past.

"To get that buyer in a little bit of an uncertain time and to keep them all the way to closing, there might be more concessions than in the past," he said. "What we saw during the pandemic, when there were very few concessions, it was heavily tilted to the seller's favor for those two of three years. Now it's sort of teetering back to more of a balanced market.

Dig deeper:

Redfin says they've seen a slight increase in home sales that were canceled before the sale went through.

Around 52,000 home purchases were canceled across the country in March - the third-highest March level since Redfin started keeping records in 2017.