In the fundamental analysis section of my last post, about Synovus Financial Corp (NYSE:SNV), I made an assumption about the Georgia Real Estate Market that I ended up feeling uneasy about. So let’s revisit that assumption:
“As long as the Georgia real estate market holds up, I think the fundamental case for SNV is quite strong. “
–Synovus Financial Corp Analysis (NYSE:SNV)
In fact, before going to bed last night, I felt really compelled to look up some facts and publish them in the morning for all to see. And after digging through the numbers, I’m somewhat reassured.
If you’re also trying to ignore the noise of the Yahoo! Finance message boards… here are some of the resources I found, so you can look at the facts for yourself:
Georgia Real Estate Market Overview – Foreclosures down, home prices up.
RealEstate.com Georgia Market Summary – Good stats on the different metropolitan regions, as well as the prices of different types of home.
Forbes- Housing is Improving, but Lagging – Georgia isn’t explicitly mentioned in this article, but it’s good to get the national perspective when you’re looking at state or region specific facts.
Atlanta Daily News – Fifth Highest Foreclosure Rate – Things are looking up, but there is still improvement to be made.
FHFA Data showing improvements in GA Housing Data – This is the most reliable data I could find from the Federal Housing Finance Association. And it shows a strong position for Georgia, in terms of home prices.
If you want to get even dipper, take a look at this List of counties in GA, sortable by population — then cross-reference it by searching the most populated areas on realestate.com. From this quick analysis it’s clear that in the last year (and the last 6 months especially) Georgia real estate prices have improved significantly.
RealtyTrac Foreclosure Stats – This heat-map shows the density of foreclosures in all the different areas of Georgia. This is kind of a cool visual tool, and you can easily then cross-reference it by population using the Wikipedia link above to see how “bad” the bad areas really are. Take a look for yourself.
Finally, to get a grip on the housing market, I didn’t just look at housing stats. Almost as importantly…
Georgia’s employment statistics also looks to be improving, with an 18% decrease in new EI claims over the last year. And if you dig a little deeper you’ll see that while Georgia’s employment rate declined 7% from 2008 to 2010, it had also rebounded 3% by the end of 2012. There is still a ways to go and employment is still 200K less than in 2008, but as per the numbers, things look to be improving and shou